(C) MicroMart (UK) Ltd, 1989. No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission. 'Three Scholars' "Gerry Austin goes back to school to brush up on his three r's with a home study course from Ireland. His PCW teaches him some basic mathematics and how to spell." Have you ever thought about the benefits of using your micro as a tutor. Obviously your own 'tutor' is available to suit, 24 hours a day, when and where you find it convenient, and at your own pace. While it is interesting to share the company of other like-minded individuals in a classroom atmosphere, in some instances learning in groups can have its drawbacks: The inconvenience of attending at fixed times regardless of your circumstances; A reduced learning curve on those first few lessons - due to the change of environment and settling in. On the other hand, there is no way a computer can physically take the place of a human teacher, but in many instances, computer assisted learning can be an invaluable supplement for students needing extra coaching or practice in a particular subject. Educational software for younger PCW users is sadly not very well supported. When I came across School Software with their range of computer aided learning programs I was eager to see what they were like. School Software support a range of micros from the Commodore 64/128, BBC, Archimedes with a PC emulator and the whole Amstrad range from CPC's, PCW's, PC's and IBM PC's and compatibles. Software titles cover a selection of basic school subjects and cater for the youngster of 4 years up to young adults taking GCSE examinations. In the age of ready made entertainment youngsters can all too easily become addicted to passive pass times that are being bombarded at them from all quarters, especially the media, and television in particular. Even our alternative screen can become addictive with many that are attracted by super 'zap-em-up' entertainment software. These games are preferable to other passive pursuits and in my experience the youngster of today that plays games on his micro will be the serious user of tomorrow. School Software have just such a range of programs that could prove to be the initial carrot to help wean many from this wide range of entertainment programs onto the more solid offerings available. On the PCW there are seven titles available: I've had a look at three: Magic Maths, Better Maths 1 and Better Spelling. Magic Maths is suitable for ages four through to eight years and Better Maths for an older audience, the twelve to sixteen year olds. Better Spelling is recommended for the eight to fourteen age group, but clearly would be suitable for anyone over that age needing help with spelling. The three programs are written in Mallard Basic and, as you might expect are copy protected. Magic Maths has just been updated and now offers even more value for money as another module has been added. The screen writing routines have been speeded up and the program has an altogether more zippy feel. MAGIC MATHS This program occupies 28K on a 3" disc - more than double the size of the original version. Unlike versions for other machines, the PCW program doesn't make use of graphics. The screen displays are very plain and factual although the meaty part of the program - the display of the sums - is done in large numbers made up of multiples of each individual number, as appropriate. The main program offers a choice of two modules: Maths 1 and Maths 2. A further choice is offered: addition or subtraction. There are five levels of difficulty selectable prior to starting. Each question is generated randomly so there is very little likelihood of the same question being repeated. If a question is answered incorrectly you are given the opportunity to have a second attempt. If this answer is also wrong the computer prints the complete sum - question and answer. Witty comments and praise is given for every correct answer. The programmers have personalised the interaction by calling the user by his name and adding comments like: "Gee you don't need a computer" and "Even I had trouble with that one" or "O.K. wise guy I'm giving you a real tough one next", with every correct response. At any time a score table can be accessed by pressing the letter 'm' to give a complete display and printout of each question and answer. Very handy for assessing a youngsters progress when s/he has been left unsupervised at the keyboard or for a permanent record to measure performance. I decided to put Magic Maths to the test with a seven year old. The youngster immediately liked the idea of a computer asking maths questions and he found the personalisation fun. He coped quite well with the maths sums provided at all levels except the last, level five, which gave him room to grow with the program. The dialogue however, tended to be unsuitable for someone of his age, he couldn't read or understand all the comments that were made. However he quickly learned the words and appreciated the 'friendly' nature of the computer. While undoubtedly Magic Maths provides a sound structured approach with plenty of practice at addition and subtraction, it soon lost its 'playability' with this young man in favour of the PC version that has a more substantial menu of maths games and makes full use of the graphics capability. A pity that the programmers hadn't incorporated some game element into the structure of the exercises to disguise the purely question and answer approach on the PCW version. This would have added an interest factor to capture the childs imagination and develop an atmosphere of fun. Mallard BASIC lacks a sophisticated environment for providing graphics displays and it would have been a mistake to use GSX Graphics routines as they would have slowed the program down to a snails pace. I can't help wondering though, on the PCW version at least, where School Software conjured up the 'Magic Maths' title from. A pity they couldn't have waved their magic wand to bring the PCW version in line with the others. BETTER SPELLING This program should appeal to the vast majority of PCW users wanting to brush up on their spelling skills. My comments that were directed at the lack of graphics in Magic Maths also apply to Better Spelling but here, due to the wider audience and older age group I feel this can to some extent be forgiven. Better Spelling is a structured course aimed at improving your spelling ability. Prepared by a best selling English language author, Better Spelling adequately addresses a need for all to improve their spelling even in this age of computerisation, wordprocessors and spelling checkers. Indeed many of the misusages that can be found will not be detected by spelling checkers as they are often words in their own right. The main menu offers a selection of sixteen exercises covering a wide range of topics: spelling plurals, past tenses, prefixes, suffixes, and a useful section for overcoming common spelling errors with words like: been/being; to/too/two; of/off; their/there/they're; is/are; ie/ei; who/who/which. Before each exercise you can access a brief explanatory guide relevant to the section being practised. These rules are brief and to the point and could easily be memorized thus helping users put what has been learned into practice in their own writing. Each of the sixteen exercises offer twenty questions and the screen displays a summary of the number of correct answers given as you progress through the module. At the end of each exercise this is expressed as a percentage of correct answers and a graded comment ranging from "very good" through to "poor - will do better later" is given. The type and level of each exercise is pitched about right but even the experienced may, on occasion, find himself pondering a particular question. Unfortunately, after an exercise has been done a few times it becomes 'old hat' as the same questions are asked each time - but you should be able to spell that category correctly by then. BETTER MATHS This disk holds 19 files in 142 K and like the other two titles runs in Mallard BASIC. Of the three PCW titles I had to look at I liked this one the best. There are three modules: Better Maths 1, 2 and 3. The first and last modules adopt a revision environment with plenty of practice questions. The subject matter is presented clearly and all necessary formulae are shown for students to revise before being given the opportunity to assess their level of understanding. Better Maths 2, on the other hand, is presented as a series of nine sections for testing a students ability to answer questions covering a whole range of topics. The program covers a comprehensive range of subjects which are shown in figure 1. The topics presented in Better Maths 3 are suitable for students to use as revision with a very generous sprinkling of exercises thrown in. They are not presented as a test but as a guided tour through each topic inviting the student's active participation at all stages. Where purely testing questions are given - in the first two modules - they allow the user to have a second attempt at the question if it is answered incorrectly on the first try. In all the modules the questions offer multiple choice answers from which the correct answer should be selected. While this program is not intended specifically for GCSE candidates it would clearly be very useful for them to brush up on those topics that are included in their syllabus. There are literally many many hours of guided tuition and follow up revision exercises presented here for everyone interested in improving their numeracy skills. Apart from the uninteresting screen displays all three titles - Magic Maths, Better Spelling and Better Maths - offer a useful structured tuition course in their appropriate subjects. Recommended retail price for each program is #16.95 plus #1 post and packing from School Software, Tait Business Centre, Dominic Street, Limeric, Republic of Ireland. Tel: 010 353 61 49684