Math Done Write is a simple application that helps students in grades one through five improve their general arithmetic skills. Unlike many other applications, this one accepts handwritten answers, which is more natural and similar to how students work in class. Customizable quizzes and comprehensive progress reports make this application the perfect practice tool.

Students advance through five levels by solving increasingly challenging problems. The difficulty of each level can be adjusted to match the curriculum and ability of the student. In the practice mode, students can ask for hints and work on problems without a time constraint.

Students and parents can track progress by looking at attendance, accuracy, and speed charts. Additionally, students can share their progress data with parents and teachers.

The Story

I got the inspiration for this application from my daughter Yulia when she was in early elementary school. One day she came from school and told us that her math teacher asked students to solve twenty addition and subtraction problems and do this in less than half a minute. Everyone failed the first test. The math was not the problem; doing it fast was. For the remainder of the semester, at the end of the class students would take these tests until everyone mastered basic addition and multiplication skills.

So for the next couple of weeks, we had a new morning routine. My wife would write a set of problems on a sheet of paper, set the microwave clock, and while the oatmeal was heating up, Yulia would do the test. Eventually, I wrote a simple program that generated and printed random problems. This took care of the most difficult and time-consuming part, but we still had to check the answers by hand. And we kept the microwave clock part. It worked remarkably well.

A few years later, when I was looking for an idea for an iPhone application, this seemed like an interesting problem to solve. It was simple enough to tackle by someone with little experience in writing mobile applications. At the same time, it had elements of machine learning and computer vision that made it interesting and engaging.

I hope you will find this application useful. If you have any questions or suggestions, send me an email.