math gym

I recently read two reviews of Math Academy. ⚙️ ( https://mikelikejordan.bearblog.dev/how-math-academy-pulled-me-out-of-the-valley-of-despair/ and https://frankhecker.com/2025/02/18/math-academy-part-11/ ) My takeaways:

• The product is too expensive. $600/year is too much. This probably should be a $79 (or even $179) one-off purchase. 💡 ( of course, revenue experts recommend a subscription model, so you capture the most value from your loyal customers.) However, to a certain extent, the cost is a feature; people are more motivated to use a product they are paying more for. 💡 ( there is also an element of customer selection to it; they are more likely to get results when their clientele is "people willing to pay a lot")
• The best phrasing was "a gym for math". 🔥 ( the negative version of this is the Duolingo-esque gamification that seems to be part of the product)
• The attitude in both reviews was largely penitent. I used to hate math, but now I'm in a better place.
• The results are largely theoretical; they think they know math now, but what real-life evidence do they have of this? 💭 ( I generally say that I am completely useless for teaching secondary-school math; I don't understand how people could possibly struggle with it.)

Their website ⚙️ ( https://www.mathacademy.com/pedagogy ) has a lot of claims. Some of it is unremarkable 🔥 ( my rule-of-thumb: anyone who brags about "spaced repetition" is probably wrong) 💡 ( the claims that they encourage students to "practice" are almost vacuously distinguishing from any other product) , other parts I disagree with: New concepts should be taught alongside or following dissimilar material so as to avoid this problem.