Review: Math Mammoth, Make It Real Learning

During all of the upper-level math courses I took in both high school and college, I often wondered how any of the abstract theorems and formulas I learned would apply to life. It's fairly easy to figure out why you need to know how to add or multiply. It's also fairly easy to understand how you'd use percents in your daily life. It's quite a bit harder to grasp how you'll use linear functions, other than to complete your math homework. Thankfully, Math Mammoth has stepped up to help answer those sorts of questions.

Math Mammoth offers other math materials for all ages, including supplemental materials to fit specific needs and complete curriculum packages for elementary grades. I was especially interested in the Make It Real Learning workbooks. The goal for these materials is to answer the question, "When am I ever going to use this?"

Addison is about half-way through Algebra 1, and she recently took a break from her regular lessons to work through the ten lessons in the Linear Functions 1 workbook (suitable for Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 students).

Both of us were impressed with this workbook.

I liked that these were real problems. All of the data was taken from actual situations; it wasn't just pretend numbers included to make sure that the math worked out nicely. I also liked that these were real situations that a student can believe that they'll encounter in real life. Two of the lessons dealt with choosing a cell phone plan, and another one dealt with pricing plans for music downloads -- not only real situations, but real situations that are of interest to my children.

Addison really liked the way the lessons were real statistics and not made up like in her regular math workbooks. She had to skip one of the lessons because it was a little advanced for her, but she thought she would have understood it if she had already finished Algebra 1. In the end, she decided it would be a great product to use for review at the end of the year.

The Linear Functions 1 eworkbook contained 10 lessons, each two pages long and containing 6-10 questions. Addison easily worked through them at a pace of one lesson per day. Each lesson was followed by several pages of explanations showing exactly how to work out the problems.

There are eleven options in the Make It Real Learning set, including Arithmetic; Fractions, Decimals, and Percents (two different difficulty levels); Quadratic Functions; and even Calculus 1. I'm quite impressed with the extensive offering for upper grade math; seven of the books are for students working at an Algebra 1 level or higher.

As Addison continues to move through higher level math courses, I'll definitely be purchasing more Make It Real Learning materials for her to use. I will probably also purchase the Fractions, Decimals, and Percents workbook for Brennan to use in conjunction with his regular math program later this year.

Each Make It Real Learning workbook is available to download for only $4.99. There's also an option to purchase the complete set of workbooks for $39.99.

If you'd like to hear how much the other members of the review crew thought about Math Mammoth products (at all different levels), please visit The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew blog here.

I received Making It Real Learning: Linear Functions 1 in an eworkbook format as a member of the 2011 TOS Homeschool Review Crew, and I received no other compensation. In return, I agreed to give an honest review of the materials and how they worked for my homeschool family.