Looking for a non-boring yet interactive platform to improve your academic grades and studies? Mobile apps can also be a good way to study as all it requires is a smartphone or smart device and internet connection. Perhaps parents might be thinking that the moment their child is on the smart device, they are playing games, watching videos - all non-study related tasks. However, with latest innovation in education technologies, many companies have started to bring their know-hows from desktop-based applications into the smart device apps-based ecosystem. With affordable smart devices flooding the market in developing and even developed countries, learning through one's mobile phone or smart device is now becoming a norm.
By downloading their preferred app, students can start their learning literally anywhere and anytime. Students today grew up with gadgets and devices and generally prefer attractive graphic images, interactive features and content-rich information to help them learn. With this growing trend, parents will hardly be able to stop or ban their children from using smart devices in the journey of studying and learning. Instead of banning them, why not let us look at the other side of the coin and help students learn better through mobile apps?
There is a wide selection of Apps available on Google Play Store and Apple Apps Store so students and learners are definitely spoilt for choice. Here we have compiled a list of Apps that will be useful to students in enhancing their learning experience. These apps can be a good aid to help students with their studies or homework or simply just to learn something new. Let’s check them out!
Review of 5 Math Tutoring Apps for Singapore Students:
- Khan Academy
- Snapask
- Mathway
- Miao
- iMath
1. Khan Academy
Khan Academy has an app that provides a broad range of study subjects from math, science to arts and computing. As you can see below, each of their subjects contains a comprehensive list of topics and you can start by either following their topics sequence or just select your own preferred topics.
Their topics are all taught in the form of short videos and some topics will come with tutorial notes. It is especially suitable for those who needs help in math and need video tutorial guidance as Khan Academy offers a great selection of math topics such as Algebra, Geometry and Calculus, to name a few.
Their videos are presented by showing a recording of teachings on an electronic dashboard, which make it similar to the style of teachers giving lecture in the class. At the end of the video list, they have a quiz session so that you can test how well you understand the tutorial or concept.
Khan Academy has been around for 12 years, with their founder’s aim to provide free online courses and lessons to everyone. Hence, you are able to find various subjects and contents that are created for all age groups ranging from kids, students to adults. All of their content are free and anyone who is studying from home can utilize it to do their revision or gain new knowledge. As one of their users reviewed on apps store, “As someone who is studying from home, this app has helped me in so many ways. Truly thankful for it.”. Another user said “I simply used the app to learn whatever is in the syllabus a day before my exams.”. It is an online tool that you can consider if you need some help when studying at home. Their resources are also available on desktop website and youtube channels.
Suitable for: Anyone who would like to learn or do revision on their own
Cost: Free
Downside: However, the downside of Khan Academy is the one-sided learning where students with questions cannot pause the session and seek help immediately at that instance or concept. This will be more suitable for students or learners who can either learn quickly on their own or advanced students who are testing new boundaries. To those who are struggling with concepts and have questions to clarify, this app might not be able to meet their needs.
2. Snapask
Snapask is a Hong Kong-based mobile app that let students ask question with a snapshot and then matches them with a tutor to begin an instant one-to-one learning session. If you are stuck with a math question and need an instant guidance, just post your question together with the description to explain what you need, and the app will get a tutor to answer your question.
You can choose which communication channel to chat with your tutor, be it audio or text messages. You are able to view your past questions and current questions for revision and monitoring your progress. After the tutoring session, students can rate the tutors on the app and the top ranking tutor will be featured on the home screen.
Students may also book their live class session to get their questions explained by the tutor in a 30 minute lesson. To start booking the session you only need to post your question, book your preferred date and time and select the subject. They will then arrange a tutor to conduct the class at the scheduled time. Currently their services are targeted on primary and secondary school students. Their platform is also available on website.
Suitable for: Students who need an instant guidance service on their questions.
Cost: $168.98 per month for unlimited questions asked, $108.98 per month for 50 sessions, $19.98 for 5 sessions, $68.98 for 30 sessions. Their live class sessions are priced at $10.98 for one class and $78.98 for 8 classes.
Downside: Snapask seems to have picked up steam in Hong Kong, but not in Singapore, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. Hong Kong based Snapask, may have tutor base from Hong Kong and if one is seeking Math help from Singapore or through Singapore-based Methods on Math, Hong Kong trained teachers may not be equipped with the necessary know-hows.
Here is a review about Snapask and indeed a Malaysian tutor tried to register but there was no column for Malaysians to do so. Hence the tutor pool is probably only Hong Kong teachers.
3. Mathway
Mathway claims themselves as the No. 1 problem solving resource for students, parents and teachers and they are focused on Mathematics questions. Basically students can input their math questions and get instant answers generated by their system. They can solve a wide range of math questions from basic math problems, algebra, trigonometry, statistic to graphing. You may also ask questions about chemistry.
The way they operate is pretty simple: type or snapshot a photo of your math problems and they will pop up the answer instantly. Well, after watching some ads. You may tap to request them to see the basic steps of the solutions. However, a fee applies if you would like to use it ad-free or view the complete solution steps.
Also, for some complex math questions you will need to subscribe their service to get the step-by-step solutions. It is recommended to type your questions instead of snapping a photo as sometimes their app have focus difficulty which makes it hard to identify your questions. They also offer Mathway Classroom service but that would be more targeted to teachers or administrators.
Suitable for: Students who need a quick answer to their simple math questions
Cost: Free if you only need answers. A subscription of about $14 per month or $56 per year is required to get the step-by-step solutions. (Note: The fee amount is by estimation only and please refer to their app or website for actual amount.)
Downside: However the answer-bank available seems to be catered to very simple Math questions only. Usually students ask questions in Math for very complex word problems and hence Mathway would not be able to help.
4. Miao
Miao is a Singapore-based Math app that enables users to post their questions by snapping a photo, and their artificial intelligence (AI) will start analyzing your information and display related information, such as suggested readings and similar questions.
Rather than asking your math questions and getting precise answers, they are more like a learning platform that will present you the relevant answers and also related educational content such as video and articles. You may track your area of weakness on the Profile screen as their technology will compile all the questions you have asked before and analyze which area you are not good at. They are also available on website where you can use their chatbot to ask question or interact with them.
Suitable for: Anyone who are keen to learn more information about Mathematics concept and theory
Cost: Free
Downside: Due to the AI technology behind it, the downside is that the AI has not yet learnt complicated Math word problems. Hence students might not get accurate answers. For homework help, perhaps it would work well for very simple Math questions that does not need a human to explain. However if one is looking towards getting detailed explanations from word problems, there might be some difficulties.
5. iMath
iMath is quite different from the above 4 apps, as we have an online learning community that is centred on Mathematics. The community is quite "alive" and "active" where questions posted gets answered very quickly by members of the community, many of them tutors.
In our app, we have a Community Wall that allows anyone to ask a Math question, either by conveniently snapping a photo, or typing it in and posting it on the wall. It will soon get answered from the Community Wall members, who consists of Math experts, math enthusiasts and parents. The good news is, the Community Wall is free and open to everyone using our app.
It is aimed to promote a positive learning culture especially among Math enthusiasts and students who need help in their Math but may not have enough questions to engage a full tutor or whom may be financially challenged yet needs help in Math. To make things easy for students and parents, we have also segmented the topics and informing our user on the status of their questions (i.e. if they have been answered or not).
If you need help at an ungodly hour urgently, you can also browse through our huge library of answered questions to find identical ones and self-learn!
We have a very simple and straight-forward user interface to ensure a truly hassle-free using experience. Just by clicking the “+” on the right bottom of the screen, you may post a Math question. It is that easy!
If you still need more guidance, iMath provides a 30 minutes one-to-one video call session with professional Math tutors. You may just select your preferred date and time and your prefered tutor on the calendar and your tutor will see you then!
Our Community Wall section can be accessed by downloading our app on Google Play Store or Apple App Store, or through visiting our website. iMath also has other personalized features such as My Wall where you can choose your math topics with the settings, and get reminders for scheduled tutoring sessions. The lessons can be recorded and you can always review the recordings for 12 months after the lesson is completed. Refresher courses available within the year!
Suitable for: Anyone who needs a real life qualified Singapore Math tutor.
Cost: The Community Wall is free. The one on one video call tutoring session starts from $15/ 30mins onwards.
Downside: Right now we only have Singapore curated Math tutors in our tutor pool. But all of them speak good English, so as long as English is your medium of communication, iMath still works for you.
Conclusion:
Above are 5 apps that we have reviewed. Hope it is useful information for you to decide. However, if you are short on time or simply do not feel like downloading so many apps on your phone, I would recommend you to download iMath. It is because iMath provides a quick and easy way to get your math questions answered without you having to fork out any money - through using the Community Wall feature. This means you get real human to answer your Math questions for free.
This means that you do not need to worry about spending a huge chunk of money on getting solutions for just a handful of Math questions. This could be very helpful for some of us. The questions will be answered by math experts, enthusiasts and parents so it would be more human centric and cross-checked.
In case you need a one-to-one guidance, you can engage our video call service at a very affordable price. Free and paid service is all available in our app. Check us out!
