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SuperKids Software Review - The Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Childrens' Software
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StudyX

Jeff Computers

Ages 10 to adult

Rating Scale
5 = great,    1 = poor
Educational Value
4.0
Kid Appeal
1.5
Ease of Use
3.0

StudyX screenshot arrow indentSystem Requirements

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StudyX is short for Study ANYTHING. This program allows you to create your own digital (and printable) flashcards, study sheets, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank tests. You input the questions and answers, then use the program to quiz yourself or your student.

But where to find the questions/answers? Many older students know that the process of creating review questions and/or flashcards, is in itself a valuable learning exercise. StudyX facilitates the mechanical aspects of this process, and then leverages the data you've input to provide a variety of review and testing formats.

Still having difficulty picturing yourself (or your student) taking the time to do this? The publishers of StudyX offer two other potential data sources. The program includes a number of sample data sets, touching on such things as foreign language vocabulary, and snippets of American history and science. More intriguingly, they have created the beginnings of a social networking component, whereby StudyX users can share data sets (questions and answers) via a user forum, somewhat like what Cerego has done with smart.fm

StudyX also includes some simple games (maze, triva, missiles, ping pong, tunnel) as either a reward or a distraction for/from studying. Play for a while, then be presented with a question from your current study set.

Educational Value

StudyX is a tool that can be used to create valuable review materials -- but the value of those materials will depend on the quality of the content the user inputs or acquires from other sources.

Kid Appeal

StudyX is going to appeal to those students who like to create their own study guides and review materials. The handful of simple arcade games is not sufficient to attract the less diligent.

Ease of Use / Install

The installation process for StudyX is relatively straightforward, but a bit less streamlined than most. In addition to the standard click-through license agreement, the program requires the user to input a 20 digit alphanumeric serial number, and to provide the user's name and email address. The installation includes a short slide show that presents instructions on how to use the various components of the program.

Navigation within StudyX is occasionally non-intuitive. For example, the 'Skip' button does not in fact allow the user to skip answering a question. Instead, it results in an 'incorrect' response. Similarly confusing situations occur when the user opts to 'make a matching test' where clicking the button so labeled results in a 'save file' dialog box appearing, and a warning that you are about to overwrite some existing data. It might be better if this led first instead to the appearance of the requested test.

The version of the program we reviewed (4.0.1) also contained a few bugs. For example, in the HTML test feature, the 'erase saved answers' link doesn't clear the answers on the screen, as assumed. And grading strictness is not controlled by previous onscreen setting.

Best for... / Bottom-Line

In spite of the quirky navigation and the smattering of bugs, StudyX still fills a void for those students who like to study using flashcards they have created. The program is also well-suited for homeschooling use, where the parent/teacher could use it to create study, review, and test materials.

See SuperKids' Buyers Guide for current market prices of the product.

System Requirements
PC: Windows XP, Vista, 2000, NT, 34MB hard drive space, 64MB RAM, 2xor faster CD-ROM .

Reviewed on:
-     Pentium 4 - 3GHz running Windows XP, with 1GB RAM and 24x - CD-ROM
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