My French Coach Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I moved to a French speaking part of Europe a few months ago and have been determined to learn French ever since.I enrolled in a university level course, hired a tutor, and try to practice at my local pub as much as possible.

I was doing "OK" but then I heard about this title.I ordered it from Amazon and I have to say I am IMPRESSED!This is exactly the type of study program I needed.Unlike listening to straight audio (Berlitz Rush Hour French) the DS makes the process interactive.You get ranked (from enfant on up) based on your completion of the levels.The title has an excellent recording feature to let you record a word or phrase and then either listen to it alone, or play it back in unison with the French audio.

The many games you must play to master words to unlock the levels are challenging, somewhat addictive, but fun.I try and play all of them on the DIFFICULT level as they make me work harder.

But, it's not perfect:

One glaring thing missing is they do not list the masculine or feminine identifiers for the verbs.That would have made this a perfect tool because the M Vs. F tense is still a killer for me as I try to weave sentences together.

Also, they make a very strange error in that "Tu" or informal version of "You" is listed as "Formal" and the formal version "Vous" is listed as "Informal."That's a very blatant error.

The dictionary is very limtied.For example, while it has the word for "puppy" there is no word for "dog."It also does not provide definitions, so you'll need a dictionary to ascertain the exact meaning of a word because as in English, a single word can have many different meanings.

The audio and visual "phrase book" for social situations and traveling is probably worth the price of the game alone.It came in very hand on a recent trip outside Paris.

I play this every morning for about between 10 - 15 minutes.It also helps pass time when I have to wait someplace, e.g., barber shop, car dealership, etc.My vocabulary is now over 500 words and even my French tutor (a very picky and precise Parisian) started recommending it to her other students.

No matter what your level, from don't-have-a-clue-about-French to advanced level people who want to brush up on vocabulary, this title will be a useful training tool and a quality way to practice and brush up on existing French skills.

I have to give UBI Soft and Nintendo credit for scoring another way to attract adults to the DS.Unlike a bulky laptop I can play this thing anywhere and that's what makes it so appealing.It really is a quality and inexpensive learning tool, but could be even better with a little tweaking in (hopefully) newer releases.
My rating for this should be four and not five stars.

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Product Description:
Playing My French Coach for 15 to 20 minutes a day is all you need to become fluent in French, no matter your age. The simple touch screen interface lets you spend less time learning the game and more time learning French. The game includes 8 touchpad mini-games to sharpen your skills at your own pace, and lets you track your progress with charts showing your performance learning the language. ESRB Rated E for Everyone.

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Big Brain Academy Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS is a lot like Brain Age. It's a collection of puzzles designed to test and stimulate your intellect.

While we enjoy Brain Age, it has numerous issues. You only get 'scored' on each game once a day. The number of games is REALLY limited and many of them can get maxed out within weeks of playing. How much fun is it to get straight 5s on Head Count hard, with no chance of ever improving? I was really happy, then, when Big Brain Academy came along. While it still doesn't have nearly as many games in it as it should have, at least it has a wider selection.

In Big Brain Academy, you're not fighting for a low brain age (which I always found to be an EXTREMELY questionable goal). Insead, you're working towards a "big" brain which is much better. There are puzzles split up into five areas - thinking, memorizing, analyzing, computing and identifying. Each area has 3 games, with multiple difficulty levels. So that's 15 games total. You're already far ahead of Brain Age with that quantity, plus the difficulty levels too.

You can practice as much as you want, aiming for a gold medal in each game at each difficulty level. As you go, you fill up a 'brain graph' - a pentagon that shows which areas you're best at. When you're ready, you do the actual test.

The test randomly chooses a game from each of the 5 areas and sets you at them. It's on a timer, so you do as well as you can within that time limit. At the end, your total brain weight is calculated. This isn't of course "real" - it is more a general scale to show how well you're doing. It also gives you a "type" of brain you have based on what you did well in. Someone who does really well in computing is called a "calculator" - while someone who's great at memorizing and thinking is a "museum curator".

The puzzles are simple but fun. They're the type of puzzles that young kids would enjoy but that adults would find entertaining as well. Traditional things such as memory games, box counting, shape recognition and more are the norm here.

Just like Brain Age, this game shares the problem of INCESSANT CHATTER from the "helper". You have to go paging through numerous completely meaningless messages to get through some areas. They really need to get a handle on that for future releases.

I'm still baffled why they can't have 6 games per area, instead of 3. At least this is a huge step up from Brain Age in that area, but still, there should really be far more games included in the set. It would really help to make this an excellent game, instead of a fun game that has a limited lifetime of enjoyability.

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Product Description:
Big Brain Academy is a modern-day stress reliever that improves your thinking skills. These 15 activities test your brain powers and improve your thinking abilities in areas like logic, memory, math and analysis. Free your mind by working through a number of simple but deep problems. There are five different types of challenges, appropriate for all ages and challenging for all skill levels.

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My Virtual Tutor: Reading Kindergarten to 1st Grade Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My three boys 5,7,7 really loved this game. My seven year old boys have the 2nd grade game and my 5 year old plays the the Kindergarten 1st gradegame. We are so thrilled that they all are enjoying these games. We are truly amazed that a learning game has kept them so interested. My Vrtual Tutor has far exceed our expectations. We can't get over how much time they are spending playing and learning "Juust Amazing" Great investment.

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Product Description:
By combining the kid-friendly Nintendo DS with a proven reading curriculum developed and tested at the University of Colorado, My Virtual Tutor: Reading makes learning reading skills fun, affordable and portable! Through interactive books, school age and grade relevant phonics instruction and fun quiz modes, your child will learn the comprehension, phonics, fluency and vocabulary necessary to become an expert reader, all while having fun with their Nintendo DS.

Gameplay

My Virtual Tutor: Reading greets your child first with a fun story in Read to Me mode, where the story is read by the tutor, accompanied by fun sounds and animations. Once the story is read, your child then accesses the story in Explore mode, which features comprehension questions which assess your child's understanding of what they read. After Explore mode, I Can Read mode is unlocked, where your child can read the story, play fun word-based minigames and even record and listen to him/herself reading aloud! These minigames offer more practice to expand reading comprehension and vocabulary. After playing I Can Read, your child can unleash their inner artist in paint mode while the story is read to them by the tutor. Once your child completes all four modes in the first book, an additional book is unlocked in their library to read and explore. These books were specially created at the University of Colorado to both engage readers and supply practice to gain fluent reading and comprehension.

At any point your child can also play phonics minigames building the skills necessary to become an independent reader. The phonics games focus building words that start, contain, and end with certain letters and sounds. These games progress along with your child by evaluating performance on the current concept then moving on once that concept has been mastered. In addition to phonics practice, our challenge mode will test your child's skills with survival-style gameplay.

After your child has explored a story and tested their phonics skills, he or she is ready for quiz mode! Quiz mode tests the skills and concepts your child has learned up until that point in the game. By answering story comprehension questions, word matching, and coloring (just for fun!) your child can unlock 20 great prizes! [Prize Pictures]
Parents can access Parent Mode at any time to track your child's progress and identify areas of mastery and areas needing more focus for deeper learning.

Key Features

Enhanced Learning – Reading as a fun activity
My Virtual Tutor: Reading has fun as a top priority. By experiencing early reading through wonderful, hand-drawn animations and characters, along with fun mini-games, your child will not only learn to read; they'll learn that reading is fun!

Successful
The game is based on the National Education Association standards for teaching literacy, and derived from a system developed by researchers at the University of Colorado. Delivered on the Nintendo DS, learning to read is made fun and portable.

Easy to Play
Nintendo DS uses the touchscreen exclusively; no need for long, wordy menus to begin and play! Your child can interact with the words and pictures in the game, and they can even paint a picture of the story while the virtual tutor reads. With the portability of a Nintendo DS, your child can learn to read anywhere, anytime!

Adaptive learning
My Virtual Tutor: Reading teaches your child new skills as they master previous ones. The activities are paced to correlate with their learning. As your child performs better and faster, the game will dish out extra challenges to keep them excited and engaged.

Self-Correcting Practices
To help develop fluency, your child can read the books out-load using the Nintendo DS microphone. After your child reads, the tutor will play back the recording and compare it to what she reads for self-correcting practice.

A Fun Reward System
Animated and interactive quizzes are introduced to test your child's retention of the skills and concepts they learned while playing the game. As your child learns to read by mastering skills and concepts, fun prizes are awarded. Your child will be eager to accumulate as many prizes as possible.

Parent Mode
By tracking your child's progress, the tutor shows you where your child excels, and where more practice is needed.
Up to 3 Users per Game

With up to three possible user profiles, every child in your family can have their very own Virtual Tutor!

Get 63% OFF

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