Mad Dog Math Review

Mad Dog Math is a unique supplement to any math curriculum.  It was created by a veteran educator, Julie Kotoff.  It can be used in a classroom or at home.  The target age group is for Kindergarten through 5th grade, but it can also be used for older students who need to improve their fundamental math skills.

Mad Dog Math makes math fun, challenging and motivating!  Students work through drills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division until mastery in knowledge and speed is reached.  With only 7-10 minutes a day, soon students build confidence in the fundamental building block of math that will prepare them for success in more advanced math.  It is so true that if a student does not master the fundamental building blocks of math, he will struggle in all future math concepts.  So, whether your child is just learning the fundamentals or if he is needing to go back and master them Mad Dog Math is a solution option!

I was provided with the downloadable software of Mad Dog Math in order to use for this review.  The download process was easy and the program was user friendly so we got started right away. 

You can log in so Ruff can track your progress, reward you with stickers, and advance you into the 2 minute, 1 minute or 30 second club.  The parent can customize the program by setting which level and fact family will be covered.  The student can work the drills without pressure, or select timed drills.

From this page, you can select the Progress icon to see how you are doing.  The Progress screen shows the fact families the student has mastered and also which stickers or clubs he has earned.  This is a great way for a parent to monitor their child's progress.


The downloadable version of Mad Dog Math is very affordable.  The prices are as follows:

• $19.99 for one year
• $29.99 for two years
• $39.99 for a perpetual license

You can order by clicking HERE.  If you have more than one child, then the two year or perpetual license is probably your best bet.  All of your children can use the program as they learn their facts and your older children can use the program to make sure they keep their mastery level.  Practice makes perfect!

My son, age 11, is a good math student.  But, I've always felt he could be more fluent in his fundamental skills and ability to recall facts more quickly.  At first glance, Mad Dog Math seemed like a great resource to improve his mastery.  We used it just before our regular math lesson.  It was a great way to "get the math neurons firing" as we called it.  This may come as a surprise to most of you, but Matthew isn't big on using the computer.  He never asked to do Mad Dog Math, but when I told him it was time he didn't complain and he seemed to enjoy it.  It was easy enough for him to use independently.  With other math drill programs we have used you would have to hit enter and move the mouse and click on the next problem in order to continue.  With Mad Dog Math you didn't have to do that.  As soon as you put in your answer, it would automatically tab to the next problem.  This was a big plus for Matthew!  So, when he took the timed drill he would get an accurate time of his ability to answer the problems without all the added time it would have taken him to hit enter and move the mouse to the next problem.  I'm so glad Mad Dog Math included that feature.

We were given access to Mad Dog Math until July in exchange for this review.  But, I am considering purchasing a license to extend that time.  I've found that, especially in math, if you don't use it then you lose it.  So, drills in the basics will be needed for a while until it becomes second nature to Matthew. 

Any products reviewed by me as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew have been given to me free of charge in order for me to provide you with an honest review of the product and/or how we used the product within our family. I do not receive any other form of compensation for the reviews posted on this blog