Customer Reviews
It's Great!! 
2004-04-25
I have the Elementary Advantage, and I'm about to go into Middle School Advantage. I find these programs are excellent. I am a homeschooling parent, and the Elementary Advantage suite have done a great job in assisting me with teaching my child. I've learned a lot myself. My son is about to enter middle school grades, and as I explore the the Middle School Advantage suite, I marvel at how well its put together. I have not run into answers that are wrong as was the claim of one reviewer. But, that does not bother me because you will find wrong answers in educational books written by the best educators. I focus on the how well I am taught the subject. If I can catch the wrong answers then I was taught well. I paid only $24.99 for each suite. I also have a Dell Dimension 4600, and the programs run fine. For all those having a problem running the program. You better get a Dell, Dude! For the money, IT'S GREAT!
Not Recommended 
2004-04-23
If this program can confuse X and Y intercepts I can only imagine what else may be wrong with it. I just purchased this for my son today, but will be returning it tomorrow. He has a placement test in 2 weeks and I don't want him to blow it because of this faulty software.
Don't buy Advantage Middle School 2004 -Encore softerware!! 2004-03-18
I purchased it, I'm going to return it tomorrow.
If you just purchase it, you probably want to return it. (Check out their Math CD quiz, it is mix up, they give out wrong answers, how that help your kids learn anything from them?)
After I purchased Advantage Middle School 2004 for my brother who is in 6th grade, I tried on the software to test out, especially on the Math CD that included in the package. I already FOUND 4 of the quiz multiple choice questions' answers do not match with the real answer, for example: when you click for your answer, let's say: "B", the software will tell you, "you answer is wrong, the correct answer should be "C"," so you click on the solution they provided at the bottom of your screen to find out why, they give out the solution to the question, the answer is, let's say: 3/4, which is the multiple choice "B", not "C". IT DOESN'T MATCH, they give out Wrong information. And ONE OF THE QUESTION HAS TOTALLY THE WRONG SOLUTION. I'm very mad when I find out about this. I called the customer service, they say it is a technical problem, they want me to call their tech person, I didn't call yet, which I don't think it is something they can help me over the phone. But the important thing is: ON THE FRONT OF THE SOFTWARE PACKAGE says:"already sold one million copies." My god! There's probably one million kids out there using their software for study. What do you think as a parent or guardian? What should we do about this? Is there anyone knows how to stop them from selling this software? Or recall the product? I'm sure there's lot of people do not know about this yet!
So far, so good ! 2004-03-09
I originally had reservations on purchasing software. I spoke with a few people at the local electronic retailers and was told that the software should work in my system. I purchased a Dell Dimension 4600, about 2 months ago. 512 RAM, XP Standard. when i launch the program i get an error message that it is unable to find some kind of local file, but this does not seem to hinder my use. I need to brush up on my Math, so that I can prepare for the 1st Actuarial Exam. I will start at Pre-Alg, and work my way up to the Calculus, then I will rely on books by Howard Anton. I do not have time to enroll in a class either online or in person, so I am hoping the software will help rebuild the necessary foundation to continue further.
I was able to knock out the Pre-Alg and Alg 1 in one day. ran thru the tutorial, and did the quiz and examinations for both and no problems with running. I will give another review when i have completed Calculus. keeping my fingers crossed.
Math DIS-Advantage? 
2004-01-25
The earlier review about how "8-bit" this software seems, is right on the mark. I bought Math Advantage to try to learn the math I had missed in school... and I am finding the whole experience of using this software slow and frustrating. What may be salvagable to me is to use M.A. as a starting point for further exploring, on the web and elsewhere. Such that, when I get to a point where the convoluted and seemingly "wrong" lessons bring me to a point of frustration, I can then go to the web and search on whatever the lesson is trying to teach and hopefully get clarification.
Having now spent the money and having had the motivation in the first place to learn what I had missed, perhaps I can salvage some knowledge from actually using Math Advantage 2004 (which is unchanged since 2002, if not earlier) - but this product is in serious need of a makeover and modernization to compliment the abilities of today's computer operating systems.
2007 update: As I still had the discs, I tried to run them on a new Vista Home Premium laptop... they actually work: if you set the Compatability (rt click on Properties) to Windows 98/ME - and Run As Administrator... it's still a weakly designed program, but you may be able to get some use from it...
Watch Out! 2006-02-09
This software really scrambled my computer. Had to reinstall numerous programs. It created 77 errors in the Registry. I haven't had this much trouble in years. I even created a restore point before installing, but that didn't help
Watch Out!
Buggy, terrible piece of software. 2005-01-18
[...]
In addition to the 3MB memory problem, which has no excuse, I encountered an even more frustrating and obvious bug in the program.
They MISSPELLED THIER OWN DIRECTORY! The result was that the install ended with an eror telling me that they could not find the directory and that it did not exist.
This error, along with the 3MB error caused confusion as to the true cause of the problem.
I have had this program for 10min, and that was all the time it has taken to get the feeling that ENCORE put out a buggy, untested steamy pile that is good for nothing but frustrating the buyer. I will never purchase another encore product, and advise agianst anyone else who values their time and sanity to do so.
Disillusioned 2004-10-26
I purchased this software on the advice of a lawyer who used this in his preparation for the GRE. I completed the first Pre-Algerbra disc and although some of the lessons used a convoluted approach in explaining a procedure, I thought it was fine. However, the second disc, entitled Algebra I, would not come up on my computer. I took the disc to my work and had our computer people look at it. The software would not come up on the office computers.
My home computer registered that it was a damaged disc. The item is clearly defective but I can't get Amazon to take it back.
I am very disappointed. I intend to take the GRE in six months and thought I had enough time to prepare. I didn't plan for damaged software and I did not expect that the vendor would refuse to be responsible for it. There are eight discs in this program and I was taking it one by one. There may be other disappointing surprises in the remaining discs that I have yet to discover. I need to learn this material and if any reader has another suggestion for instructive math software, please let me know.
Way around memory problem 2004-07-05
Haven't tried this software but had same problem with some other software, the error message: "Director Player 6.0 - This program requires at least 3MB of free virtual memory to run". The only fix is to change your virtual memory settings to something below 500mb or to exactly 4000mb. Of course, I chose 4000mb since I have a large hard drive and almost 1 gig of memory on this pc.
So the full fix is:
From the Windows XP desktop, select the Start button, right-click on the My Computer icon, and select Properties from the resulting menu.
Click on the Advanced tab to bring it forward, and then select the Settings button within the Performance section.
In the Performance Options window, click on the Advanced tab to bring it forward, and then select the Change button in the Virtual Memory section.
Click the Custom size button...
Change the Initial size (MB) setting to 4000
Change the Maximum size (MB) setting to 4000
Select SET to accept the change, which will close the Virtual Memory window. Select OK to close the Performance Options window. And select OK to exit the System Properties window.
$40 + junk = angry customer 2004-06-15
This is a faulty and buggy piece of software. It will not run on my PC (XP Home)without me changing my Virtual Memory from 1000 mb to 200 mb...what an absurdity! The developer offers no solution other than to change my VM everytime I want to use their software.
Well, forget it. They're not the only game in town.
