HOUSTON -- As finals week begins in Texas schools, students and parents are barreling down, especially in math. Help can be as close as your cellphone.
Math is the tough subject for many students, including 10-year-old Damian Rivera. Getting help can also be tough.
As they say, now there's an app for that.
Damian is a faithful user of Math Crunch. He says he uses it every day, except for the weekends. Users sign up, request the appropriate level tutor, then text a photo of the problem stumping them. Damian says, "The tutor helps me step by step."
As we watch, step by step, text by text, the virtual tutor walks Damian through a word problem.
Math Crunch and other math apps work well beyond grade school up to high school and college level classes. That can be helpful when mom or dad is rusty or never took classes such as Algebra II or Calculus.
There are other math apps available, and mom Lina Rivera has tried some of them but prefers Math Crunch for her fifth-grader because it provides a live virtual tutor who won't just spit out the answer.
"It's a lot cheaper than the (actual) private tutor he did have," Rivera said of the app's other benefits. "The private tutor was $30 an hour. He would get that three times a week."
That's $90 a week. Math Crunch offers monthly plans of up to $80 a month for up to 240 minutes or four hours. There is also a pay-as-you-go option at .49 cents a minute.
Rivera, however, hasn't paid a dime.
"As long as you refer it to a friend, and your friend downloads the app, you can get 30 minutes free, and I've referred it to a lot people," Rivera said.
For the Rivera family, the app doesn't work alone. Mom is also there, routinely helping Damian with his homework. That adds up very well.
