next to your picture, and you're told how many days - attempts

The program is not exactly innovative. In fact it's neither particularly imaginative nor terribly exciting. The best that can be said about it is that it's perfectly respectable.

True, there has been some attempt to make use of the micro as an educational medium, for example, an authoring facility allows teachers to create their own sets of words. But the overall impression is that the package has been rather artificially pepped-up.

Now, when it comes to evaluating learning packages for young people, the only significant test is the extent to which incentive is maintained. The most conspicuous reaction to Das Schloss from my seasoned team of guinea pigs was that interest was soon lost in rebuilding the rather unimpressive castle from scratch with each set of words.

Despite an initial appeal, therefore, it's really not much of an educational carrot.

This is not the devastating criticism it may seem to be. As compared to other schoolware, German is relatively poorly served in computer-assisted learning, and there are programs on the market which almost defy belief in their shoddiness.

Das Schloss is far from being one of them, and can be recommended on those grounds alone.

Gabriel Jacobs