The Software Factory has produced a series of five discs called CSE and GCE O Level Maths to match the five years the children would study mathematics in a senior school. Although referred to as a course, they are at best a simple aid to learning, and at worst just a series of mathematics tests.

The authors say the programs are designed to assist those studying CSE and O level mathematics and that using them will increase the pupil's abilities in mathematics.

Yet the first four discs merely offer tests where they are marked and timed and the help pages offer little more than a traditional textbook would. The questions are difficult, there appears to be no common thread and the pupil can get the correct answer by entering incorrect inputs.

Failure results in an explanation, but even this is inadequate if understanding is to arise. The language used is difficult to understand, for example: "A number in standard form is a number expressed as a number between 1 and 10 multipled by a power of 10".

Disc 5 amounts to a test of tests. It is the revision section and as a reflection of the efficiency of the course you are given three attempts to get the correct answer instead of two.

Success at this level would guarantee a pass at O Level as the pupil would have to be well above O level standard to understand the questions - and some of the explanations.

There is a market both in school and at home for revision software, but for it to be of real value it needs to be sound in its subject content and to take into account how the child learns.

The traditional approach of this software might be acceptable for the grammar school where it would be backed up with teaching and an in-depth explanation. But the course is no use for pupils who wish to teach themselves. Even if the computer is used to the full it still requires a skilled teacher to enable the average and above average child to learn from this package, and a skilled teacher would find little in this software to excite them.

The computer has no screen graphics to speak of and little interaction and the documentation is limited. Children using the programs felt demoralised by them and showed little motivation - an unusual state considering they were using the computer.

With exciting software available to help the pupil develop an investigatory approach to mathematics, there is little room in school for such sterile software.

Although it could provide a revision aid for a bright child who had already attained the required standard, it does not provide the careful explanation that most children need.

I suspect that the children who would most benefit from this set of programs will already enjoy using textbooks anyway.