This tape, aimed at junior school children aged seven to 11, deals with everyday mathematics - the four rules of numbers.

Children are asked to choose between addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and hard and easy options exist within each set. They get three chances to make the right answer and are told "too high" or "too low" after a mistake.

Each response is timed to one-hundredth of a second and this information is printed on the screen when the child answers the question correctly. After 10 questions they are graded from "You must try harder" onwards.

Now what trying; harder has to do with hitting the right answer to a series of random questions, I don't know. Presumably if pupils knew how to take 211 from 509 they would do it. But one thing is for sure - if they couldn't when they started the test they could use Teach Me for 100 years and get no nearer to being able to do so. Any program purporting to 'teach' should at least leave the user with some extra skill or knowledge. This does neither.

Translate this sort of program into the adult world. Imagine buying a program which says it will teach you Russian. It flashes a word on the screen and you have to translate it. If you get it wrong three times it gives the translation and then goes on to another word.

After a hundred or so times it might repeat itself but I doubt if you will remember that fleeting glance at the Russian and English equivalents - and how long would it take for you to be able to converse with the "man in the street in Kiev"? More than a lifetime I suspect. Now for adults this would be laughed out of Court but we put this sort of thing in front of children and expect them to learn from it.

The program is only livened up by some appalling spelling and grammatical errors:

"What is 774 devide by 9?"

or how about:

"Go on have another five minute's",

How on earth software companies can put out this sort of thing is quite beyond me!