A Blast From The Past (Texas Instruments Little Professor)

Member Name: wigglylittleworm

Product:	Texas Instruments Little Professor
Date:	12/11/08 (239 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps kids develop basic arithmetic skills

Disadvantages: A bit basic

My little professor was one of my favourite childhood toys, mind you I was a rather geeky kid. It was a popular toy in the 70s and 80s, sadly it is no longer made but can be bought for under a fiver on ebay.

The little professor is a simple maths teaching tool. It asks a number of random maths questions on the LED screen and the user answers using the number buttons. If you get the answer correct then the small professor at the side of the screen wiggles his moustache and nods his approval. If you get the answer wrong then EEE flashes up on the screen and you get a second chance. If you get the answer wrong again then it tells you what the correct answer is and moves onto the next question. You are told the results of each set of five questions at the end, if you get all five correct then the professor dances along the screen with glee.

You can use the little professor to practice basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. You can work at four different levels of difficulty, the easiest questions being simple single figure addition with the most difficult being double figure multiplication or division such as 39*19 or 172/43 giving a good mental workout.

A nice feature on my version is the star key. This allows you to select a specific number to work with. If you type *6 for example it allows you to choose any one of the modes using just the number six, perfect if you want to practice a specific times table.

The little professor is an extremely basic toy, the small LED screen only has basic black graphics, it has no sound or flashing light yet it retains a certain charm. There are a number of different versions of the toy produced, mine is the 1980 version which is different to the one pictured above the review and it comes set in its own protective yellow case.

I bought a little professor on ebay a couple of years ago and have used it with my own child to help her practice her times tables. It's much more fun than simply writing the problems out and the instant feedback provided is valuable in motivating a child to continue practicing. Basic maths skills and the ability to do mental arithmetic is really important so that kids can progress onto more advanced forms of maths so anything that can help them gain confidence in those skills is welcomed.

Clearly the toy is long lasting, the versions available to buy these days can be up to 30 years old. My version takes two small button type batteries and changing them once is the only maintenance I have had to perform on my little professor in the past couple of years.

Summary: I wish they still made these.