Like most people, I spent the better part of my secondary school years avoiding maths classes, or turning up and tuning out. They really lost my attention when they changed numbers to letters, and repeating year twelve was infinitely less appealing when most of the girls you'd spent half the year getting up enough courage to ask out had managed to pass.

Imagine my surprise, and well concealed delight when Professor Kageyama's Maths Training appeared on my desk earlier this week. Initially, I had planned to courier it back to Professor Kageyama, as I hate it when I lose software myself, but before doing so it seemed only fair to try it out.

We're introduced to Professor Hideo Kageyama in the rather comprehensive instruction booklet included with Maths Training. As everyone knows, the success of any educational regime is in direct proportion to the qualifications of the creator, so it is swiftly explained to us that Kageyama is professor for the Centre for Research and Educational Development in Higher Education at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, the deputy headmaster of Ritsumeikan Primary School and a member of the Central Education Council of the Japanese Ministry of Education. There is no mention of his hobbies, although it would be safe to assume aging is probably one of them.

After the formalities, it's straight into the hedonistic world of math. We're presented with several options - the requisite "Daily Test" sessions, the curiously (and rather worryingly) titled "Kageyama Method", and finally some "Practice Exercises" to stretch those little grey cells.

There's really not a lot of derivation from the tried and tested Brain Training method with the "Daily Test" option. It's just a collection of relatively simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, division & visual themed questions presented by our erstwhile Japanese maths expert, wrapped up in a fairly clutter-free package, with the added bonus of being able to reach a new level if you succeed in beating the clock often enough. Unlike Operation Valour, you're also provided with medals. This latest instalment from the Touch! Generations development house is aimed squarely at children, so there are comprehensive instructions at every point along the path.

One thing that will drive you slightly crazy initially is that the stylus, which is required to input your answer to the touch screen every time, will often misrepresent numbers. "4" becomes "11", or perhaps "2", depending on exactly how you've traced it. Baring in mind you are always against the clock, so it's not only about accuracy with math, it also tests your handwriting under pressure. Happily you can usually clear an incorrect answer before it becomes part of your permanent record, something I could have done with when a certain year twelve teacher enquired as to my opinion of his subject.

Marching inevitably towards the undoubted intellectual peak of Maths Training, we arrive at the "Kageyama Method". This is not, as the title suggests, an innovative way of removing a windpipe obstruction, it is in fact a computational method referred to as "100 Cell Maths". Still in the dark? You needn't be, it's really very simple:

"100 Cell Maths is a teaching method used across Japan to help students master fundamental arithmetic calculations. It is a very simple learning method which involves adding, subtracting or multiplying the numbers along the sides of a 10 x 10 grid and placing those answers in each of the 100 cells that make up that grid."

Got it? Good.

In order to beat the clock on a 100 Cell Challenge, you actually do have to practise a fair bit. However, just when you thought you'd finally found the back-slapping, high-fiving competition-driven adrenalin rush you always knew maths could provide, it's ripped away from you in a bitter wave of common sense:

"The Goal Times are there to provide a goal to work towards and to create a clear sense of motivation for the student, and are not a particularly relative method of evaluation".

Nuts. At least there are the "Practice Exercises" to hone those skills you've never needed since you left secondary school and purchased a cell phone with a built-in calculator. Ok, perhaps that's a little unfair, considering this product does have a fairly well established market in the educational sector, there will probably be students will cell phones who won't need it either.

Well, that's about it. Oh, you can also play wireless with up to fifteen other people, although I suspect finding fifteen people with nothing better to do a tad on the unlikely side.

In evaluating this software, hopes were raised that an answer to the eternal question - is it possible to make maths remotely interesting? - might actually be found. Unfortunately all I've managed to ascertain is that you won't find it on your DS. Still, if you're one of the several people out there who actually like maths, then this definitely one for you, although I'd suggest continuing your important research would be more beneficial for everyone.