Software can be like a calculator, or it can be like a tutor. The difference is this. A really good calculator can trick us into forgetting all we ever knew about mathematics. We know how to use the calculator. The calculator is never wrong. So, why remember all that math stuff? A really good tutor won't trick us into forgetting anything. In fact, a good tutor will use every trick that every good teacher since Socrates has run on students to ensure that they don't forget anything!

That's the main criterion for evaluating software. Does it teach us how to run a routine on a computer, or does it prompt us how to think about and make use of the material we are learning? Do we find ourselves working to improve our use of the software, or do we find ourselves working to better understand the subject matter? There is a difference between "teaching software," "educational software," and so-called "academic sofware," on the one hand and on the other study software. Study software is designed to prompt serious students to think about and to understand what they are learning. All the other software claims to teach and overlooks learning. Students, study software is software designed to focus you on the subject material that you have to understand and remember so that you can:

• do well on tests
• get good grades
• get into the college or grad school of your choice
• and most important of all, know and understand and be able to make use of what you study.

The real value of Catesoft Software is the real value of any study software. To see that think of study software, especially Catesoft Software, as a highly skilled tutor. The tutor's task is to lead you to understand the material, to lead you into "doing" mathematics or history or literature or anthropology or philosophy or physics or whatever else you are learning. The tutor's task is certainly not to do your work for you.

In simple, blunt terms Catesoft Software assists the routines, practices, and processes of study. Catesoft Software does not substitute for hard work, mental effort, the exercise of imagination, memory, understanding, and intelligence. In fact, Catesoft Software, like a good, tough-loving tutor, continuously pushes the user to use all learning and study skills.