When I started using this package I had already learned basic touch typing (ie just the letter keys and basic punctuation) from a program that I downloaded free from the internet. Mavis Beacon is cerainly a much more polished product than I was using before, but there doesn't seem to be anything under all the window-dressing.
My main complaint is that it simply doesn't give a decent chance to practise something before moving on. So, instead of mastering each key and then progressing on to the next, you find yourself getting more and more bewildered and frustrated. As there is a time limit to finishing the exercises, which if you fail you have to begin again all over, you find yourself making a lot of errors, which simply reinforces the bad habit.
Why this was became a little clearer to me when I looked at the diagnostic screen. It assigns each key to one of three levels - those you know well, those you aren't quite so sure of, and those you need to practise. All well and good, you may say, the only trouble is that it is just plain WRONG! It told me that keys that I had been typing quite happily for months were in need of practise, while some of those new ones that I repeatedly typed incorrectly, I apparently knew very well.
On the plus side, the games are quite fun, and each one practises a different aspect of typing(ie speed, rhythm, accuracy) which is a good idea.
In conclusion, if the designers of this had spent as much time getting the fundamentals right as they spent working on its presentation, this could have been a very good package. Ultimately, though, its just too frustrating to be of much use.
Carrie Leverett
myopinion