The developer says "you can enter 0000000 if you want." That's why the fields are supposed to be OPTIONAL. If the software won't let you continue, then it's not optional. If you can just enter 0000000, then it should say so.

I have been trying to register the software, but it is complaining of not reaching the server. How is it that the server is down for so long? Now the time for GOTD is going to expire. I do not know whether I will be able to use this software or not.

Is it that the server is down on purpose?

Sorry, but I had one more observation to add, namely that since I had already downloaded (and possibly activated?) the program, which means I had the license registration key also, I was able to actually complete the installation on this computer after the GAOTD deadline time, so if anyone else out there is trying to solve an installation problem, you may also be able to complete it once you find out why it's not working and fix the problem. So there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Free Desktop Clock was blocking the installation of StudyX! Believe it or not that turned out to be the culprit on this computer after I found that it installed just fine on the other one which has ALMOST the same software as this one. I had been thinking of uninstalling this bugger for some time, so when I did the deed there was no longer anything that was blocking the GAOTD install. Surprised me too--don't know why this app was locking onto that particular install (I've added other programs with no problem) but it does sort of make me wonder whether or not this particular little freebie was doing something behind my back. Mind you, I'm not accusing them or anything, but this kind of behavior does qualify as at least a little bit suspicious, right? Oh, BTW and FWIW now that the giveaway is over, I found that you can put NA in every field of the registration except for the email address and selecting the country, so I guess you could actually say that all the other blanks are optional after all. One other note, and this is for the developer(s) of StudyX - I could not seem to get the System Info button to work as advertised.

Installed, but could not register.

Seems their blessed servers have quit... Ho hum..

Asked too much personal information for registering an unfinished program. E-mail address should be sufficient for testing their software. The screenshots in the "shockwave presentation" made me laugh -

"Studying 50"
"Correct 15"
"Mastered 0"
"Time Left 1478 minutes"

The software boasts that students learn faster. If a student is allowed more than 24 hours to figure out the answer to a multiple-choice geography question then this is definitely not a faster way to learn.

As Mr. Moviephone would say, "I'm out." Software uninstalled.

downloaded OK, but could not install because it kept saying that it can not be opened because some other program is using it, but I checked and double-checked and no other program was even running let alone using it. So I guess this program is just not meant to be despite my wanting to use it to help me learn HTML and JavaScript. I may try to install it on my other computer to see if I get the same response. If I don't, then I'll come back and try to see if I can find any way around this. Some of the comments above, however, do not exactly make me hopeful, as it would appear that the developers do not have all the kinks out yet. I may just have to make flash cards the old-fashioned way, I guess, which is a pity, since typing is so much neater than handwriting.

#51:
"The need for the personal information during the activation makes all the sense in the world to most of us"

Well, not "most of us" here, at least. In fact, you seem to be the ONLY one to whom this makes sense, although your explanation does _not_.

Oh come on guys, I know registration is asking too much info, but you are judging this software too hash.

Do you know it can speak the questions to you?
It can type in foreign characters too.

This could be a good study aid program.

Good idea - in the right direction - needs some debugging - price should be lower - is there a way for users to freely share cards that they make - you might have an upload center on website that can accept cards made by users so other users can download - don't be discouraged by the stupid negative comments that others write - just pay attention to some of them - although unsocial some of their comments make sense - keep working at it :)

Hi I have had no problems downloading this . Also found the spelling voice a tad computerised, but I will keep it on for a while until something newer becomes available. Like most people do anyway. Thanks for the opportunity to have a go. Not sure that it would be worth the price as on comments there are free ones available.

I am the developer of StudyX. I just wanted to let you know that we do not share any personal information. The only reason we ask for this is to verify the rightful owners of the FULL VERSION of StudyX. You are welcome to put in 000000s for the information you do not feel comfortable.

We have put our best effort and a lot of time and money into this software, and have seen students improve their grades 50-100%. Many of the students using our software have been able to improve their grades from a F to an A.

Medical students, and lawyers have told us that they went from struggling to the top in their class!

Let me know if you have any questions.


Feel free to email me or call me.

Jeff Minnis - Dedicated to helping students and adults learn!
636-256-7901

You should only give your real adres to Santa! (oh, and eBay:)

I used Drill Assistant. Excellent program! It got me through a biology class and 2 Spanish classes!

You can edit the question/answer bank in any editor including notepad; tests by fill in, multiple choice, or flash card; randomizes test bank but makes sure each question is asked; continues to recycle wrong answers until they are answered correctly; gives visual feedback during testing and charts in analysis at end. Best of all, it's free!

http://www.efkasoft.com/drillassistant/drillassistant.html

I could not understand the speaking in spelling, poor enunciation.
Some answers were correct but were marked incorrect but the answers were identical.

for something that is supposed to be free, you have to pay with personal information - from what i have read in these reviews.

this is false advertising. do what your gut instinct tells you.

avoid this software...you can as someone else said, get opensource software that doesnt ask for any personal information.

I find the whole registration process very intrusive, disturbing and highly suspicious. They are not only after our email addresses (thumbs down for that), but they also imply and assume that we are all stupid enough and will willingly feed them with our other personal data. This is IMO a brazen attempt to invade our privacy and to harvest our personal info.

Phone number? Come on!!! Are you for real????!!!!

From now on I am certainly going to avoid this developer and their software.

I'm used to gaotd dumping of substandard software on us from time to time, but man, you're really scraping the scum layer with this schnauzer. This seems more like a high school VB coding project than an actual useful, professional tool. And, if true, the student who coded it probably received no more than a C- for it.

I was going to download this until I read all these comments. Think I'll have to pass on it for now.

OK, I have just tried it. The program asked me to install NET Framework, which is absolutely out of the question. Anyway, it works without it.
Afterwards, came the activation with 2 choices: trial of 30 days or full program. I entered the full program, and entered all my details (made up some as it is not recommended to enter private details over the Internet without at least an encryption protection and https:// (ECDL recommendations to avoid ID Theft which is quite common on the Net!)
The program:
It provides some existing flashcards in Checkout StudyX database in the program itself (obviously, for the full version):à

―English (2)
―Foreign Language (109 one for each language, and one is called Temp. They don't have Cantonese, no Scottish Gaelic, but they have Irish, )
―History (6 US History)
―Maths (1)
―Medical Codes (20)
―Military (3)
―Misc (4 about teaching, terms, study, etc.)
―Science (19)
―Social Studies (4 mostly on US Geography, except the last which is world country capitals)
―Spelling (1 about study)
You can skip the answers you don't know. There is also a browsable forum flashcards provided by other students. I still prefer Anki though as it provide for thousands of desks! Here is their forum http://forum.studyx.com/stxforum/forum.php
_____________________________________________________________________
Then, you can also add your own questions to the Database. There are several tabs, not just the Home tab. :-)
1) Study: (There is a a bug in one of them but I could resume by just clicking Continue)
Flashcard view, Web multiple choice, Web fill in the blank, Autopilot study, Study sheet view, Multiple choice view, Fill in the blank view.

2) Games That one is a winner! Anki should do this one! LOL
Maze, Multiplayer trivia, Tunnel, Ping pong, Maths practice, Study with your games.

3) Print
You can print your study sheets, paper flashcards, avery choice cards, multiple choice test, short answer test, and matching test.

4) Help.
This one is also a winner! There is a demo, a help file already on the program which will please those with a low bandwith! And there is alos an online help and feedback. I am not sure I could use the later option as this is only a giveawayoftheday's and therefore limitates me...

Anyway for those interested in a more traditional free flashcards or those who will have missed the give away of the day, here is Anki. Watch the Youtube videos on how to use the program and the flashcards:
http://ankisrs.net/
I forgot to mention that they also provide the possibility to save Anki to a USB flash drive, iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, Windows Mobiles, etc. It does not provide for games or printing, but I love the browning decks! And they also have Cantonese which I am currently studying...

A for concept F- for implementation. This is the twentyfirst century, we can have intelligible speech synthesis... Heck ET phoned home using a toy that was more intelligible >;-> in fact Amigas and even the crappy PeeCees of the day could do better twenty five years ago (I had a demo-disk that could make my Amiga500 swear in half a dozen languages and quite clearly too *g*)

I think that StudyX is a very comprehensive teaching and learning tool and should be of great value to those who are Teachers or those thinking of entering this profession. For the rest of us, with a little imagination, we can also use this program in any number of ways! The program seems easy to navigate and there is any number of options available to the user to help make the program even easier to use! I feel that this is a wonderful program that’s easy and even fun to use. The need for the personal information during the activation makes all the sense in the world to most of us, as this is a program that features on line interactions not to mention services and options that are available within the program and through its designers. For those who want to stay on the downlow, perhaps using fake information will pass, but remember that there may be quite a few younger users of this program. Their security is upmost, and therefore, it becomes clear as to why this program needs to know who is using its on-line features.

I will give it a try and update my findings on this software. But I doubt very much it will equal the free software and open source called Anki which not only provides for the software for free, but also provides for all plugins (also free) and furthermore, provides for free browsing existing decks (flashcards updated by people). I find it easy, safe and best of all reliable. Why should I buy a product which does not provide for the online flashcards?

Unable to register program - get error message "unable to connect to Internet" after entering serial number.

Well, because of the registration complains above, I did not try this giveaway program.
Here is another online alternative. I am pretty sure it is free, but for some extended features you can upgrade, for a one-time small fee.
http://www.flashcardexchange.com

We've used the free Quizlet website for several years for our Latin study flashcards, and it works well and has basic games, etc. No, it's not a genius, flashy website, but it works well and there's no need for downloading a faulty software like this one advertised today.

http://www.quizlet.com

Don't waste your time ! ! It hangs up the computer when you try to start it. Forces you to register. Give away of the Day screen already indicated that it is "activated", but the program won't start without "register" process. Asks for personal information, then hangs with "not responding" message. After a half hour, I just uninstalled. Save yourself the aggravation and skip this one.

Every time I try to register the program I get this error message: Could not reach activation server. Please contact support.
What do I do now?

I just don't feel comfortable with a program that asks for so much private info like this one. Do you actually trust your info is safe in this guy's hands? Is it possible that the developer is selling this info to unknown buyers/spammers out there since there is apparently NOTHING in his software license that states anything regarding protecting YOUR PRIVACY with the personal info you give him upon registration. By the way, if you uninstall this you get a Windows message saying some components were not able to uninstall and may have to be manually removed so apparently the uninstaller leaves behind some "leftover" data. Make sure you clean out your registry after this one.

Sure, it's "easy enough to enter fake info" and thereby get the software, right? Look up "Lori Drew." She was convicted (and after a long and expensive legal fight, acquitted) of CRIMINAL violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act because she entered FAKE INFO to get a myspace page. My reading of her case makes me think that ANY of us could be similarly charged by some bad prosecutor. And that includes for this software. Really bad attitude on the part of this developer, IMO.

#9: "...the “Optional” information (phone number, address) was actually REQUIRED before being able to continue!..."

FWIW I don't read too much into the non-optional *optional* data, figuring it more a bit of naivete on the part of the developer, who's main focus [per the app's site] is not as a software company. The About page [ http://goo.gl/eoYEP ] goes on to say the dev has Asperger syndrome [Wikipedia http://goo.gl/WHIV ], which to me hints why he might not see usability or required info problems the same way as others do. At any rate there may be reason to give the guy a break as far as asking for personal info goes -- not that you should/shouldn't give it to him -- but maybe don't hate him for asking. :-)

"... The program seems to rely mostly on user uploading their own study guides for others to use … which, in theory, is a fine idea, but who vetts these uploads? Who checks for accuracy? Hopefully, that will be addressed in the future; for now, it’s not much of a problem because of how few study guides there are..."

I agree... Looking at StudyX what crossed my mind is that it might be cool for loose knit groups of parents doing home schooling, where a couple of them might handle spelling, another 3 or 4 set up a history lesson, that sort of thing, maybe as an end of year review sort of project(s)... I could also see faith-based groups using it when/where there wasn't a lot of pre-packaged alternatives, & again groups of people could individually chip in. Otherwise creating lesson plans etc. is a LOT of work, & I'm not sure how many working parents have the necessary time to devote to creating essentially homework helpers, gathering content, fact-checking & so on.

I thought this might be helpful for me in remembering the names and faces of people I see once a month at a meeting I attend. As far as I can see, only text answers are allowed, correct? I'd like to associate a .jpg file with an answer. Are there other programs out there to make flash cards that will do this?

Hello and greetinz from sweetzerland.
Installed, but unable to register.
It says something about servers unreachable.
Wrote to Jeff tech support, he replied to try later.
That's all, folks...

StudyX is a VB [Visual Basic] app that despite mimicking a ribbon-style GUI, feels very *nix or DOS like. It doesn't include & didn't install any VB support files, but it did crash more than once, not wanting to start back up afterward. I got frustrated & a bit upset since I 1st ran StudyX as a trial -- there doesn't appear to be any way to enter the serial # or key if you do this, at least until the 30 day trial expires! Maybe there is a way & I just overlooked it, but after 20 minutes or so of looking I deleted activation.cfg in the program's folder, which brought up the necessary window next time I started the app so that I could register. While it appears a good deal of thought has gone into StudyX development, I kept running into the same sort of oversight, with windows missing cancel buttons for example -- like the registration window with no way to access it, they're non-critical parts of an app that I just expect to be there.

From a psychological standpoint as a learning tool, an app like StudyX makes sense -- people form stronger memories the greater the number of senses involved, e.g. you're much more likely to remember events associated with sight, sound, & smell, & games do involve more senses than words on a page. OTOH I don't know how many working parents will find & spend the time creating customized content to match their kid's schoolwork, which is where an app like this could shine. I could see groups of parents collaborating to share the load, but I'm not sure teachers would find it fits in with the tools they already have & use.

I don't know how StudyX setup behaves without VB runtime or support files installed, e.g. if it asks to to download & install -- the only environment where I haven't installed the Microsoft VB 6 runtime is a win7 HP 64 SP1 VM running in V/Box, & there StudyX uses win7's apparently built-in VB runtime files, & didn't give any notice anything else was required. Installation adds a couple of fonts, activated Windows Speech, stores tests etc. in a new folder under (My) Documents [169 files, 10 folders, ~18 MB], & adds the program's folder which holds 119 files, 3 folders, at ~14 MB. The registry gets a new uninstall key, a couple of keys for Windows Shell, & the rest of the ~100 new entries I recorded were mainly due to Microsoft Speech. As I mentioned earlier I had StudyX crash more than once [VB faults], & in 7 it had to run as admin to get the initial registration done -- as it is the registration window showed Not Responding for some time. Activation does phone home, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the way of verifying data you entered.

Nasty! Requires .net 4.0! ! Yes, I'm using XP Pro but one would have thought that it would work require the latest .net framework!
I needed to do a system rstore to remove all the remnants from my PC.
Thanks GAOTD for sharing but a little more detail on compatebility would have been nice.

I have trouble activated it too. Don't know what to do. I would love to have it and build some flash cards for my kids. Any one know what is going on?

Need to add Country of South Africa.

Still trying to register, and still getting the following error:

"Could not reach activation server. Please contact support."

anyway, just tried 8 more times, and this POS is going to be uninstalled.

wont register and demands optional registration fields be filled in. In goes mickey mouwse and 3456 fairytale avenue.

Unable to reach activation server. Please contact support. Tried several time with program crash. Uninstalling...

Would help if his registration server was up and online

It seems that graduate students have a new study tool now, developed by undergrads as well!! And all this for only $39.99 retail!! Thank goodness it's free today; otherwise I might have to choose between purchasing this life changing piece of software, or buying food or clothing for my children. Can you sense the sarcasm here, GOATD or should I continue my accolades of this "the greatest free software offer in the history of mankind ever"? Sheesh.

Memory lifter is free, simple and will run off a stick.

If the person who entered the information entered l00 instead of 100, then the computer voice should say ELL ZERO ZERO. The problem is not the voice, it is the idiot who made the question.

Not worth the time to install and register.
Private info is not optional, who will spill out that info to an unknown web site and why?
The software is for beginners, too basic and elementary in context.
And that voice is going to make you dyslexic and un-learn you basic pronunciation of English language.
Young kids will pick up the wrong info and be stuck in their mind as true info for long time. The Q-cards are not accurate in relation to their answers and some of them will make you feel like a nut.
Skip it if you need your sanity.

It won't install, it returns "Could not reach activation server. Please contact support."

I did like in the optional (optional my rear end) you have to put an address, and cannot leave the state blank. Sorry, most of the world do not have states so which state would you put for home of the Beatles (Liverpool)? Most definitely a program that is NOT thought through. GAOTD you should only giveaway mature stable programs not college projects like this one.

Fantastic program for learning and revising. Brilliant for learning languages!

@Corek - #10: What has Russia done to be listed? I mean, except for the Hermitage, Mendeljev, Gagarin, the Bridges of St. Petersburg, the Battle of Kursk, the Bolshoi, Tolstoi, Zhukov, Trans-Siberian RR, crushing Hitler, etc., what has Russia done to be mentioned? Nabokov, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn? Hah! Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff? I can't play them on my guitar.

So stop being so sensitive! Sheesh! You Russkies!

;-)

I entered my address and phone # from my childhood home. It's a vacant lot now. Still annoying that they would ask for that. Not a good idea at all. Still love gaotd though thanks. :)