Algebra Pinball

You can time yourself on a lot of my Algebra exercises. I remember watching my students at Miss Hall's School trying to beat a really fast time—their fingers were flying! It made me think of someone using a pinball machine, and thus was born ‘Algebra Pinball’.

Algebra Pinball is a collection of about 100 algebra and pre-algebra exercises (below) with an option to time yourself. Chart progress towards mastery by your increasingly faster times. Make it social with a fun family or classroom competition. Master these exercises and ace algebra!

Here's an Algebra Pinball pdf that you can print out and put on your refrigerator!
or
Click here to edit/print your own Algebra Pinball table

These were the rules for the blazingly fast times (most from former students) that are shown below:

Here is a sample of the information you get when you stop timing:

sample Algebra Pinball timing info

Don't be discouraged by the times listed in this chart! Most of these are extraordinarily fast times. I can't even come close!

 

Algebra Pinball Exercise

(Click on ‘Skill Practice’ and then time yourself)

Blazing Times

All times are seconds per correct problem

Expressions versus Sentences
  • Skim the lesson.
  • Click the question mark next to ‘Practice’ to watch a short video on how to use the exercises.
  • Practice a bit, then time yourself! Have fun!
Sunny Lee
0.7 seconds
Basic Addition Practice
Jinghui Zhang
0.6 seconds
Multiplication
Woo Ji Kim
1.0 seconds
Divisibility
Hyun Sun Seo
1.8 seconds
Mixed Basic Add/Subtract Multiply/Divide Practice
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
2.2 seconds
(This one should be easier to beat!)
Deciding if a Number is a Whole Number, an Integer, etc.
Masha Jones
1.4 seconds
Addition of Signed Numbers
Woo Ji Kim
1.1 seconds
Subtraction of Signed Numbers
Woo Ji Kim
1.1 seconds
Mixed Addition and Subtraction of Signed Numbers
Seon Ah Yoon
1.8 seconds
Writing Fractions with a Denominator of 2 in Decimal Form
Sunny Lee
1.0 seconds
Average of Two Signed Numbers
Soo Yeon Kim
1.4 seconds
Average of Three Signed Numbers
Woo Ji Kim
1.4 seconds
Identifying Place Values
Jinghui Zhang
1.4 seconds
Multiplying by Powers of Ten
Jinghui Zhang
1.4 seconds
Changing Decimals to Fractions
Jinghui Zhang
1.6 seconds
Multiplying and Dividing Decimals by Powers of Ten
Soo Yeon Kim
2.6 seconds
Changing Decimals to Percents
Soo Yeon Kim
1.2 seconds
Changing Percents to Decimals
Woo Ji Kim
1.2 seconds
Interval and List Notation
Seon Ah Yoon
1.2 seconds
Reading Set Notation
Jinghui Zhang
1.0 seconds
Solving Simple Sentences By Inspection
Jinghui Zhang
1.1 seconds
Using Mathematical Conventions
Jinghui Zhang
1.8 seconds
Rewriting Fractions as a Whole Number Plus a Fraction
Hyun Sun Seo
2.2 seconds
Locating Fractions on a Number Line
Seon Ah Yoon
2.0 seconds
Fractions Involving Zero
Woo Ji Kim
Ji Yune Kim
0.7 seconds
Finding Reciprocals
Woo Ji Kim
1.1 seconds
Determining if a Product is Positive or Negative
Seon Ah Yoon
1.0 seconds
Multiplying and Dividing Fractions
Seon Ah Yoon
2.2 seconds
Practice with the Form a(b/c)
Hyun Sun Seo
0.7 seconds
More Practice with the Form a(b/c)
Elaine Zhang
1.5 seconds
Practice with Multiples
Hyun Sun Seo
0.7 seconds per
Finding Least Common Multiples
Woo Ji Kim
1.2 seconds
Renaming Fractions with a Specified Denominator
Seon Ah Yoon
2.2 seconds
Practice with Factors
Ji Yune Kim
0.8 seconds
Adding and Subtracting Fractions
Sally Melville
5.1 seconds
Divisibility Equivalences
Ji Yune Kim
2.0 seconds
Prime Numbers
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
2.5 seconds
Relatively Prime Numbers and Related Concepts
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
3.7 seconds
Identifying Inequalities as True or False
Kyung Eun Lee
0.9 seconds
Practice with the Phrases ‘at least’ and ‘at most’
Hyun Sun Seo
1.5 seconds
Identifying Inequalities with Variables as True or False
Woo Ji Kim
0.9 seconds
Solving Equations of the form $\,xy = 0$
Woo Ji Kim
1.8 seconds
Recognizing Zero and One
Woo Ji Kim
1.0 seconds
Writing Fractions in Simplest Form
Seon Ah Yoon
1.7 seconds
Deciding if a Fraction is a Finite or Infinite Repeating Decimal
Ji Yune Kim
0.8 seconds
Deciding if Numbers are Equal or Approximately Equal
Kyung Eun Lee
1.0 seconds
Rounding Decimals to a Specified Number of Places
Soo Yoon Kim
2.3 seconds
Classifying Units as Length, Time, Volume, Weight/Mass
Woo Ji Kim
1.0 seconds
Practice with Unit Abbreviations
Woo Ji Kim
1.0 seconds
Practice with Unit Names
Soo Yeon Kim
1.4 seconds
Practice with Unit Conversion Information
Hyun Sun Seo
1.8 seconds
One-Step Conversions
Sei Young Shin
4.5 seconds
Practice with Exponents
Woo Ji Kim
1.0 seconds
Practice with Order of Operations
Hyun Sun Seo
2.6 seconds
Taking PEMDAS Too Literally: Don't Make This Mistake!
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
11.7 seconds
(This one should be easier to beat!)
Basic Exponent Practice with Fractions
Soo Yeon Kim
1.4 seconds
Practice with $x^mx^n = x^{m+n}$
Woo Ji Kim
0.9 seconds
Practice with $(x^m)^n = x^{mn}$
Woo Ji Kim
1.0 seconds
Practice with $\displaystyle\frac{x^m}{x^n} = x^{m-n}$
Woo Ji Kim
1.1 seconds
Practice with $\displaystyle x^{-p} = \frac{1}{x^p}$
Soo Yeon Kim
0.8 seconds
One-Step Exponent Law Practice
Woo Ji Kim
1.1 seconds
Multi-Step Exponent Law Practice
Rurika Oka
2.1 seconds
Practice with Radicals
Hyun Sun Seo
1.0 seconds
Approximating Radicals
Seon Ah Yoon
2.8 seconds
Practice with Rational Exponents
Amelie Dyzmann
2.9 seconds
Practice with $\,x\,$ and $\,-x\,$
Hyun Sun Seo
1.0 seconds
Practice with Products of Signed Variables
Ji Yune Kim
1.1 seconds
Practice with the Distributive Law
Amelie Dyzmann
1.9 seconds
Mental Math: Addition
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
5.4 seconds
(This one should be easier to beat!)
Equal or Opposites?
Ji Yune Kim
0.9 seconds
Recognizing the Patterns $\,x^n\,$ and $\,(-x)^n\,$
Soo Yeon Kim
2.4 seconds
Writing Expressions in the Form $\,kx^n$
Soo Yeon Kim
1.5 seconds
Writing More Complicated Expressions in the Form $\,kx^n$
Soo Yeon Kim
2.0 seconds
Writing Quite Complicated Expressions in the Form $\,kx^n$
Sally Melville
5.4 seconds
Identifying Variable Parts and Coefficients of Terms
Seon Ah Yoon
6.0 seconds
Combining Like Terms
Kyung Eun Lee
4.7 seconds
Simplifying Expressions Like $\,-a(3b-2c-d)$
Woo Ji Kim
3.3 seconds
Basic FOIL
Soo Yeon Kim
2.6 seconds
More Complicated FOIL
Woo Ji Kim
5.3 seconds
Simplifying $\,(a+b)^2\,$ and $\,(a - b)^2$
Woo Ji Kim
4.9 seconds
Simplifying Expressions Like $\,(a-b)(c + d - e)$
Woo Ji Kim
4.4 seconds
Practice with the Mathematical Words and, or,
and is equivalent to
Kyung Eun Lee
1.2 seconds
Recognizing Products and Sums; Identifying Factors and Terms
Sally Melville
3.6 seconds
Identifying Common Factors
Hyun Sun Seo
2.0 seconds
Factoring Simple Expressions
Kyung Eun Lee
4.8 seconds
Listing All the Factors of a Whole Number
Seon Ah Yoon
3.7 seconds
Finding the Greatest Common Factor of 2 or 3 Numbers
Soo Yeon Kim
1.5 seconds
Finding the Greatest Common Factor of Variable Expressions
Hyun Sun Seo
3.4 seconds
Factoring Out the Greatest Common Factor
Sei Young Shin
6.6 seconds
Solving Simple Linear Equations with Integer Coefficients
Hyun Sun Seo
2.1 seconds
Solving More Complicated Linear Equations with Integer Coefficients
Sally Melville
6.6 seconds
Solving Linear Equations Involving Fractions
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
14.3 seconds
(This one should be easier to beat!)
Solving Linear Equations, All Mixed Up
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
15.2 seconds
(This one should be easier to beat!)
Simplifying Basic Absolute Value Expressions
Woo Ji Kim
1.2 seconds
Determining the Sign (Plus or Minus) of Absolute Value Expressions
Suk Young Hong
0.9 seconds
Identifying Perfect Squares
Ji Yune Kim
0.8 seconds
Factoring Trinomials
Sei Young Shin
4.4 seconds
Identifying Quadratic Equations
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
2.9 seconds
(This one should be easier to beat!)
Factoring Trinomials of the Form $\,ax^2 + bx + c\,$
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
15.8 seconds
(I used the zeros on the graph to help me factor!)
Writing Expressions Involving Percent Increase and Decrease
(newer lesson)
Dr. Carol JVF Burns
5.6 seconds