The school metaphor runs through the special features associated with the game, such as grades, exams, school reports, and the sometimes-comical Career Advisor adds an extra bit of fun.
Figure 1 — Brain School's Career Advisor

One of the things that keeps Brain School interesting is the different types of games as well as the sheer number of games. Brain School has a whopping 20 different games, which is more than any brain training game I've seen, and each game has multiple variations. Although some of the games can be found in other brain trainer products, there are several, such as the nefarious "Plastic Puzzle," you won't find anywhere else.

The school theme infuses many of the Brain School games, such as School Register that tests your ability to remember as many schoolmates as possible and School Bus, remembering how many pupils got on and off the bus and how many are left at the end.
Figure 2 — Matching twins in the classroom

Some of the challenges are a race-against-the-clock, and as I found out, if you're not fast enough the time runs out and you're back at square one. This adds a pleasantly frantic aspect.

Other games are purely achievement-based; they take more thoughtful concentration and have no time limits. You try them and try them and try them, until you accomplish the goal.

Each puzzle type targets different brain skills, such as logic, memory, concentration, and spatial awareness. The first year starts with tracking the coin under "Magic Hats," comparing "Heavier, Heaviest" objects, speeding through basic arithmetic in "Simple Sums," spatial recognition in "Shape Math" and the "Plastic Puzzle" shapes.
Figure 3 — Spatial recognition skills needed for the "Shape Math" game

Typically, you have to complete two or more games in a section. As the year progresses, not only does each of these games get increasingly difficult but random elements come into play.

Part of the delight of Brain School is not only that you can compete against up to 10 other players on your device, but also you always compete against yourself to improve your score. So, even when I earned an A+ in "Heavier, Heaviest" (rather quickly I might add), I played again and again to challenge myself to beat my "Personal Best." However, it wasn't that easy with the infernal "Plastic Puzzle" game.
Figure 4 — Level 1 of Plastic Puzzle, one of the games unique to Brain School

Dominic Masters, the brains behind Brain School, said during a Windows Live Messenger interview from his location in the United Kingdom that he got the idea for this unique electronic game from "Christmas Crackers," those traditional holiday noisemakers, especially popular in Great Britain, which make a loud "snap" sound and pop out a little toy or puzzle prize. That makes it sound so delightful and Dickensian. I used to palm off those little puzzle things to my elder son.

In the spirit of full disclosure: After an undisclosed number of tries on the first of two Plastic Puzzle games in Level 1, including trying to make the wrong shape and considering a call to Support because my game was missing a piece; I called in a consultant. After all, I'm writing on a deadline. To his enduring delight, my elder son Erik, the one to whom I used to hand those cracker puzzles, mastered the challenge in 4 minutes. His time includes the few seconds it took to become familiar with the UI, which is well designed. Then Mr. Show-Off did the second puzzle in Level 1 in about 5 minutes. In the spirit of journalistic integrity, after he left, I did complete them both on my own rather quickly. Well, fairly quickly.

What is appealing about the Brain School is that it is fun to return to a challenge, even after you've mastered it. What this school doesn't have is bake sales, homework, school uniforms, school lunches, or bullies who are after your lunch money.

What started as research by cognitive scientists and educational psychologists in Japan, bloomed into the brain or mental training game phenomena in Japan, and spread worldwide. According to a report by Sam Adkins, Ambient Insight's chief research officer, "The brain trainer games are intended to improve cognitive functions such as learning and memory. The intent of the designers is to provide a user with a gaming experience that produces a change in behavior (learning) that can be recalled or repeated later (memory)." In the U.S., the new field called "educational neuroscience" is generating a lot of heat and light.

Am I smarter after going to Brain School? Too soon to know, but I did notice right away that the way to raise my score was to amp up my focus. That in itself is a valuable observation. Keeping your eye focused on the one top hat that has the coin under it as several top hats whirl around the screen certainly challenges your ability to tune out distractions.

I had a little difficulty moving from the trial version to the full version. The problem turned out to be a memory shortage — on my device. Brain School needs about 15 megabytes (MB) of free memory to operate those 20 games, and Mastersoft advises that it plays best from device memory. After a little housecleaning of my device and shifting some Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentations to my storage card, I had room to run it.

Because the product does not include an autorun program for registration, you have to do it manually: Open the program, tap Menu, select Help, select Register, and then follow the prompts to enter your registration code. You will receive your unlock code in e-mail. Although these directions are on page 8 of the 50-page Help file, I don't think I've ever read a Help file before jumping in, and especially if a game is the goal. But, I did earn another "A+" for problem solving.