Give your brain a workout with Brilliant [Review]

By

Brilliant iOS app on desk with switch and tv remote
Quit wasting time and learn something with Brilliant.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Whether you’re addicted to Twitter, obsessed with Fortnite or wasting the day away on Netflix, you can kill hours on your iPhone without ever doing anything useful or productive.

Instead of mindlessly killing time, Brilliant gives you a way to expand your mind and learn something new every day.

Brilliant app review

Brilliant is an educational platform, designed to help make learning fun and accessible. Designed around focused lessons and relatable situations, Brilliant allows you to explore complex science, technology, and math topics in ways that make learning exciting.

Daily Problems make learning a game

Expanding on their learning platform, Brilliant recently introduced their Daily Problems feature. These give you an opportunity to flex your mental muscles and learn new things every day.

The Daily Problems come in a variety of subjects, with a pair of questions each day. Each Daily Problem provides an “insight” lesson that gives enough detail to get you on the right path, and the questions are typically presented with a multiple choice answer.

Brilliant app review: Brilliant's Daily Problems and courses make learning fun and accessible to everyone
Brilliant’s Daily Problems and courses make learning fun and accessible to everyone.
Screenshots: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

After doing the Daily Problem for a few days, I’ve started looking forward to the questions every morning. Some days, the question was (relatively) easy, and other days, it’s something that had me thinking for hours.

With the Brilliant app, there’s no punishment for getting the answer wrong. Instead, a wrong answer is an opportunity to learn.

Whether you guess the correct answer, or are 100% wrong, you can see user-submitted explanations of how the correct answer can be found. Other users can then vote on the explanations, ensuring that the best and most understandable are provided.

Sharpen your mind

Brilliant’s various course offerings are also great at helping you hone your understanding of different subjects.

Let’s you’re great at math, but struggle with science concepts. Brilliant allows you to complete micro-lessons in different science areas to improve your science skills. By making it applicable to real life, and using questions to spark a desire to learn, the learning is more exciting and memorable.

If you enjoy mentally challenging yourself, or want to kindle the fire that is your mind, Brilliant is a great way to learn and have fun. Its approachable, and allows you to learn a little (or a lot) whenever you want.

Price: Free (upgrade to premium for access to courses and daily question archive)

Download from: App Store

Get 20 percent off a year of premium by going to Brilliant.org/CultOfMac! Offer valid through Feb 28, 2019.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.