ALEKS-COLLEGE ALGEBRA MY STORY 8/2018

[Mspeachy]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here so bear with me.

 I started the college algebra class at Aleks back in July and with hopes of scoring 70 Percent on the initial exam and getting the credits right away. It did not go as planned. I scored an 80% on the initial exam and requested approval through ACE in which they replied, I have to complete 70 percent of the pie chart in order to obtain credit.

Welp, time was winding down and after 30 days , and 79 hours worth of work, i DID NOT complete 70% of the chart by 7/31. 

I was elated to hear that ALEKS had renewed their ace accreditation so I decided to just get this class over with. After finally  completing 70% of the pie chart  I thought I was in the clear and requested ace approval again but was DENIED.  The reason this time? you must complete 70% of the pie chart to be ELIGIBLE to take the ACE CREDIT KNOWLEDGE CHECK. On this exam, you need to score 70% in order to receive credit AND you must download a lockdown browser to make sure no other applications are running. 

So, ladies and gentlemen, After a grueling 2 hours and 41 minutes on the final ACE knowledge check, I have officially obtained my 3 college algebra credits. 

I would not recommend this course if you are looking for fast credits. I definitely feel like I did just as much work as I would have during a semester on a college campus. Yes I learned alot and if I knew what I was getting into, I would have taken another route. 

It seems Aleks has made the journey a bit more difficult to obtain credits.  I just wanted to make  you all aware since some of the information on this site seems to be outdated.

Take care everyone, and keep striving !

[zzzz24]

This definitely conflicts with everything else on here that I have read and what I have seen.

If you scored 80% on the initial knowledge check, why would you need to do anymore of the pie if you know 80% of it?

Never heard of needing a lock down browser for taking another knowledge check either.

[Mspeachy]

This definitely conflicts with everything else on here that I have read and what I have seen.

If you scored 80% on the initial knowledge check, why would you need to do anymore of the pie if you know 80% of it?

Never heard of needing a lock down browser for taking another knowledge check either.

Same here. The reason I started the course was because of all the information I got from this site. My guess is they stopped giving credit for the initial knowledge check sometime in July and the lockdown browser was definitely implemented after the ACE renewal this August.

[jsd]

This is definitely a new requirement, then. Must have been implemented as part of their most recent renewal, which would explain why it took them so long.

ACE probably is finally doing something in response to the folks who basically openly brag about misusing unproctored services, and it’s unfortunate for everyone else.

[quigongene]

It is mentioned on their site:

https://www.aleks.com/about_aleks/ace_credit

[armstrongsubero]

I was trying to tell someone that here a few weeks ago bit they were arguing with me and telling me I was wrong, you must complete 70% of the topics ie the pie to get credit from Aleks.

[zzzz24]

I saw lock down browser mentioned on their site as well, but that seems to have been there for a while. I was under the impression that is more for actual institutions using ALEKS software to provide quizzes, etc for their students.

I haven't received any prompts or anything to use it while doing a knowledge check (doesn't tell you where to even download and set it up) and I see no options in the master or student account related to it at all, like it shows in the PDF FAQ on their website.

It basically seems to indicate you need a license for it or to download it through ALEKS support. Seems a bit confusing.

I am still on the initial knowledge check for college algebra as I wanted to take my time on it, but I did try pre-calculus already and I saw no mention of this browser anywhere as well.

[shadowgem]

This change must of just occurred in the last few days.


My husband just completed Aleks College Algebra a couple of days ago. He only had to take the initial exam since he scored well over the 70%. I think approximately 90% of his pie was completed when he entered the course. He applied for credit to be added to his ACE account and it was approved the next day. The pie not corresponding with the initial exam, needing to download lockdown browser, and taking a separate ACE specific knowledge check exam all seems to be changes they must of just added. 


In the past when I took this course and a few others, the Knowledge Check exams were about 20-25 questions based mostly on content you had recently covered with a few questions thrown in to make sure you had retained previous topic knowledge as well as a few challenge questions on content you may not of covered in your pie. Was the final ACE Credit Knowledge Check exam cumulative from everything you learned in the 70%+ pie? Around how many questions was this new exam in comparison to the normal learning mode Knowledge Checks?

[katelynn]

Hey guys, just wanted to confirm that this is definitely new. I've taken ALEKS College Algebra, College Algebra with Trigonometry, Trigonometry, and Intro to Statistics. None of these courses prompted me to download anything to make sure I had no other programs running in the background. 

Some things that I think should be clarified: 
You do have to complete 70% of the pie. 
Scoring 70% on the initial knowledge check doesn't mean you've completed 70% of the pie.
The "eligible to take the ACE knowledge check" part is rather confusing if you haven't used ALEKS. To sum it up, you "learn" topics and then you "master" them.  The knowledge checks test you on your new learned material and then adds more coverage to your pie if you master those topics in the test. The ACE Credit Knowledge Check is new, but probably very similar to the old knowledge checks. 

I recommend students take notes with any course that you take. Even if it's a course that allows open-book testing, taking notes uses a different part of your brain, and the more parts of your brain you use when learning, the higher your chances are of retaining the information. When I took notes with ALEKS, I summarized every single tutorial that they give at the introduction of each topic. I have a whole notebook full of every ALEKS course I've taken. Not only did it help me retain the information better, but it came in handy during test time. This is definitely something students should be doing now that ALEKS is locking you out of open-book mode. 

ALEKS is a bargain if you can work your way around this small inconvenience. I took 2 extra math courses than I needed through them because I had already paid my membership, and it would give me 6 extra gen ed elective credits. I would use ALEKS again if they offered more courses.

[Mspeachy]

This change must of just occurred in the last few days.


My husband just completed Aleks College Algebra a couple of days ago. He only had to take the initial exam since he scored well over the 70%. I think approximately 90% of his pie was completed when he entered the course. He applied for credit to be added to his ACE account and it was approved the next day. The pie not corresponding with the initial exam, needing to download lockdown browser, and taking a separate ACE specific knowledge check exam all seems to be changes they must of just added. 


In the past when I took this course and a few others, the Knowledge Check exams were about 20-25 questions based mostly on content you had recently covered with a few questions thrown in to make sure you had retained previous topic knowledge as well as a few challenge questions on content you may not of covered in your pie. Was the final ACE Credit Knowledge Check exam cumulative from everything you learned in the 70%+ pie? Around how many questions was this new exam in comparison to the normal learning mode Knowledge Checks?



The ACE Knowledge check was excruciating. It took me 2 hours and 41 minutes to complete 30 questions. It was full of questions that I never went over throughout my entire course with ALEKS. I only had previous knowledge of about 10 questions, but most of it was new material. It was terrible but with patience, critical thinking and using my best judgement , I somehow passed.