Anyone frustrated with ALEKS?

[MeOldChina]

Hi,

I'm pursuing a BA Math at TESU and I decided to take as many ALEKS math courses as I could - primarily as I thought they were quite cheap and I'd be able to get through them quickly. However, I find myself wondering if my presumptions were wrong or whether I'm using ALEKS the wrong way. 

I'm still trying to get through Precalculus. Many topics I already know and I seem to spend at least an hour each day "learning" and hoping to get to the next knowledge check. The topics on which I need to refresh my knowledge and take notes seem to be presented haphazardly - one moment it's logarithms, then it's trigonometry, then logarithms again, which makes it difficult to take notes and focus.

Does anyone have any advice on what I could change? I'm thinking of possibly ditching ALEKS and just studying for the CLEP. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[mysonx3]

Just an FYI, the only class ALEKS offers that will work in the area of study for the BA-Math is Statistics

You may have already known that, but just in case.

[dfrecore]

I hated ALEKS once I got past Intermediate Algebra. I felt like I hit a brick wall.

I do know that you used to be able to work your way around the "pie," but I'm not certain they have that any longer? That way you can choose what you're working on, rather than getting moved around too much. I always like to fill 1 area before moving onto another.

[Merlin]

Hi,

I'm pursuing a BA Math at TESU and I decided to take as many ALEKS math courses as I could - primarily as I thought they were quite cheap and I'd be able to get through them quickly. However, I find myself wondering if my presumptions were wrong or whether I'm using ALEKS the wrong way. 

I'm still trying to get through Precalculus. Many topics I already know and I seem to spend at least an hour each day "learning" and hoping to get to the next knowledge check. The topics on which I need to refresh my knowledge and take notes seem to be presented haphazardly - one moment it's logarithms, then it's trigonometry, then logarithms again, which makes it difficult to take notes and focus.

Does anyone have any advice on what I could change? I'm thinking of possibly ditching ALEKS and just studying for the CLEP. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

The goal of ALEKS is to teach you math, not prepare you for an examination. The way it works is it sees where you are via assessments/knowledge checks and then coaches you in areas where you showed weakness during the assessments. As new topics are covered it will periodically jump back to old topics to revisit those in order to reinforce what you learned. Once you reach a new threshold of knowledge it will provide an assessment to test your retention of the material that was recently covered. Based on the results, it will begin coaching you on the material you were weak in again. It will keep doing this until you reach 100% mastery if you wish.

Once you reach a total of 70% mastery or higher it will prompt you to take a timed ACE Knowledge check using the lockdown browser. If you manage to pass that with a 70% or higher score, you can then add it to your ACE transcript for college credit.

I personally like the ALEKS approach, it worked well for me. I took 4 different math courses via that system. However, when I went back for the Trigonometry and Statistics courses I used Khan Academy to revisit and practice before signing up for ALEKS again. Of course, that was also back before the ACE Knowledge Check was added and you could pass the course by getting 70% or better on the initial assessment.

[Supermind]

When you are signed into Aleks, on the top of your screen, you will see boxes lined up, each of which is one module you will be learning. These boxes will correspond to different sub topics. But you can always manually select boxes of the same topic, until you complete that pie slice. That is how I prefer learning, as it helps me organize my notes better, and also helps me refresh concepts previously learned in that sub topic. I like Aleks too - College Algebra was very good, actually. Trig was too long, but good. The only course I hate is Statistics, because the explanations feel incomplete, and the calculator seems to behave funny at times. So, it was very difficult to get past a 93% mastery.

[MeOldChina]

Ah okay, thanks everyone, that's really helpful. I wasn't aware that I could organize my study topic-by-topic. That will simplify things a lot for me. Thanks again for the tips and the encouragement!

[Merlin]

When you are signed into Aleks, on the top of your screen, you will see boxes lined up, each of which is one module you will be learning. These boxes will correspond to different sub topics. But you can always manually select boxes of the same topic, until you complete that pie slice. That is how I prefer learning, as it helps me organize my notes better, and also helps me refresh concepts previously learned in that sub topic. I like Aleks too - College Algebra was very good, actually. Trig was too long, but good. The only course I hate is Statistics, because the explanations feel incomplete, and the calculator seems to behave funny at times. So, it was very difficult to get past a 93% mastery.

When I jumped into ALEKS the first time, I started with Beginning Algebra and worked my way up to College Algebra and I found that I really liked it. When I came back years later I discovered that I needed to re-learn almost all of it, but that was because I never had a need to use any of it in my day-to-day life. So I ended up having to do it all again, though this time I used Khan Academy for free instead of paying for multiple months of ALEKS.

I agree with your assessment on Trig and Stats though. I didn't like either of them. Trig was annoying mostly because it included way too much stuff, including a lot of advanced material that wasn't covered in the Khan Academy Trigonometry prep material. That said, I managed to pass with an 87%. I don't recommend anyone take Stats via ALEKS unless they enjoy frustration. I managed to clear a 94% on that, but I also spent close to a month prepping for it.

[Lnacen]

Just curious, Aleks still transfers to the Big 3 right? I thought I remember reading some time back that they lost their status.

[Merlin]

Just curious, Aleks still transfers to the Big 3 right? I thought I remember reading some time back that they lost their status.

They didn't renew their ACE recommendation so they were not creditworthy for a while, but they renewed it last year so they're eligible for transfer again.