Force ALEKS Initial Assessment

[a2jc4life]

//Forget the knowledge checks, just aim at mastering 70% of the topics. //

This literally does not make sense. Mastery of the topics is gained *by* getting them right on Knowledge Checks. Working through the pie has nothing to do with what's "mastered," except insofar as it influences what topics are triggered in the Knowledge Checks. If a KC says you gained 11% then you have mastered 11% more than you had before.

64% + 6% = 70%, not 69%, so something is wonky in your details here.

[armstrongsubero]

//Forget the knowledge checks, just aim at mastering 70% of the topics. //

This literally does not make sense. Mastery of the topics is gained *by* getting them right on Knowledge Checks. Working through the pie has nothing to do with what's "mastered," except insofar as it influences what topics are triggered in the Knowledge Checks. If a KC says you gained 11% then you have mastered 11% more than you had before.

64% + 6% = 70%, not 69%, so something is wonky in your details here.

Did you ever ask yourself what that 11% more is of?
It is 11% more of the total amount of topics. You know that percentage is of the topics right?

You say its wonky cause you dint look at my iamge. Did you look at the image I attached? I mastered 6% more of the topics but got 1% of the topics wrong in the exam so I only mastered 69% of the topics...I learned 1% more topics then took the exam and mastered 70% of the total topics. I may be wrong but focusing on mastering the topics I have gotten credit 3 aleks courses.

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//Forget the knowledge checks, just aim at mastering 70% of the topics. //

This literally does not make sense. Mastery of the topics is gained *by* getting them right on Knowledge Checks. Working through the pie has nothing to do with what's "mastered," except insofar as it influences what topics are triggered in the Knowledge Checks. If a KC says you gained 11% then you have mastered 11% more than you had before.

64% + 6% = 70%, not 69%, so something is wonky in your details here.

Did you ever ask yourself what that 11% more is of?
It is 11% more of the total amount of topics. You know that percentage is of the topics right?

You say its wonky cause you dint look at my iamge. Did you look at the image I attached? I mastered 6% more of the topics but got 1% of the topics wrong in the exam so I only mastered 69% of the topics...I learned 1% more topics then took the exam and mastered 70% of the total topics. I may be wrong but focusing on mastering the topics I have gotten credit 3 aleks courses.

[Old Guy]

//Forget the knowledge checks, just aim at mastering 70% of the topics. //

This literally does not make sense.  Mastery of the topics is gained *by* getting them right on Knowledge Checks.

True - the only credit you get is confirmed by knowledge checks.  But if you don't work through the pie, it is unlikely the topics will show up on knowledge checks.  If you do 20 topics since the last knowledge check, those are likely what you will be questioned on.  If you did 5 topics, will be questioned on those plus a mix of old topics which you may have forgotten plus topics you haven't yet studied. 

I plowed through ALEKS with 12 hour days, got through 5 courses quickly and likely forgot most of it within a month.

[BSBRose21]

Just updated - Aleks is renewed!
I just checked College Algebra and it goes till 2020.

[Merlin]

Just updated - Aleks is renewed!
I just checked College Algebra and it goes till 2020.

Nice. I just saw that as well. Looks like they renewed all the courses that were on extension, but left beginning and intermediate algebra as expired still.

[BSBRose21]

Ya I wish they would update the beginning and intermediate algebra.

[Merlin]

Ya I wish they would update the beginning and intermediate algebra.

I don't see why they wouldn't. Perhaps they will work on those now that the others have been renewed?

I took Beginning Algebra when it was offered before, but it isn't creditworthy at TESU any longer so isn't as useful to many of us here nowadays, but Intermediate Algebra still is useful so it would be nice to see that return.

[ConqueringCollege]

There is an "Initial Knowledge Check".   This is your first test to see how much you know of the subject material.   There is no reason to take another "Initial Knowledge Check".   In fact, I believe the only way you can do this is to cancel your membership and resubscribe.   If you resubscribe as the same student, you would need to wait about a week for your data to be deleted.   I don't see any reason to do this.

If you score 70% or higher on your Initial Knowledge Check, then you know 70% or more of the material.   You have already mastered it and you can request and receive ACE credit.   Essentially, you know 70% of the pie chart, which represents the material for the course.

If you do not score 70% or higher on your Initial Knowledge Check, you will be presented with information to learn.   Go through that information and answer the questions.   Once you have learned approximately 20 topics or completed five hours of work, you will be asked to take a "Knowledge Assessment".   This is a test with questions on the new material that you have learned as well as possibly some review questions.   There is no real score presented for just this subsequent test, but the amount of material that you answer correctly is added to your previous score on your Initial Knowledge Check for a total course score.   The new percentage is now the percentage that you have mastered, or your course score.   Once this new percentage reaches 70% or greater, you can request and receive an ACE credit.

Note that you have two percentage numbers in your progress report.   The first is the amount that you have mastered, or answered correctly on a test.   This is your official or completed score or grade for the course.   When you have a second percentage, then that is the amount (percentage) of the total course material that you have learned through the program, but have not been tested on yet.   So your progress may look like 62%+5%.   That means you have answered correct test questions for 62% of the material.  You have "mastered" 62% of the material.   Additionally, you have learned 5% more of the material (going through the program and answering questions).  The second percentage does not count towards your total course score.   You still must be tested on this material and answer it correctly for it to be added to your course score.  So if you have a progress of 68%+5%, then you will not receive ACE credit because your course score is only 68%.   You have to test and pass at least 2% of the additional 5% you have practiced in order to get your first score up to 70% to get ACE credit.

Eventually, you will take a Knowledge Check, which is another test.   On this test you will be asked questions on the 5% (or however much percentage you have learned) of material that you have been studying, as well as potentially some review questions.   If you answer everything correctly, your score will then increase by the percentage learned ... or in the example above it would now show 67% (62%+5%=67%).   If you answer some incorrectly, your score will be lower ... like 66% or 65% in the above example ... depending on how many you get wrong.   At this point the process repeats.   You study and answer questions to learn more material and then take another test to increase your mastered score percentage.  

Once you are close to 70% ... say you are at 69% ... and you have learned 2% more of the material.   You may want to force a knowledge assessment rather than learning another 20 topics, which could be 5% of the material, when you only need 1%.   To do so, you go to the master or teacher account, choose your student account and request a knowledge assessment.   This will offer the knowledge assessment to the student account.   Then you can go to the student account and take the Knowledge Assessment.   It might be prudent to have one or a couple of percentage points learned that would put you over the 70% so that if you get some wrong then you won't have to repeat the process one more time.   For example, if you are 69% and you learn 1% and force a knowledge check, but then you answer some problems incorrectly, you'll have to go through the process again (learning, answering practice questions, and another knowledge assessment).   It might be better to learn 2-3% before forcing that knowledge assessment so that even if you get some wrong, you can still reach the 70% mastered.  

Ultimately, once your first listed score reaches 70%, you can request and receive ACE credit.  

I hope this helps clarify some of the questions.

[walkingbyfaith]

I was wondering if there is any scenario where one would wish they had pushed further and gotten higher than a 70% before they turned it in for ACE credit. Will it affect GPA if going with a school other than TESU? 
My daughter finished right before her membership is up, but she is wondering if she should pay another $20 and get an A in the class.

[katelynn]

I was wondering if there is any scenario where one would wish they had pushed further and gotten higher than a 70% before they turned it in for ACE credit. Will it affect GPA if going with a school other than TESU? 
My daughter finished right before her membership is up, but she is wondering if she should pay another $20 and get an A in the class.

I've heard that some schools will keep the grades from alternative credit courses (I think WGU was one of them). It shouldn't be a big deal, as they probably won't count the grades unless it's a school that requires direct transcripts. If she's just sending in the credits from her ACE transcript, the grade doesn't show -- it's just seen as a pass or fail course. If she goes on to get her master's and they want the ALEKS transcript, it could be an issue. I had the same concern with ALEKS, but I was so glad to be done and settled with 70% after reading that the grade won't be considered much at TESU anyway. 

I'll let the experts on here weigh in though.