How to sign up or begin taking the courses in aleks

[Ideas]

However, I keep reading about people who prefer taking Statistics outside of ALEKS. I guess once you reach a certain level of mathematical ability ALEKS then becomes a chore/time waster over a traditional proctored exam?

Yes, you're right about the ALEKS advantages.

I would say no to your guess above. When someone knows the material to a decent extent, they can even pass within about 30 minutes! (15-25 questions and they get their college credit.)

The reason people take it outside of ALEKS is that ALEKS is pretty hard for Stats. I would say the primary reason is they use adaptive exams, which are quite a bit harder than a non-adaptive exam. Also because their computer system will not give partial credit and needs exact answers, rounded as each question asks. But that is a minor factor compared to the adaptive testing style. Another big factor is the material. I am not sure, but I believe in the ALEKS Intro Stats course, they actually go beyond "Intro" material, unlike other courses.

[Old Guy]

I suspect that ALEKS is way more thorough than most Math/Stats courses. A lot of other courses don't present you with every known quirk and every conceivable type of problem. The big problem with Stats in that a lot of the questions are so long. Calculating standard deviations etc. with a sample of 16 is time consuming. Then you have to do it 3 times to finish the topic. Then you make one little mistake and they pile on the problems. And you have to finish 80 out of 115 or so topics to pass.

[dfrecore]

I think I mentioned this before, but I will say it again.

My BFF has a college-aged daughter, who has a 4.0 at a state college. Major is Marine Chemistry, and she tutors in the Chem lab. She took AP Calc I and got an A in the class and scored a 5 on the AP Exam. She is a smart cookie.

At Christmas, she was bored and looking for something to do, and my friend suggested a cheap online math course. I told her to try ALEKS Intro to Stats. She had JUST finished Statistics a week before, and got an A, both in the class and on the final exam. She took the ALEKS assessment, it took her 2 hours, and she got 30%. She said she had never even heard of some of the stuff on there before. And that it was the hardest test she's ever taken. Harder than the AP Calc exam!!

That's just to give you a little perspective.