ALEKS Intro to Statistics

[JohnnyHeck]

The problem I had was that having gone through all of the ALEKS algebra in 78 hrs (95,99,98), I became accustomed to plugging numbers into formulas and moving on. With the statistics portion of the statistics class, you HAVE TO take time to read through the explanations to understand the concept ALEKS is trying to teach before moving on to the next section. If you don't you will be struggling because in the explanations ALEKS may assume you know how to get a value that it uses in that example and does not explain how it arrived at that value. I got deep into the 2nd half and was floundering with only a basic understanding of the concepts. My saving grace was that I finally got to an assessment and TOOK MY TIME with it to make sure all of my answers were perfect.... there are no parts of Statistics that you can not solve once the equation is set up properly. It is all basic stuff and inequalities. The issue is that if you don't have a good understanding of the concepts, you may not know what it is you are solving for or what formula to use....It took 30 hrs total from initial assessment to final.... ALEKS DOES fail in that the help for the advanced portions of the calculator is non existent, except where it happens to mention how to use it in the explanation of the problem itself....not taking time with the key concepts early on in the 2nd half really set me back....mde it easy being able to take the course at my own pace. I did not have to buy study materials, sit a class, or go to a testing center. The value can not be beat...

Thanks so much owner66 for you detailed reply. In other threads I have been harping on the same issues that you bring up here. But you have added an important new detail for me, i.e. he exact source of weakness in the ALEKS approach for stats: "...in the explanations ALEKS may assume you know how to get a value that it uses in that example and does not explain how it arrived at that value."