Aleks, Initial Exam, Assesment Exams, and course work. ACE credit.

[airricklee]

Is the business stat easier, or why do you reccomend it more? I tried taking the Intro stat and it seemed rather difficult to be honestly.

[Joeman200]

I've had the opposite experience of some people. I found Into to Statistics to be easier to complete then intermediate algebra.

First I learned some basic definitions and meanings in statistics by watching the first couple videos of Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhxtUt_-...5D3D8A2566

I then searched John Wood's channel for every lesson to obtain "tutoring" on the subject at hand. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLvOTk8...cSYU-xiujg

Intro to Stats only has 116 lessons in the pie (compared to the 556 in PreCal) so you only need to do 82.

I just got 40% on the PreCal assessment and if I wanted to finish within 11 days (Christmas) I would have to do 15 or so lessons a day.. I'm debating whether or not I should do that, or if I should attempt the assessment for College Algebra. Math isn't my strong point...

[dfrecore]

I've had the opposite experience of some people. I found Into to Statistics to be easier to complete then intermediate algebra.

First I learned some basic definitions and meanings in statistics by watching the first couple videos of Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhxtUt_-...5D3D8A2566

I then searched John Wood's channel for every lesson to obtain "tutoring" on the subject at hand. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLvOTk8...cSYU-xiujg

Intro to Stats only has 116 lessons in the pie (compared to the 556 in PreCal) so you only need to do 82.

I just got 40% on the PreCal assessment and if I wanted to finish within 11 days (Christmas) I would have to do 15 or so lessons a day.. I'm debating whether or not I should do that, or if I should attempt the assessment for College Algebra. Math isn't my strong point...

You have to pass an assessment with a 70%, so just getting to 70%'s worth of pie slices won't do it.

[Joeman200]

I'm just stating I have found stats easier then intermediate algebra since you do not have to do as many lessons in order to get 70% of the pie. After getting over 70% on the pie I use the master account to issue an assessment.


Anyway, I got a 40% assessment on Pre-Calculus... How does PreCal compare to College Algebra?

[originalamyj]

If your assessment score is 70%+, you can request credits at any time.

Also I do not recommend changing your course if you scored 70%+ and requested ACE credit UNTIL ACE adds that credit to your account because (last time I checked) ALEKs does not keep records of your previous course scores. IIRC ALEKS said you can but has requested that you screenshot that score before changing subjects just in case. But I would just be cautious and do not change subjects until ACE has those credits on your transcript. Don't worry though, ALEKs has ALWAYS added my credits within a few hours of requesting credits on a weekday. The most they ever took was 10 hours and that was because I requested it on a Sunday.


Let me break it down.

The Scores are represented by a number of topics in your field.
For example: Intro to statistics has 116 total topics.

Your initial assessment is based on these 116 topics that are randomly given to you as a form of 25 or so questions.
By completing these questions correctly you complete/master that topic. Lets say you get 17 or so questions correct on your first assessment out of the 25 given.
Let's say that when you log in you find out that you have mastered 81 out of 116 topics from that test. This is equal to around 69%. If you log in your master account and goto View Progress Report and click Percent, you can view this exact percentage.

(The above is an example score and might not be an accurate view of how the exact scoring works).

Since 69% is 1 percent short, you can work on your pie. Log back onto the student account and complete a topic correct twice to get 1%. Rinse, repeat several times and get +4%


When you log back onto the master account you will see this:

There are two score percentages and is color coded. Blue and Green.

Example: 69% + 4

69% would be in BLUE and 4% would be in GREEN. Which would equal 73% but note that your REAL score is still 69%!
BLUE (69%) represents content mastered based on the assessment and GREEN (+4%) represents progress made in learning mode.

The 69% (blue) represents your assessment score and this score reflects your REAL score, so if you scored 69%+4, ALEKs still views your score as 69. The +4 will be added once you complete another assessment.

TLDR: Only score that matters is the score in BLUE.
If you click on "Request new assessment", you will quizzed on the Green topics so it can be added on to your total score (blue). The best way to jump points if you scored low is to just switch classes and do the assessment all over again.

Sorry to pull and old thread but I can't seem to find what I need to know (yes I googled searched the ALEKS site)

My daughter took an initial assessment - via a free trial. When we signed up for our account it imported the free trial assessment to her account. Then later we thought why not try another assessment, so I logged in to the master account and requested another one. She got a separate percentage on her progress report. Now she has 2 assessments percentages in blue. Dumb question, but do those add together for a total?

Also the percentages were quite low. 18% and 8% respectively. She'll work for a while on learning but I am discouraged. She has dyscalculia and I am unsure how we will EVER get her through Intermediate Alg. Perhaps ALEKS isn't the right avenue for a kid like her. (She's a homeschooled JR in high school and really hasn't been able to complete Alg 1). She has big big dreams only to see math holding her back Any advice?

[Ideas]

When you force a new assessment, everything previously done is erased.

Did she get 8% on the second one or the first? If it's 8% on the second, I would assume she was kind of tired of math for the day.

ALEKS seems decent because of how you can focus on one section of the pie, and keep seeing the pie fill up. But she probably would need to use other sources to help her learn, such as youtube videos. Something that fits her learning style. I would suggest finding something more visual and then see how much she can increase in one or two weeks, and then go from there?

[originalamyj]

So...great. She dropped 10% points? Each time you assess you want to just look at the new assessment percentage as your current score?

I think will be impossible.

[dfrecore]

So...great. She dropped 10% points? Each time you assess you want to just look at the new assessment percentage as your current score?

I think will be impossible.

ALEKS is definitely not the best resource for everyone. I would not give up, but maybe take a few days to try a different method, and then come back to it? Or work on the slices that are easier for her, until she runs into a wall.

I suggest working through Khan Academy (free). My kids do it over the summer to keep their brains working, and though they don't love it, they do like it more than ALEKS. It's video based rather than all writing, which is a lot easier for many people (more like sitting in a classroom learning from a teacher vs. reading a textbook and self-teaching).

[Old Guy]

When you force a new assessment, everything previously done is erased.

No it's not. If you have completed about 25 topics or more since the last assessment you get mostly new questions and cannot lose ground. If you have completed few or no topics, you will get questions on topics for which you have already received credit. If you blow these questions, you will lose credit already earned.

[jsd]

No it's not. If you have completed about 25 topics or more since the last assessment you get mostly new questions and cannot lose ground. If you have completed few or no topics, you will get questions on topics for which you have already received credit. If you blow these questions, you will lose credit already earned.

yup, had a friend just complete a few ALEKS courses recently and this was his experience.