Aleks assesment question

[sarg123]

No, I will have to do another assessment, and each assessment takes forever, if I were to do it right... I scored about a 55% on my last assessment, but it "only" took me about an hour, nowhere near the 40 hours the previous poster posted.

I'm pretty discouraged because I think it'll prob. take me at least another ten hours to finish, and I'm almost ready to throw in the towel.

But I guess that would be silly... I guess I'll try to finish tomorrow after I calm down...

[dfrecore]

No, I will have to do another assessment, and each assessment takes forever, if I were to do it right... I scored about a 55% on my last assessment, but it "only" took me about an hour, nowhere near the 40 hours the previous poster posted.

I'm pretty discouraged because I think it'll prob. take me at least another ten hours to finish, and I'm almost ready to throw in the towel.

But I guess that would be silly... I guess I'll try to finish tomorrow after I calm down...

I think I would spend $25 and take Saylor's Intro to Stats exam and see how you do.

[sarg123]

Has anyone taken the Saylor exam, and can give feedback? Thanks

[Regards]

I just wanted to add my gripes about ALEKS statistics...

I read some of the posts about how hard ALEKS statistics is, but I figured they must be exaggerating. I've always been pretty good at math, so I thought this wouldn't be too hard. I was wrong! It really is impossible. Alek's explanations are usually impossible to follow (for me), even though some of the explanations are good, a lot of them are like - to give a baking analogy - you take flour, and some sugar and some eggs - and here is a three layer cream cake with chocolate icing and decorations! At least that's how it feels like to me. And aleks doesn't let you go further in your pie until you solve that example.

I'm at 68% now, and I'm not even sure that I will even finish, (sigh), I spent so much time on this, but what gets me the most upset is that I don't even feel like I actually learned anything. As I said, I do like math, and I liked college algebra and precalculus, but this is a course basically on how to use aleks calculator, and I know that I will never ever use this information ever again, plus, I think I really did want to learn statistics.

I had the option of doing this course at a local CC for minimal $, but I thought this would save me some time. Unfortunately, I think I clocked in over 30 hours, and I may not even finish because I am so frustrated, so this was a real waste of time for me.

Sorry, just had to vent!

I totally understand and can relate. I dropped ALEKS once before but that was a while ago and i'm trying to retake it, hopefully this time will be it, ALEKS has made me severely depressed.

[sarg123]

I think I would spend $25 and take Saylor's Intro to Stats exam and see how you do.

I'm a little leary of taking Saylor for intro to Stats, because it's proctored. No, I'm not looking to cheat, but I think that statistics is very calculation heavy and some of the calculations can be pretty complicated - I think. Anyone who has taken Intro to Statistics at a B&M has told me that the teacher usually either lets them bring calculations to the test, or the teacher posts the calculations on the board. Obviously, this is only Intro to Stats, I'm assuming upper level courses they expect a higher level of mastery (I wouldn't know, I don't know anyone who has taken upper level Stats). So, I would have to memorize all the formulas to take Saylor's course, I don't know how hard this is, as I have never done this yet.

I gave the Saylor Intro to Stats a quick look, and it does look like the Saylor course is more palatable - i.e. somewhat more concept based and not as heavy in calculations as ALEKS is.

So I'm on the fence... any suggestions, anyone? Has anyone on this forum taken Saylor's Stats and survived to tell the tale? Also, any suggestions on studying this topic without using all Saylor's links? Should I buy a (used) textbook, or whatever? Or are the Saylor links ok for this particular course?

Thanks!

[bluebooger]

haven't watched these videos
but I heard they were good

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLvOTk8...uery=aleks

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLvOTk8...statistics

I love this site
Data, Probability and Statistics
just start at the top and work your way down the links
I never understood standard deviation until I saw the chart of dog heights on their page
Standard Deviation and Variance

you can go here
Statistics.com - Course Calendar
and take
Statistics 1 – Probability and Study Design
Statistics 2 – Inference and Association
and get ACE credit
(the two above are the same as their Introductory Statistics for Credit)

its expensive, but can be done at home over 4 weeks with no proctor
and their course are usually not too difficult

[sarg123]

I just passed Aleks Statistics with a 71! I can't believe I actually got this course credit, it was a really great feeling!

Thanks to everyone on this site who helped me out (some are prob. not even reading this anymore). I spent way too much time on this because I was trying to do it the hard way, after I posted, I went back and read how to do it right so i printed out each example and this made a huge difference; I should have done that from the beginning.

What I found frustrating with Aleks was that you have to pass each level before they let you go to the next level. I had thought that if you need a 70, you can do any part of the pie you want for that 70, but no. Aleks doesn't let you get ahead until you pass their material in their own unique sequence. For me, I found that I was having a hard time wrapping my brain around probability, there was just a block there and I was not getting it. I found hypothesis, chi squares, and confidence intervals much easier to understand, but Aleks wouldn't let me get there until I aced probability. After banging my head against the wall banghead (stupid me) for quite some time, I finally researched this forum on how to get it, and the best way is to print out each scenario, and follow the step by step sequence. This really worked. Then I hit another block when they started asking me to calculate z and t scores, but then I realized it was only about learning to use the Aleks calculator, and then I was home free. After I figured this out, I went from 53% to 71% in about three hours! (including assessment)! Really great.

I still don't totally understand probability, and maybe never will, but that's ok, I don't really understand quadratic equations either and got an A in algebra! A lot of math is about following the step by step instructions, Aleks included. The truth is that Aleks is a great resource, I think it really does do a good job explaining the math most of the time, I really liked their explanations, and I really hated Khan academy which everyone seems to swear by. It was just frustrating because I knew my subscription was expiring and I had so many other things happening that I was under huge pressure to finish quickly. I really think it's a pity that it might expire at the end of the month, but even without the ace credit, it really is a good resource.

Thanks for all your help!