Mc graw hillReviews 1,892

I've always been a solid B student in math. I've recently returned to college as an adult, and have pretty much forgot everything I learned in high school math class. I figured that I could take this class during the summer and do just fine. I have a solid 8 hours a day to dedicate to this piece of crap, and I might not pass my class. You don't learn anything because you have a fire under your $#*! to complete as much of the pie chart as possible. You anticipate steady pie chart progress, but oh no my friend, there is no steady accumulation of progress. For every 20 topics you complete, there is a "Knowledge Check". It's a chance for them to take away pie progress for reviewing topics you never had a chance to learn. Isn't that frustrating? But wait! There's more! Most objectives have pre-requisite topics, so the 33 or so topics assigned to each objective can quickly become 40+. On top of that, my school has a midterm and a final worth 15% of your grade. I'm so angry, frustrated, and tired of spending 8+ hours a day trying to just earn a "C". This software seems designed to punish your GPA. AVOID.

WARNING: ALEKS.com/ raises suicide rates, and decreases brain function. Caution recommended, not for children or adults living/breathing at this moment.

I preformed well in the traditional classroom, an average of an A-, sometimes a B, you know the drill. We have a teacher that does their job, whatever. Well $#*! me hard in the $#*!, because ALEKS throws that out the window. You go from logic to living through their torturous hell inside the deepest, darkest corner of agony wrapped in the excruciating pain of scorpions injecting liquid napalm into your bloodstream, and lighting it, wrapped in a cute little bow of the mental $#*!ation that drives people to adopt this method for use in classrooms. This is even too extreme to be used by any extremist group of terrorists. This is the work of something worse than the devil... all exaggerations aside, mastery based learning only works for a small fraction of people, and the rest are $#*!ed. Most people in my high school class didn't finish, or spent every waking moment to finish before summer vacation. No one teaches, no classmate is there to help you, because they are at different points, and the teacher doesn't actually teach, just monitors. If you ask them for help, they say, "did you take notes/read the explanation?". Obviously, and why the $#*! would we take notes on something we don't have an understanding of? Knowledge checks are a joke, and so are the goals we need to hit by a certain time period. Explain things please, or ya know, kill yourself. The second option is best. For the creators and students. There is actually no decision, there is one clear answer

Ok, first of all, I'm coming out knowing less than I began with. Second of all see this picture? That's what happened to my timeline when I took a knowledge check. Third, this gives you common mental breakdowns and drives you to tears every few hours. Then explanations are useless and teach nothing. You will not want to live after a few minutes of this. This is truly, and honestly, the worst of the worst. You've hit rock bottom. Never, under any conditions, use this.

It was too busy teaching me last year's review, I have to teach myself all of alg 1 over the summer! You only have to complete like 80% of the lessons, the only lessons I needed were in the other 20%! I learned barely anything.

Honestly I do not write reviews but I just had to waste more of my time than ALEKS already has. This has to be the absolute worst thing that has ever been created. I cry at least once when doing my homework. It's always after around the fifth hour I would say where I start throwing things and throw a fit like a 2 year old. I don't know, ALEKS just really brings that out in me. I am absolutely appalled at the way this system works and do not know why any professor would EVER make their students do something so horrible. All I can say is, I never contemplated throwing myself in front of a bus until ALEKS. Bravo. If you see that your class is going to have to go through this garbage can of a program, do yourself a favor an withdraw. Don't question it. Withdraw. I wish I saw these reviews before but now it is too late.

WHAT IS THE NORMAL RATE OF PROGRESS FOR STUDENTS IN ALEKS?
Students vary widely in their rate of progress, and it is not possible to say what is normal. It is unlikely that any student would not be able to complete two topics in ALEKS in an hour; some might be able to complete as many as ten, especially if the material is in some way familiar to them. Focusing the students on their ALEKS work by rewarding them for topics mastered within a class period can have a marked positive effect on the rate of mastery.
From Aleks faq.

So ok... you give me 70 topics and if it takes me an hour to master 2 I would have to spend 5 hours a day just to get 10 topics mastered plus work full time, manage my other classes, sleep, take care of my kids... and it is due in a week? Impossible. Then you give me knowledge checks which set me back further a mere 2 days before the material is due and make me take a graded test on material I was not able to get to in the time frame. How does this teach and how does anyone pass their class? My professor does not teach at all and relies on this website for everything yet she still gives us quizzes and homework assignments that we can't comprehend due to not being able to learn the material. How is this in any way fair?

Seriously, only the most foolish and idiotic teachers use this crappy program. I literally have the same problems as everyone else who rated ALEKS 1 star. I'm in the 2nd to LAST week of school, and I haven't learned a SINGLE thing from that garbage can. Everything about it is stupid, from the knowledge checks, to it LITERALLY EXTENDING TOPICS YOU GET WRONG MULTIPLE TIMES, AS IF THAT'S HELPING YOU... at least I know a helpful app... its called photomath. Your welcome