What is ALEKS?
Assessment and LEarning in Knowledge Spaces is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system that uses adaptive questioning to quickly and accurately determine exactly what a student knows and doesn’t know in a course. ALEKS offers truly individualized instruction that meets the student at his learning level and instructs him on the exact topics that she is most ready to learn. As a result, no two students will experience the same learning path while working in ALEKS. Learn more by watching a quick 2-minute video.

We started off with an assessment of each boy. After a pie chart was created for each account –

Each of the areas of mathematics represented by a pie piece. The piece contrasts where the student’s skill level currently is, in relation to where it will be at the end of the course. As the student continues with the problems, ALEKS determines when the skill is attained, and the darkened area fills out.

The pie chart above is from Jonathans Mathmatics Lv-3.  He has had quite a intense time with math this year – as it is the first year he has moved from learning concepts to really using them. This assessment cheered us all up considerably, as he has been using a sequential math program and it shows how well he has done so far this year. 60 out of 120 topics mastered by November isn’t bad.   This program would work well for Jonathan as well. You can print out worksheets, or do the math online.

MyPie: The ALEKS Pie summarizes a student’s current knowledge and offers topics that the student is ready to learn next. The darkened portion of each pie slice represents the topics that the student has mastered and the lighter portion represents what the student has yet to learn.

We were offered an additional 2 months of free membership for both boys. I gladly accepted! Nathan is really enjoying the Geometry Portion of the website. He says that the site helps him to understand what he is supposed to do. The examples and text clearly show him not only the how, but what. I have been looking for a program that I would not need to daily verbally explain what he is supposed to do. Aleks has proven to be that program. He ran out of Geometry to do last week, and the program forced him to take a break and work on another piece, so he worked on some decimals. I think he gets enough of the piece to get it, and then have a bit of time to reflect on something else. Can’t eat Pecan Pie every day. Need some good ol’ chocolate cream sometimes. I am grateful to be able to review this great company – it has been a solid match for our 12 year old 7th grade son. I have heard so many good things about Aleks – here is link to the Homeschool Crew Reviews for Aleks.

If you would like to see more of what ALEKS has to offer – they have quite a bit of information and free 30 day trials on their web site – http://www.aleks.com/about_aleks

If you are interested – their site offers a 48 hr free trial – but as a reader of this blog – I am able to offer a free 30 day trial!  Click the button below to begin!

Disclaimer – We received a three month trial for Nathan and Jonathan as being part of our This Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for free in exchange for a review on the Petra School Blog.