I would vote for getting the Pre-Algebra book from AoPS over Alcumus, or rather, the former supplemented by the latter.
My DD tells me that the problems in the book are harder (summary problems at the end of each chapter) than the ones on Alcumus - for her at least. If you want to do the actual class there is one problem a week on the course assigned work that makes her stop and think - the written problem. This has been great because it has forced her to break things down and write them out instead of just solving the whole thing in her head. She lost points one week for not expanding on a exponent question on a point that was blindingly obvious to her instead of expanding on why it was obvious, for instance. It has forced her to be more disciplined and tidy with showing her work.
The thing that sells the AoPS Pre-Algebra course to me is its emphasis on the basics; the properties of the four Arithmetic Operations, Negative Numbers, Number Theory, Exponents and Vulgar Fractions are covered first to ensure that the student fully understands why it makes sense to manipulate the terms (gathering like terms, canceling etc) instead of just blindly following an algorithm. Even better, they focus on solving the problem efficiently instead of mechanically slogging through it as one would by just following an algorithm.
Last edited by madeinuk; 05/12/14 03:30 AM.
