Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Aleks math and resulting SAT/ACT scores

Has anyone used ALEKS as the main math program, and subsequently had their child take the SAT/ACT? I am worried that my ds3 may not do well in the future if I use ALEKS. We were using Life of Fred, along with ALEKS, but I reached my frustration level in math, and ds3 needs me to explain some concepts, which I am unable to do. Ds3 learns easily with ALEKS, and I do too, but he may have to take the SAT/ACT in a couple of years, and I would like him to test well, so, if he does well with ALEKS, will he do well in those exams?

We have not used ALEKS, so I can't post from personal experience on that. I am wondering, though, what specifically about that program leaves you worried that it will impair him in terms of SAT/ACT test scores? It doesn't matter how he solves the problems on those tests, only that he gets the correct answers. So, if ALEKS teaches an unusual method of solving problems, that shouldn't be a problem for those tests as long as your ds knows how to get to the right answer in an expedient manner.

I can't speak to your son or for others who use the program. I have heard great things from many. ALEKS in general didn't work for my kids. They seemed to do fine and moved along at a quick clip but in the end didn't seem to be retaining the information well in the long term. We do like the quicktables for drill work. ALEKS is the reason I decided to start the EPGY Open Enrollment program, so my DD's could participate there instead at a reasonable cost. There are many old posts on ALEKS good and bad if you search for them.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....ch/true/Re_ALEKS_question.html#Post51649 is one post in particular that I thought was well written.

Thank you for your advice. The link really helped me make a decision; I had never heard of The Art of Problem solving, now I'm very excited about the program. My concern for ALEKS was due to the fact that we did Singapore through 6B, and Life of Fred fractions and decimals and percents, but then got stuck. My ds2 and I both got stuck on New Elementary Mathematics and in LOF BA. I forgot almost all my high school math, which I wasn't great to begin with, and in college only took statistics, so I've been having difficulty teaching ds2. Ds2 is seven, and he loves math; he works at his own pace, and many times he explains concepts to me! Anyway, I looked into AoPS, and I will add it to our curriculum, keep ALEKS, the key to series we supplement with, and keep LOF BA for fun. Once he can get past the Time/Rate problems which have us stumped, we should be fine.