The following considerations may be useful in preparing your students to begin to use ALEKS.

Computer Skills

Some students who have had little experience with computers may need assistance with the use of the mouse and, in particular, with "scrolling" the window of a web browser. We recommend that you demonstrate these skills to the students before beginning their use of ALEKS. If possible, additional staff should be on hand for the first session to assist the students as necessary.

Difficulty of Assessment Questions

The ALEKS assessment is always comprehensive in order to achieve the highest degree of accuracy and reliability. In the course of the assessment, some questions may be too easy or too difficult for some students. The students should be told to click the "I don't know" button if a question is completely unfamiliar to them, but otherwise that they should do their best to answer. As the assessment proceeds, the questions will focus more and more closely on the outer limits of the student's actual knowledge. In Learning Mode (following the assessment), students will be provided only material that they are ideally prepared to learn.

Length of Assessments

The number of questions asked in an ALEKS assessment varies. Normally an assessment in Math Prep for Accounting requires between 15 and 25 questions. Occasionally, the number of questions asked may be greater than this.

No Help in Assessments

Explain to the students that they will need to use paper and pencil for answering assessment questions, but that no help or collaboration whatsoever is permitted during assessment. If the teacher or anyone else helps the student during assessment, even to the extent of explaining or rephrasing a question, assessment results may be inaccurate and the student's learning in ALEKS may initially be hindered. Be sure they understand that the purpose of the initial assessment is to give ALEKS a precise, detailed understanding of what a student knows, so as to render learning very efficient by focusing on what the student is ready to learn. It is not a "test" that one can pass or fail. They will not receive a grade on an ALEKS assessment unless the instructor deliberately chooses to use grades.