If you use Alcumus

[K&Rs Mom]

 

Does it make sense for practice, even without using the rest of AOPS for math?  

 

My 10yo likes the AOPS videos better than Khan's, so I signed her up for Alcumus to go along with that for more practice, but so far it's only giving her arithmetic, and what she needs to practice is Algebra 1.  Does it adjust over time somehow?  Or is there a way to choose what type of problems she'll get?

 

Thanks!

[mumto2]

We have only recently signed up for Alcumus. I can only answer in regards to what I have observed but hopefully it will be helpful. Both dc's are signed up. Ds had a gap in Algebra that I couldn't quite spot. I was hoping Alcumus would identify it and then correct it through the videos. Khan did not help plus he wouldn't watch them. To make a long story short it worked great and currently in Algebra II. Dd signed up for fun and because of sibling rivalry if she is honest. She is currently taking Calculus with ease. That is the background.

 

Now for the results. Both signed up at the same time and have "played" approximately the same amount of time. There are graphs which show what sections have been completed. Alcumus has concentrated ds in pre algebra which is honestly very appropriate. He has completed a bit in other sections. On the other hand dd is relatively equal in all sections. Slightly heavier in prealgebra topics but has not covered nearly as much pre algebra as ds. For number theory etc. she is close to halfway donewith ds not even a quarter way. The system appears in their cases to be giving problems according to ability.

 

I would definately let her practice with Alcumus. I still can't believe how quickly it identified what was confusing ds. The system suggests videos with every missed problem. As soon as he watched them he answered a couple of related problems and quickly seemed to move on to new material.

 

I hope this answers some of your questions.

[K&Rs Mom]

 

I'm glad you mentioned the graphs - I didn't know to look for them.  I just looked at her profile, and all of her problems have been in the prealgebra section.  Have your dc noticed whether they need to get a certain number in each area before "moving up" or getting a different topic?  For some reason nearly half of dd's problems so far were in the multiplication category, even though she got them right, and she hasn't been given any in most other prealgebra topics.  It's not a huge number of problems so far, so I think I'm just going to make her stick with it and hopefully it will get to the other areas.  The problems are a good level of difficulty for her, I'm glad she has a challenge, she just wants a bit more variety.

[wapiti]

You can simply change the subject to algebra.  Where it says Focus Topic over on the right, click on the little pencil in the green bar.  The subject options will be on the left.  You can select a focus topic from any in the list.

 

The format for choosing topics changed, and now I don't see how to set the topics to "follow the book".... if anyone wants to point me in the right direction, that would be a big help.  When I look, the topic list under algebra doesn't seem to be in any order.

[K&Rs Mom]

 

It took me a while to find "focus topic" (it's inside "get problem") but I changed it - hopefully that will make her happier.  Thanks so much!

[mumto2]

I just talked to dd and she does select her topics which is why she has the nice distribution. ;) The Quests are fun too per both dc's. Sometime you need to select certain topics for the quests which is the reason ds has some other topics apparently otherwise he prefers to work through sequentially.