What is an ALEKS Knowledge Check?

Learn what a Knowledge Check is and how it measures student mastery in adaptive learning programs.

An ALEKS Knowledge Check asks students approximately 20-30 questions to determine their precise knowledge state in their ALEKS course. A Knowledge Check will determine, for each topic in the course, which topics each student knows, which topics each student doesn’t know, and which topics each student is ready to learn. 
 
During a Knowledge Check, students will not be told whether answers are correct or incorrect.  If students encounter a question they do not know how to solve, they can select I Don’t Know. If students have an idea about how to solve the question, they should do their best to work through it, and submit their best answer.

It’s important for students to take their time and be honest as they work through a Knowledge Check, as the results will determine their personalized learning path in ALEKS.

If students log out while a Knowledge Check is in progress, they will continue from where they left off when they log in next. When students complete a Knowledge Check, their numbers of Mastered, Learned, and Remaining topics update to reflect their knowledge state.

Though instructors and Master Account holders may request Knowledge Checks to occur for students at specific times, the Initial Knowledge Check and Progress Knowledge Checks occur automatically and do not need to be requested.

Initial Knowledge Check

Students will take an Initial Knowledge Check the first time they log in to ALEKS. The ALEKS Initial Knowledge Check is a personalized interactive assessment that precisely identifies the student's knowledge state for a given subject. Questions are algorithmically generated, based on the response of the previous question. The initial knowledge checks is used to determine what the student knows, doesn’t know but most importantly what they are ready to learn.

The Initial Knowledge cannot be bypassed unless they are students that are carrying over last years progress. See the ALEKS - Class Summary article for more information on carrying over progress.

Progress Knowledge Check

Progress Knowledge Checks are also automatically given to students at regular intervals to ensure they remain on their optimal learning path. ALEKS automatically give progress knowledge checks (20 topics learned w/ min of 5 hours worked) which tends to focus on the student's recent learning history. It is intended mainly to check the students' retention of material recently learned. If a student does not retain a topic during the progress knowledge check, that topic is put back in their learning path to re-learn.