The placement assessment results will be used to determine the most appropriate courses for you as you move forward with your college coursework. After taking a placement assessment, you should meet with your student success coach to review the results and enroll in the best classes based on your scores.

This is a “placement assessment,” not a test. The difference is that a placement assessment is designed to determine what you know, and what you need to work on. At the end of the ALEKS PPL assessment, you will have a much better sense of your strengths and weaknesses in math. You then have a chance to brush on topics that you may have forgotten or haven’t practiced for some time.

Be honest

It's important to take the placement assessment seriously and give it your best effort. This ensures the placement assessment truly reflects your current level of math preparedness. There is no benefit to cheating on the placement assessment – if not taken seriously, you may be enrolled in a class that is too difficult or not challenging enough, which costs you time and money. Therefore, while taking the placement assessment, you should not consult any outside sources for help (friends/family, internet searches, textbooks, notes etc.).

Format

ALEKS PPL assessments are proctored remotely (online) with using Respondus Monitor. We reserve the right to require a student to take a Placement Assessment in a proctored environment.

After the Assessment

Upon completion of the placement assessment, your scores are sent to your student success coach. Your coach will review your scores and help make appropriate recommendations for course registration.

ALEKS PPL is an online, adaptive system that covers a broad spectrum of mathematics topics. The length of the placement assessment will vary but can be up to 30 questions. You will see some, but not all, of the math you have learned in high school. This is an assessment tool and not a preview of math courses at LLCC. After you take your first placement assessment, you will have the opportunity to review and master additional topics to reassess and improve your placement.

Topics covered:

• Real numbers (including fractions, integers, and percentages)
• Equations and inequalities (including linear equations, linear inequalities, systems of linear equations and quadratic equations),
• Linear and quadratic functions (including graphs and functions, linear functions and parabolas)
• Exponents and polynomials (including integer exponents, polynomial arithmetic, factoring and polynomial equations)
• Rational expressions (including rational equations and rational functions)
• Radical expressions (including higher roots and rational exponents)
• Exponentials and logarithms (including function compositions and inverse functions, properties of logarithms and logarithmic equations)
• Geometry and trigonometry (including perimeter, area and volume; coordinate geometry; trigonometric functions, identities and equations).

ALEKS will begin with a brief tutorial to make sure you are comfortable with the math palette tools before your placement assessment begins. The tutorial shows you how to enter different types of answers, how to use the ALEKS calculator and how to graph. If you aren’t sure how to input an answer, or if you need help while you are taking the ALEKS placement assessment, select the "Help" button below the answer pallet tools. Going to the tutorial during your placement assessment will not impact your results.

ALEKS is an open-response assessment and requires you to work out solutions with a paper and pencil, then enter them into ALEKS. Be sure to have scratch paper with you.

ALEKS will provide an on-screen calculator if you need one to complete a particular problem. Otherwise, you may not use a calculator.

You may only use a pen or pencil, paper and the resources provided within ALEKS. You should not receive assistance from friends, family, other websites, textbooks or any other resource not provided by ALEKS. Using outside resources will lead to improper placement and potentially course failure.

Because ALEKS is adaptive, once you submit an answer, you cannot change it. Be sure to carefully check your answer before submitting your response.

It’s likely that you will be asked questions on material you have not yet learned. On such questions it is appropriate to answer, “I don’t know.” On any question that you’re familiar with, however, it is important to do your best. “I don’t know” is interpreted by ALEKS to mean that you do not know how to solve the topic, and this will be reflected in the placement assessment results. There is no penalty for incorrectly answering a question on the placement assessment, it only helps ALEKS understand what you know and don’t know.

Yes, you will have three hours to complete your ALEKS placement assessment.