🧑🏫 AI tutors and tutoring · ➗ Math apps and platforms · ✅ Assessment and grading
ALEKS
By McGraw Hill (ALEKS Corporation). Visit ALEKS
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
An adaptive online course for math, chemistry and statistics, used by K-12 schools, colleges and homeschool families. A student starts with a placement check that maps what they already know, then works on topics they are ready for, with explanations after each problem and regular re-checks to make sure learning sticks. A pie chart shows progress toward mastering the course. Families can buy it directly; most students get it through a school or college class.
Our take: A rigorous, mastery-based option for motivated older students or homeschoolers; younger or easily bored kids may prefer something more playful.
| Ages it suits | school-age students through college (K-12 and higher ed courses) |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | McGraw Hill terms say users must be adults (generally 18+); under-18s not in college need their school, parent or guardian to accept the terms for them, and McGraw Hill will not knowingly collect data from children under 13 without school or parent consent. (terms) |
| Price | Paid. Family subscriptions $19.95 for 1 month, $49.95 for 3, $99.95 for 6 or $179.95 for 12 months; auto-renew, no partial refunds; school pricing by order (USD, Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web |
| Account | A parent's account |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | Uses a knowledge-modeling system (Knowledge Space Theory) to estimate exactly what each student knows and choose the next topic; it is not a chatbot. |
What's good
- Precise placement, so students skip what they already know
- Re-checks knowledge to make learning stick
- Covers math from elementary topics through college prep
Watch for
- Text-heavy and serious; can feel like a grind for younger kids
- Auto-renewing subscription with no partial refunds
- A course taken at school may count toward grades
Data and privacy
Schools or parents provide student details, and ALEKS stores assessment and learning records. McGraw Hill says it will not sell end-user data or use education records to market to students, but uses aggregated de-identified data to build new products; its websites use cookies for targeted advertising elsewhere. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
Built on NSF-funded university research; the maker claims students reach mastery more than 90% of the time. Independent researchers have studied it, for example an after-school program study in Computers & Education (Craig et al., 2013).
In the Big Index
Alternatives to ALEKS
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AoPS Online
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Arcademics
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Fine for quick fact-fluency races at school or home; families who want no ad tracking or who have a child anxious about speed should skip it.
Where these facts come from
- https://www.aleks.com/
- https://www.aleks.com/independent
- https://www.aleks.com/buy_aleks_now
- https://www.aleks.com/about_aleks/research_behind
- https://www.mheducation.com/about-us/policy-center/terms-use.html
- https://www.mheducation.com/about-us/trust-center/privacy.html
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.06.010
- Reviews on G2: https://www.g2.com/products/aleks/reviews
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.