If you haven’t taken the ACT (or SAT) – Yes. If you have taken the ACT (or SAT) – No.

It depends. Most scores expire after 1-2 years, and some scores are not transferable to other institutions. We’ll evaluate other scores on a case-by-case basis.

The ALEKS product from McGraw-Hill Education is a state-of-the-art math placement testing, preparation, and learning program that has been shown to place and prepare students for college-level math coursework better than other products. ALEKS uses artificial intelligence to diagnose proficiency levels for a variety of math skills and topics. It then builds an online module meant to address only those areas requiring the most amount of relearning. Each learning module is adapted to and tailored for each individual test-taker. In most cases, students who spend up to 15-20 hours working in their learning module will have relearned enough previous math content to improve their placement by one course.

Research over the years has shown that other tests may not place students as accurately as ALEKS in a math class. They may be placed in a class that’s either too easy or too difficult for them, leading to higher tuition costs or, worse, higher failure or dropout rates. Sometimes, a student may only need to learn a small portion of material from a course, but their test score places them such that they have to retake the entire course just to relearn those few topics.

Of course! ALEKS works under the premise that most new college students probably need a refresher in high school math courses before being placed in a college-level math course. It starts with a practice placement test in which a student is provided a detailed summary of their math skills. The student then works through a customized learning module that is built to specifically address their weak areas. The student is then given a proctored placement test. The score from this test is used by their adviser in helping them register for the appropriate course.

Most students experience a significant increase in placement score from the practice to the proctored test, and many students can skip a developmental math course, cutting tuition costs.

Yes, if it’s proctored. If you feel as if you know your math well, you can take the test once to get your score and get placed in a math course.

Yes, you can take another test in 48 hours, but this only after you’ve worked in the ALEKS Learning Module for at least five hours. In fact, you can take a total of five tests in ALEKS. We’ll use your best score (if proctored) for placement in a math course.

Yes! You can use ALEKS to improve your placement and get into a higher math course. However, you cannot use ALEKS to test out of a math course that’s required for graduation credit. AUM requires every student to complete at least one core math course for graduation.

Maybe. Prior to Summer 2017, the department did not accept transfer credit for remedial-level math courses. However, this policy has changed and, effective immediately, the department will allow courses that can be determined as equivalent to either MATH 0703 or MATH 0803 to be used as prerequisites for any AUM math course.

If you transferred to AUM on/after summer 2017, then the Admissions Office has probably already coordinated with the Registrar’s Office to ensure that all transfer math credit (including remedial-level math) is articulated. The transfer course work will appear on the student’s transcript when articulation has been completed.

If you transferred to AUM before summer 2017, then there is a good chance that remedial-level math courses were not articulated. If you have unarticulated math coursework at the remedial-level, then you are welcome to make a request to the Registrar’s Office for the coursework to be reevaluated. A student’s academic advisor should be able to provide assistance in making such a request.

In either scenario, the transfer coursework will be evaluated by the Department of Mathematics, and a determination will be made as to whether or not the transfer coursework is equivalent to any AUM math course.

If previous coursework cannot be used, the department will defer to ACT Math sub score or require an ALEKS math placement test to ensure the student has a current placement score and is adequately prepared for college math.

Maybe. For students who have taken an AUM equivalent math course but said course is not listed on their AUM transcript, simply send an email to Dr. Jerome Goddard II ([email protected]), with the following information:

• Student’s full name;
• AUM Student S# (student ID number)
• The name of the desired AUM course and semester of enrollment for that course
• A description of the course from the college or university in question.

Each case will be carefully evaluated and a decision to issue an override or not will be made based on the course’s similarity to the given AUM prerequisite course. Please note that incomplete requests will be immediately returned.