Placement Test Study Guide

The ALEKS Placement Assessment is a free placement test used to determine the best mathematics course placement in which you will have the greatest success. Upon completion of the Placement Assessments, your scores will be shared with Lama Masri, ESL Program Manager, for review and help you with course registration. 

The assessments are online, adaptive tests 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. It is a Placement Assessment, not a preview of math courses at Frederick Community College. It is designed to identify if you are prepared for a particular course. After you first Placement Assessment in the Testing Center, you will have the opportunity to review and master additional topics to reassess and improve your placement. 

ALEKS PPL has two parts: Placement Assessment and Preparation & Learning Modules. You will take your first ALEKS Placement Assessment in the Testing Center. Once you have your scores, you will have up to 12 months of unlimited access to Preparation & Learning Modules to support you in preparing for your optional retest and while you are in your college-level math class. There is no limit to the number of hours you spend in the Preparation & Learning modules.

Before retesting, you must spend a minimum of five (5) hours in Prep and Learning modules before you can take an unproctored assessment from home. When you are feeling prepared for your proctored assessment, come to the Testing Center with your photo ID and ALEKS PPL login. 

The proctored ALEKS Placement Assessments are timed for 3 hours, all questions are open-response, and questions become harder as you answer them correctly. This also means that you may not go back and re-answer previous questions or skip ahead of questions. You will be provided scratch paper and pencils. A calculator will be provided on-screen for selected questions, otherwise, no handheld calculators allowed. 

If you see a question that you have not learned yet, I don't know is an appropriate answer. However, for questions that you do have some familiarity with, it is important to do your best. There is no penalty for incorrectly answering a questions. 

Your placement results (overall score) is a number between 0-100. It represents the percentage of topics ALEKS has identified you have mastered.

Course placement is determined as follows:

• 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, volume, coordinate geometry, trigonometric functions, and identities and equations)