J Z.
Deceptive advertising and poor instruction
This is from someone who's been using Afficient for 3+ years. While it works and has helped me a bit (hence 2 stars instead of 1), there are some big issues. Afficient uses deceptive advertising and has poor demos/instruction. When you see an ad for Afficient the first thing that it says is "Artificial Learning". There is no artificial learning. I confronted one of the Afficient executives about this and told me that there is AI. No there is not, it's just a simple algorithm. It could barely classify as "machine learning". I can literally draw a picture of how progression and regression of this program works. I can quite literally state it right here, when you join Afficient your child will take a diagnostic test which will test a few skills from each chapter (Afficient structures itself with lessons => chapters => grades) and then depending on whether they answered/answered it on time will they get a check for that. Afficient will then see what skills the child is lacking and then begin their learning there. However this is way worse and slower than an actual teacher as here it's just an algorithm, there are causes for error and the child can easily misclick or misinterpret instructions. After the diagnostic your child will do problems. There are 4 levels but the first one is the learning stage. This is where they will read a "demo" that is not very easy to understand especially in the higher levels. Then it will be the assisted exercise which to be honest I don't think many people actually do, as it's the same thing as the demo and you don't get points for it. Then it is the actual problems. You have to get 5/6 or 3/4 depending on the skill. You can fail as many times as you want as long as you still get 5/6 or 3/4. You cannot move below this level. Then it's proficiency, which has levels 1,2,3 and proficient. This is basically you do 2 review questions (one from this grade, one from a previous one) and 4 questions from the lessons in the chapter in order (and you cannot skip the order or gain proficiency in a specific lesson). If you get it wrong it used to go to learning immediately but they realized that it was horrible for learning and not efficient, they added a "level 1- make up level", which if you do will go to level 2. This goes on until level 3 which is timed. You can always go down even from doing review questions and after you complete all the lessons to proficient do you move on to the next lesson. Now that I've laid it all out, you realize it's not actually AI. You could probably code this in Scratch. There's no LLMs, it's not training a model for each student that can see where they can improve. It's just a script (no pun intended) that tells you what (out of the predefined skills) are you not "proficient" in. Now moving on to demos, they are a giant paragraph that "explain" the concept but don't do it well. You have to read it over a few times as it's such a big chunk of text for some chapters. Afficient doesn't take in mind that some people learn by watching a video. When kids need help they need to connect to a Zoom advisor or in person, but at this point why not just go to an in person math class that gives homework? They should at least put an real AI powered chat bot, but I guess they're pretending their algorithm is AI. But to be honest, your child will still learn the skill, just not as easily and happily as advertised. I've seen many kids get very frustrated as the demos don't explain anything and the help button for the questions don't tell them how to fix their mistake, just how to do it, and sometimes that doesn't actually help them learn. Overall I think Afficient needs a major restructuring on their program, UI overhaul, fix their advertising or actually add AI elements. So just get a tutor, or wait until Afficient fixes something.
Response from Afficient AcademyJan 28, 2025
Hello J Z! Thank you very much for your detailed review. We are glad that you have been a student for more than 3 years and our programs have helped you. Afficient Academy's AI-driven algorithms generate customized problem sets to enable students to master all skills and to achieve their learning objectives (goals) efficiently. Results of our students show that, under Afficient Academy's individualized learning process, most students are able to complete one-grade level content 2-5 times faster than traditional learning. Many students only take a few days to a few weeks to complete their initial starting grade to build a solid foundation and move up to higher grades (even those beyond their school curriculum). Through Demos, Assisted Exercises, Exercises, and built-in Help (with steps and solutions), most students are able to learn and practice by themselves, even for the grades they have not learned in school. We also provide real-person interactive support at our learning centers, Zoom QA hours, and online Supervised sessions (free of charge for up to two hours per week). We welcome any suggestions to improve our programs in all aspects. We would like to get in contact with you to discuss areas for improvement with you.