Reviewer A.
IXL: The Review
I think that some school districts should be doing something about this program. Based on what I’ve heard, people have been doing it for literal hours, which I’m not surprised by. Perhaps, they might consider changing their name to ETL for Endless Time Loop. Just a suggestion, IXL, I think that you aren’t reading these reviews given how you haven’t filed for bankruptcy. So, read them! It would make a lot of people happier. Well, my main point here is to say that IXL sucks, so I’d better say that now. First there’s the absurd “Smart”score system. When you’re just starting and you’ve barely got any points, it gives you like 10-20 points for answering something correctly. But if you’re up in the 80s or 90s, you get 1-3 points for a question correct and -10 to -20 if you get it wrong. It doesn’t make any sense. And I can see IXL’s point of view here- they think that once you’re smarter, you should be challenged more. But if you get just a few questions wrong by accident, then bam, you’re not “smart” anymore, and you have to work even more to finish. Then there’s the “Diagnostic,” which is supposed to be an accurate representation of your skills in math or English. Well, it’s not. I took it a few years ago in 3rd grade, and it was just nonstop questions for a long time. A lot of the time I would be using up entire classes to finish this. When I got to the end I would feel so successful, like I had just won a marathon, then I realized one week later I had to do it again. My scores were average for third grade, which is somewhere in the 300s. Then, I saw my classmates, who got Bs, in the 200s and 100s. I didn’t know how that could be at the time, but now I understand. IXL isn’t testing your skills with the diagnostic. They’re testing your endurance, how much you can endure without destroying your Chromebook’s screen. I have autism, so now I can understand why I was somehow able to pull through. It was my brain telling me to work harder, to pull through because focus and effort are absolutely necessary. But I wish I could have just not taken it and have not wasted my brain on those 100+ problems when I could have just read and actually educated myself. I am so glad I do not have to do IXL right now. My school has devoted a 20-30 minute block of time, 2 days a week, solely to doing IXL unless you fall into certain groups. Thankfully, I was in one of those groups. I feel very sorry for all the people who have to do it. I can only imagine what some of them must be feeling during that time. However, during math class, we have strayed from IXL and mostly use other sites like Khan Academy and Delta Math. I am happy to say that now my math scores are always in the 90 to 100% range, and I am actually, somehow, loving math. Some reviews I have read about IXL have literally made me cry, and I am devastated that this is still going on some places. I leave you with a message: If IXL is still being used in your local school districts, please do something about it. I cannot bear human suffering.