I discovered the site Learnerator several years ago while looking for good AP style questions for my students. I was blown away by the attention to detail in the questions, and how closely they modeled the questions on the AP exam. But then, it went away. Learnerator became Albert.io, and the site moved to a paid model.
After a few years of begging my school to buy the license, we decided to purchase Albert.io for every AP class offered at our school. Many teachers didn’t really use it this past school year, but I found it one of the most beneficial tools for my students.
My students either loved or hated it. I think the hate stemmed from the difficulty of the questions, which, hello, is the point. The ones that embraced it really got a lot out of the platform.
Implementation
One of the frustrations students had with Albert.io this school year was its implementation. Many teachers assigned 100+ questions at a time. Albert’s questions are in depth, challenging, and require students to go back and review their reasoning for the answers. This simply does not work if students are assigned 150 questions to do in one week.
I implement Albert in two ways.
Albert.io as homework
First, I do use it as homework. When I assign Albert as homework in AP Physics, I usually assign 20 questions to do over a few days. We go over some of the top missed questions in class before the assignment is due. When I grade the assignment, I either grade it for completion or half completion, half correction.
Albert.io as extra practice
Second, I use it as supplementary problems. I create optional assignments, or students can work through at their own pace. Sometimes these count as extra credit, sometimes they are purely additional practice.
A student’s perspective
What really sets Albert.io apart is the results. They have results and testimonials on their website, but I want to share some personal data from my AP exam review period.
I’ve discussed my AP exam review style a little bit here. I like to give students choices in how they prepare for the National Exam. About two months before the AP Physics exam, I surveyed my students to help inform how to best conduct review. First, I asked them about how they prefer to review.
42.1% of students said they get the most out of review when they do practice problems with a group, and another 31.6% said when they take practice multiple choice (and free response) and make corrections on their answers. Both of these are possible with Albert.io, which is why I think this happened:
Students overwhelmingly selected Albert.io as the most beneficial tool for review we used. Even though they complain about it at times, it really is the best review tool we have at our disposal. The style of questions for AP Physics 1 and 2 are the closest I have seen to the rigor of the AP exam.
If you or your school is able to purchase Albert.io, I highly recommend it. However, don’t overuse it and give students choices on how much they need to do. While I don’t have my pass rate data to share yet, I am excited to see if it made a real difference in exam results. If I am going off of what student’s said, they thought the exam was cake compared to the rigor they were used to on Albert. And that’s the best I can hope for.
