This is subject to change, but it’s what I’m currently thinking.

First, background. This is recent enough that I remember most of it and have a paper trail, if you will.

I first heard about Math Academy from a TLDR email. I looked up the writer and read his story. I found the site and it looked great.

I worked hard on it for a while on whatever they initially recommended. Probably Math Foundations I. Then I switched to Calculus BC because that’s what I wanted to take (yes, adults can take AP exams–I did).

I worked hard on that for a while. It went OK. But at a certain point, it became obvious that by my estimated completion date, I wasn’t going to be done in time. I swapped over to Khan Academy to try to just cram in some of the remaining concepts. I think I took the test at 42% complete at Math Academy. I got a 2, AB subscore also a 2. Ouch. That’s effectively a fail.

I took a bit of time off after that. Examining if I wanted to continue to pursue math. I eventually decided that yes, I do. So I signed back up with MA and got going. I finished Math Foundations II just before the new year, and signed up to take Calculus BC again.

It went OK for a while. I was averaging 70-80 XP per day. Then I got sick. Then work picked up. And it became clear, again, that I had zero shot at finishing their course by exam day. I decided to drop the BC exam as the last thing I wanted was to fail it again. That stung, but failing again would have stung more.

I’ve been trying to put in a little time on it even though I am absolutely slammed at work. Getting up at 5:30am, working until 10 most nights. I just don’t have time and mental energy for math.

Today, I’m thinking about how effective it really is. To adapt Sean Connery’s Celebrity Jeopardy question: “What matters is, does it work? Will it really mighty my math, man?”

I’m torn. On the one hand, I think it probably does work, at least somewhat. I am learning things, and getting better in some areas. What I’m skeptical about is how much faster they claim it is. I’m also skeptical about the cost being worth it. As a dad of a bunch of homeschool kids, there’s just no way I’d do this at this point for them. It feels way too experimental (and expensive).

I like a lot of aspects of it. It’s not trying to BS you as a form of entertainment. It’s hard. It has regular reviews. It has timed tests. These are all good things in my estimation. I’m on board with all of that.

Despite assurances that they review stuff sufficiently, that’s still my biggest concern. I feel extremely shaky about new things they’ve given me. For instance, I was just horrible at series. I can never remember the formulas. But I somehow got beyond the reviews and never see those anymore. I know that if I were given a series question that I couldn’t brute force I’d just flunk it.

The above was written sometime in…the past. I don’t know. Probably the last 2 months. I figured I’d go ahead and post it. I’m no longer doing MA and probably won’t for the foreseeable future.