Online Geometry: Comparing BYU, Apex, and ALEKS for a Struggling Student
Thursday afternoon, I was cross-legged on the kitchen floor with a laptop balanced on my knees, three browser tabs open, trying to figure out which online geometry course would finally work for my son. He had just finished a grading period with a 61% in geometry, and the school district’s default option—Apex Learning—had genuinely done nothing for him. He could click through the lessons, answer the questions on his second try, and still not remember what a proof was supposed to prove. Another mom in the pickup line had mentioned ALEKS. My neighbor’s daughter had used BYU Independent Study. So there I was, comparing three very different ways to teach a teenager what an alternate interior angle actually means.
Apex was the easiest to explain because we already knew it. It’s a straightforward online course platform that many schools use for credit recovery and regular classes. You log in, you read or watch a short lesson, then you answer multiple-choice questions and take a quiz. It will tell you if you got something wrong, but it doesn’t really force you to slow down or re-learn the concept. My son could score 80% on a lesson quiz by guessing and checking, but he couldn’t tell me the difference between a ray and a segment half an hour later. Apex has a pacing guide and recorded lessons, but there’s very little back-and-forth with a teacher unless you actively message them. For a kid who needs structure and actual feedback, it felt hollow.
ALEKS, on the other hand, is a complete change of pace. It’s an adaptive, cloud-based tool that figures out what a student already knows and then gives them a list of topics to learn. There are no video lectures or 20-minute slideshow explanations. You answer questions, and if you get something wrong, the system places you back a step and gives you practice on just that skill until you show mastery. It’s kind of like a tutor who never stops asking you questions. My son said it was like doing a quiz the entire time, which was uncomfortable initially. He was used to watching videos being fun, but with ALEKS, you have to think as soon as you open the page. The dashboard shows a property-ownership map where each topic is a square that lights up when you master it. He liked that. But it was definitely not a laid-back course.
Then there was BYU Independent Study. I remember thinking, fine, it’s BYU, so it must be rigorous. Their online geometry course is a full year of high school credit, self-paced, with written assignments, quizzes, content review, and one proctored final exam. The lessons are video-based, with printable notes and practice problems, and you get a real teacher whom you can email. But here’s the thing—it’s not adaptive. You go through the material in a fixed sequence, and you are responsible for keeping yourself on track. There’s no algorithm saying “skip this chapter, you already get it.” For a student like mine, who already has gaps in pre-algebra and foundational concepts, that would have been dangerous. He might have passed the course, but he wouldn’t have filled in the holes he already had. So I kept it as a backup, thinking that if we needed to retake the entire credit later, BYU might be a strong option.
The moment I realized I was going to switch things up was when my son asked, “What’s a complementary angle?” and I had to google it in the kitchen. He had done over 30 Apex assignments that semester. I knew right then that the format wasn’t teaching him anything beyond how to click through a screen. What actually happened next was a bit of trial and error. I enrolled him in ALEKS as a summer makeup course, not for a school-issued credit, but just to get him comfortable with geometry before the next year’s class. That way, the pressure to pass a class wasn’t hanging over his head, and he could just learn.
What I appreciated about ALEKS was the honesty. Every time he logged in, the system would say “This is the state of your knowledge right now.” It assessed him in the first session with a diagnostic quiz that took about 45 minutes. He got frustrated because he wanted to know if he was right or wrong immediately, but the system just kept probing. When he finally saw his master map, he said, “Wait, I already know this?” He had about a quarter of the map covered just based on what he had picked up, even with the mess that Apex left behind. That gave him a little confidence. The good part was that the topics he did next were directly targeted to his weak spots. One day, he was working on measuring angles and then the system introduced protractor use, and then a couple of days later, he was doing parallel line problems. It wasn’t this beautiful linear progression, but it was precisely right for him.
The downside, and this is important to know, is that ALEKS won’t teach your child how to write a formal proof. It prepares them, but it doesn’t hold their hand through the narrative of geometry. There are no open-ended essay questions. It’s all numerical or multiple-choice input. For a student who needs extra challenge in proofs, that’s a real gap. You’d need a separate workbook or a teacher to supplement that part. But for my son, who just needed to understand the basic structure of angles, triangles, and similarity, it was more than enough. He didn’t need to become a geometry scholar. He needed to pass the class without dreading it.
We also looked into the financial side. ALEKS runs around $99 for a 4-month subscription, which is reasonable for a supplemental tool. Apex is free in his school district, but you get what you pay for, I guess. BYU is several hundred dollars per course, and the proctored final can also cost extra. So if you’re paying out of pocket, ALEKS is the simplest and cheapest for a short-term summer review. But if you need official credit, that changes things. I know some families who use BYU specifically because it counts as a proper accredited course and can be used to get ahead or retake a failed class. But you have to be honest with yourself: is your kid ready for a self-paced course? Because with BYU, if they fall behind, the timeline stretches out, and there is no narrative arc that automatically moves forward. It’s all on the student.
I also learned to look at the pacing. Apex is often controlled by the teacher or school, so you can’t just run ahead or slow down. BYU is completely self-paced, but that can be a problem for kids who don’t have internal deadlines. ALEKS requires a certain number of topics per week if you set a goal, but otherwise, it’s grind until the map’s done. My son needed a daily routine. We made a chart for his ALEKS sessions: one hour in the morning, three days a week. He worked through topics while I cleaned the kitchen or sat nearby reading. It didn’t turn into a big fight because he could see his progress. Apex had made him feel like he was never getting anywhere. ALEKS at least gave him a visual representation of what he knew, which was a huge pragmatic change.
If you’re choosing between these three for your own child, I’d ask yourself a few concrete questions. Does your kid need a live teacher or a remote coach? Apex has minimal teacher contact; BYU offers email-based support, which might be enough for a self-motivated student; ALEKS has no teacher, just the program. But you can always hire a tutor to work alongside it. Is your kid’s issue one of confidence, skill gaps, or discipline? ALEKS handles skill gaps remarkably well, but it won’t force a procrastinator to get up in the morning. BYU is best for a self-starter who wants a credible transcript. Apex works when a student already understands the subject and just needs to get through the required class in a standard school system—not when they’re drowning.
I will say that after about three weeks of ALEKS, my son’s attitude shifted. He wasn’t suddenly a math lover, but he stopped slamming the laptop closed every time the topic got hard. He actually asked me to look at a problem with him once, which had never happened before. That felt like a minor victory. But I don’t want to pretend it was a magic bullet. There were mornings when he absolutely hated it, and I had to sit on the floor next to him and just go over one practice problem out loud to get him started. And there’s still this lingering problem—when he goes back to school next fall, his teacher will probably use something else, maybe a textbook, maybe an online homework system. I’m not sure how well his ALEKS practice will carry over. He’ll need to get used to a different interface again.
We’re not done with the geometry journey. The summer isn’t even half over. But right now, with the sun coming through the kitchen window, I can hear the program’s little click sound as he answers another question correctly. It’s not a perfect system. I keep thinking about BYU for his algebra II next year, though, because he’ll need a real credit this time, and maybe he’ll be ready to work through an actual course. Or maybe we’ll just keep using ALEKS until the school year starts and see what happens. I’ve learned that with online math, we don’t get a clean answer. We just get the one that works for this kid, this summer, this week. That’s okay. We have until August. Something will stick.
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