Finally passed ALEKS placement after failing twice — here's what worked

I'll be honest, I bombed my first two ALEKS attempts pretty badly. Got a 42 the first time, then a 48, and I needed at least a 61 to place into Precalc. My advisor basically shrugged and told me to "review math," which wasn't exactly helpful. I'd been out of school for four years working in logistics, so a lot of the algebra and functions stuff had completely evaporated from my brain.

What finally clicked for me was actually being strategic about it instead of just doing random Khan Academy videos. I found a solid ALEKS practice test that mimicked the real adaptive format, which helped me figure out exactly which topics were killing my score — for me it was rational expressions and piecewise functions. I also picked up a study guide that broke down the 30 or so topics the placement version actually tests, rather than trying to relearn all of high school math.

Ended up scoring a 67 on my third try after about 3 weeks of focused prep, maybe 45 minutes a day. Happy to share what resources I used if anyone's in the same boat. Also got a few exam tips that helped me not panic when the questions got harder partway through.