Khan Academy Review

I am a freshman in college, and I’m not exactly Albert Einstein, so naturally I have been confused and challenged when it comes to my academics, especially science and math. So, you have no idea how much easier my school life became after I discovered Khan Academy. I was practically failing math due to me being left behind because I could not figure out how to get past expected value. Then I checked out Khan Academy and breezed past the math sections I needed to get caught up on.It is a website created to help students who don’t have time or money for a tutor learn what they need to learn to succeed. I don’t want other college students making the same mistakes I have made, so I’m here to review this website to help students determine if the Khan Academy website is for them, which I say, it is.

When you first arrive on the site, It automatically tells you that it is free for everyone. It is also used by teachers and even parents, this in order to help expand the minds of the students who are seeking online tutoring.  You can connect to this site by signing in with social media sties, such as Facebook and Gmail. However if you do not look closely, you made be led to believe that you have to sign up to use it. Except you don’t need to, you just have to find the subjects tab on the top left corner and you can learn any subject in math, science and history from Kindergarden to College. This is one problem I have with the site, I have never liked the idea of having to sign up for something to use it, so it for other people like me, It could easily detract them from using the the site, thinking they have to sign up to use it. Another problem the site has, is that it doesn’t cover any English subjects. However, the amount of detail they teach in math and science completely makes up for it and is really only a nitpick.

It is very easy to find the specific subject you want to learn and only takes a couple seconds. For example, when I was looking for the expected value lesson, I just had to go to math, select probability and statistics, click Random variables, and I saw Expected value right there. Then it teaches you through questions and if you get stuck, you just ask for a hint and then it will provide a tiny hint. You can keep clicking the hint button until it fully explains how to do the problem. If you can figure out and answer, you can have it check your answer to tell you if you got it right or if you still need help. The format is very helpful to use. It let’s you attempt to figure out the problem yourself and but if you get stuck, you can be told how to do it, step by step, with visuals and pictures. You can go into several different specific subjects within each section, so you do not have to worry about not finding the specific math that you are stuck on. It the exact same thing when you look at the science section. this type of tutoring is one of the most simple and useful forms of help I’ve ever seen from a learning website. Most websites I have gone to for help on, automatically just give you the answers without showing how to solve the problem. So, for a website to act almost like an actual teacher is quite impressive.

Again, I want to say that it is a flaw that there are no english subjects. I can understand if the website developers felt that english is not something that needed to be tutored for, but I would have like a section about how to write a proper essay and what MLA format is. Also, I think a grammar and spelling section could be very helpful for students. This lack of English content does disappoint me.

However, I have found that Khan Academy supplies information about college and how to apply for colleges, and how to figure out the Financial Aid. So, this slightly makes up for the lack of English sections. I really like this idea, especially when I myself, had trouble figuring out the college process when I was a senior in high school. So, it is very nice that other potential college students do not have to worry about this when applying for college. There’s also a test preparation section that I really like. There is the simple test preparation sections like the SAT, but Khan Academy also teaches more complex test, like the test to become a registered nurse. It is interesting how it seems that Khan Academy definitely tries to help anyone and everyone, no matter where they are in their lives.

Here my final thoughts on Khan Academy. It is a very helpful website that I think is one of the best tutoring sites I have ever seen. The math, science, and history lessons are very detailed and does it’s best to teach people how to solve these certain sections. While it’s subjects are vey wide-range, from economics to how to apply for college, It severely lacks an English section. The test preparation section is also very unique, where it not only helps with Standard test that everyone has to take, like the SAT’s, but it also helps with A wide-range of different test, like the NCLEX-RN, which is the test you take to become a registered nurse. I believe that not only should every college student know about this site, but every type of student should know and use this site very often.