Restarting An Assignment

Hello Thom! My name is Lisa Krueger and I am a Khan Academy Ambassador teaching in Chicago. A user cannot reset the practice lesson. I understand your frustration as I have had several students who strive to get things right the first time. The reason behind this is for users to be able to continue to demonstrate mastery of a skill throughout the lessons. I think it helps students slow down and read carefully to avoid making silly mistakes. Please let me know if you have any further questions, comments, or suggestions. Thank you for posting. 

I do not have the foggiest idea!!!!!!!!

Lisa -- and I am not sure if this reply will notify previous commenters, but if it does -- this gets more irritating than the Khan team might have intended should a student be graded on their percent completion, because that means it's not at all a matter of whether the student themself cares about being right "the first time" but instead of ensuring their teacher sees a 100% on the assignment. Given this it's much-more practical in the student's eyes to, after missing one question, start answering randomly then keep hitting "move on"/"skip for now" (in order to reach the Practice Again button at the end) than it would be to put effort into the rest of the assignment only for a sub-100% result.

I'll add, too, that I don't really see a reason to dock percentage points if a student should answer incorrectly but then fix it on their own. A big reason for the above-mentioned "much-more practical" behavior's being so is that the Khan exercises in their current state make no effort to distinguish between:

• A wrong answer corrected by the student alone and immediately
• A wrong answer corrected by the student alone, but after more than just one extra attempt
• A wrong answer corrected by the student after clicking "Get a hint"
• A wrong answer the student gave up on entirely, hitting "move on"/"skip for now"

...in that they award 0% and a grey (rather than green) circle for each, whereas this is IMO only deserved by the last occurrence; in particular, I see no reason that the first should not still be awarded 100% (especially if it was a simple typo or the student sees their error quickly), and I also think it reasonable for the middle two to receive at least partial credit instead of none. In the system's current state (and especially with the restrictions imposed by, again, a teacher grading on completion percentage), I don't see the "no restarts" policy motivating anything in the student besides frustration.

I noticed that this particular topic was started 10 months ago. There is an active discussion about this very thing elsewhere in the Support Community. Lisa, who responded above, has participated in that one and has served as somewhat of a liaison to the Khan Academy staff with regard to this particular issue. While her response of 9 months ago seems to be in opposition to being able to do this, I think her more recent responses in the other discussion show that she has come around to thinking differently after reading more complaints on this issue.

In the new mastery system, the Unit Tests will become important in reaching the top level of a subtopic. The Unit Tests appear to be optional in reaching this goal if a student attains 100% on every exercise, but only if 100% is scored on the first attempt in each exercise. Score 75% in a 4-question exam or get only 6 right in a 7-question one, and you will need to take the Unit Test anyway. I want 100% every time, and I keep taking the practices every time until I get it. But no matter how many times I take the exercise, since I didn’t get 100% the first time through, I can’t get the top level of mastery until I take the Unit Test.

Hello Hadi! Your comments regarding the Mastery system are similar to other comments from many, many, many users and Regina Litman is correct my thinking regarding this issue has broadened. So has Khan Academy's thinking about Mastery, I recommend you read the New Mastery System thread from the News and Updates page to get the full picture of how things have changed and please leave feedback directly on the thread page. Please let me know if you have any further questions, comments, or suggestions. Thank you for posting. 

The new mastery system has made things worse! Now, in order to be totally mastered, you need to take the Unit Test, which can have as many as 15 questions or more. For those of us obsessed with getting 100%, this means, if I get the first question wrong in a 10-question test (which I did earlier this week), I have to do the remaining 9 plus another 10-question unit test again. I am seeing that, for courses I completed months ago, including the missions for them, I don't have the highest mastery level for some segments because, the first time through a practice, I did not get 100%. Even though I eventually got 100%, I am marked as needing the unit test for that segment because I didn't get 100% the first time. Ironically, sometimes I am more proficient in the subject matter for a practice I went through 2 or 3 times before getting 100% than one in which I went through only once, getting 100% that one time but guessing at one or more answers.

For the course I'm taking now, where there is no mission (AP Statistics), I am required to take the unit test for every segment, even when I got 100% on every practice the first time through. Plus, there is now an end-of-course challenge to take for these in order to get the maximum for the whole course, and I shudder to think how many questions they'll have and how many times I'll have to attempt it to get 100% on the whole thing.

The new mastery system is complete bull. I am refusing to allow my students to take the course challenge test at the end. If you get the first question wrong you waste "30-40" minutes knowing you have to do it all over again because of a silly mistake? Even if you come back to it several days later you can't start from the beginning. Please allow us to restart the test or find some alternative, otherwise, students (and teachers!) will never be able to feel the achievement of 100% mastery.

I am also skipping the Course Challenges for now. They’re not even part of the iPad app, which is how I do most of my Khan Academy learning (and they’re also not on my Android phone app), so I’m using this absence to justify not doing them for now. The Unit Quizzes and Unit Tests were not on these apps until recently, so I didn’t do them earlier. I’m now doing some as a review of material I’ve studied in the slightly more than a year since I’ve been regularly using Khan Academy. I am an adult learner, 66 years old, who retired from a computer programming career in mid-2017.

If the Course Challenges ever do get added to the apps, I will likely try one in a subject I think I know pretty well (maybe Kindergarten Math!) to see how I fare. Or maybe by then, Khan Academy will have implemented the restart capability that so many of us have been clamoring for. (This is not the only thread on this topic here in the Support Community.)

Here’s one horror story I have regarding the Unit Tests, trying to get 100%, and achieving level 6 mastery. I took a 14-question Unit Test and got 3 wrong. I took a short break and tried it again. This time I got all correct. Now, on the iPad, you can’t find out your level. You have to go to the website, which I can do using Safari on my iPad. Much to my disappointment, I was still shown at level 5, with the three practice exercises related to the Unit Test problems I got wrong still saying to take the Unit Test to level up. Yet at the bottom of this page, I was shown as having gotten 100% on the Unit test just a few minutes earlier.

I reported this as a problem, and two days later, I got back a reply that this is exactly as it should be. It turns out that the skills tested in the problems I got wrong the first time through were likely not part of the set of questions chosen for my next attempt at the Unit Test. Huh? A 14-question Unit Test, and they still can’t fit in every skill taught in this segment? The algorithm for selecting the questions for a retake should ensure that any skills missed the first time through are definitely tested the next time. I eventually took it again, got 100%, and got to level 6. I recognized problem #13 as being for one of the skills I missed earlier. The other two skills were probably in there, too.

As a self-learner (who is also 31 years old) I have to say this policy is counter-productive.  When I pick a subject to work on I am repeating already learned material much of the time.  I want to push through that stuff quickly.  Making an easy mistake has no real measure on whether the material is learned or not.  It wastes far too much time to have to go through the assignment in full when all you need to do is start it over.  There should be an option in preferences for this.  No need to highlight it, just include it.  I like the service, but much of the time, my time is being wasted.

Updates on Course Challenges:

1. In September, Khan Academy made changes to their new mastery system that no longer requires completing Course Challenges to get the maximum number of points for each course. So I am not going to do these, not even for Kindergarten.

2. But I don’t have the excuse that they’re not in the iPad app year. They are in the iPad app now, so anyone on that platform that wants to try them can do so. They are also in the Android app. Also, you can now see your level in the apps.

The idea of restarting practices/quizzes/exams/challenges has come up in other topics here in the Support Community, including one that now had three pages of comments. In that topic, someone from Khan Academy has said their may be something like this coming soon.

I’m currently struggling through a refresher of trigonometry here, and there’s one skill I am really struggling with. I don’t think a restart would help with this one because I really don’t know the subject well and could use the extra practice. But it is still frustrating. And it’s one that I need to do on the website, not in the app, because the popup keypad in both the iOS and Android apps does not function properly when both pi and a variable need to be answered in the same response.

Its honestly absurd that you can't reset the test. Everyone here's complaining about it, no one agrees. There should be NO REASON why I have to go through 20+ questions and STILL not get 100% because I made a typo. Listen to your users for crying out loud.

Lisa and the rest of the Khan Academy team, this course challenge is nearly impossible because of its length and the absolute care demanded on the first attempt to complete it, because after you've butchered the first attempt you will never get the second one right until the next day. The impatience aroused after doing the course challenge incorrectly will result in the subsequent attempt being worse or longer, but likely still incorrect, and after you do it a third time you are liable to have a stroke. In today's educational society, it's the gold or nothing for most people, probably including a fair portion of Khan Academy users. While I agree with the idea of having the unit test gild your mastery, the course challenge is terrible. There is no "you can just skip it" for people looking to 100%, and that's why it needs to be changed. 

In addition, the impact of this constant repeat has been completely negative for me. After the tenth attempt my knowledge has completely eroded and then I really do need to practice. Meanwhile, it all started with me misreading a single problem on my first attempt and I'm ready to split my desk.

Hello Wilson! You are not alone in this frustration and I just posted in an internal thread to the Khan developers the need to respond to this out pour of user feedback regarding this issue. I think even giving you an opportunity to review your answers before submitting would help eliminate this issue for many users. Unfortunately, I'm not privy to their game plan for updates. I can suggest that you Submit a request directly to the Khan developers and choose I've a feature request or feedback and plead your case. Please let me know if you have any further questions, comments, or suggestions. Thank you for posting. 

I have to wonder why a bunch of intelligent people don't see the need for a restart button on a test for adult learners. I'm starting an engineering course in a few months and want to brush up on my math, I work full time and do all my studying at midnight. I'm knackered so I misread x10 with x100 and make a mistake on question 1 of a 19 question unit test. you know want me to spend 30 minutes doing the test and then another 30 minutes redoing it plus an extra 1 minute per question to make sure its right? What a joke seriously. 

Anyone still supporting this for the idea that its good for students has lost their marbles. Enable it for adult learners and for kids, let the teacher decide.

must add restart must add restart must add restart must add restart must add restart must add restart must add restart must add restart  

Well I understand why Khan Academy doesn't have a restart button and stuff but if the people of Khan look at the kids perspective they will see that kids are raging and will just put in fake answers and just move on to start a new session. Only very few kids will "double check their answers and fix the mistake". The majority will just start over. And if things keep going like this, then Khan Academy will be the lowest rated math website. So both perspective of teacher and student matters.

And the main reason why the students want a restart button is because if u get the question right the first time, you get a green dot. But if you get it wrong and retry and get the right answer, the session will still give you a grey dot. The best way is no matter how many it takes u to get a question right, you will still get a green dot. But if you use a hint they you get a grey dot.

In the other topic I referred to here, Khan finally got in and said they are not going to change this.

It's so annoying how you have to go through and finish the rest before you can restart. I'm doing the unit test of Linear Equations and Functions with 25 questions. I have gotten many wrong and I want to restart but I can't. It's so frickin' ANNOYING! Does anybody have any tips on restarting an assignment?

Thanx,

Franky the M@h Master

(@=at. M+at+h=Math=M@h)

I really wish there was a reset button tho

Put in fake answers and keep moving on until you can start over. Or use the hints to get the answer, put it in, and move on.

Oh my. I hope there has been an answer to this issue. THere is no way I am going ask my boy who has to spend 6 hours of online classes to spend another 30 mins on an assignment only because he answered one question incorrectly. I would rather ignore it online and ask him to retry in his notebook.

Just a quick comparison. Today I watched a sample video on Johns Hopkins' online paced learning platform and compared with that on the same topic on Khan - sorry to say I was more impressed with the former. Obviously you need to pay to learn on Johns Hopkins but being free of charge does not allow Khan to be demotivating.

i mean you can always use the hint button till the last one but at least learn what to do when you try it again

Is there any update on this Lisa Krueger? It is beyond frustrating. Especially when a question is marked wrong due to formatting and it isn't actually wrong. See e.g., any geometry question that permits an answer given in terms of pi but then marks it incorrect. Going through all the remaining questions is a waste when you know you'll have to restart but answering them incorrectly will downgrade the topic's status. Khan Academy users are clearly clamoring for what should be a very simple fix. What's taking so long that this thread is three years old and this issue is still unaddressed?

Evan Lewis's reply to this post may be helpful: https://support.khanacademy.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/360074587692-Add-a-reset-button-please-

My comment seems to have been deleted so I'll try again. The problem with having kids complete the entire test is based on a flawed assumption. Not all kids are trying to game the system, some understand the concept, but misunderstood the question, or had a problem with the interface. Khan academy should give them the option to try another question testing the same concept. Forcing them to redo the entire quiz to fix one answer feels a bit punitive and a waste of time; and completely missing the presumed benefit of using a computer to test.

I think there needs to be a feature where you cancel having to finish the quiz, incase you feel your score is getting low. 

Am sad no cancel button super sad if add me is happy and yay and no add me is angry grr mad so pls add cancel button or me sad and cry and make a lie 

This is so annoying. I can understand it on the short tests, but on the big 30 question things it's a nightmare. I just made a typo on an early question. I tried coming out and going back in, no. Restart? No. Okay... fake answers and skip for now to get to the end. 

Then redid it all properly, but because of my fake answers I had a load of the skills downgraded, so I don't have mastery despite getting all the skills at 100% and the tests at 100% and the final test at 100%.