I Cannot Recommend Apex Learning

by Linda
(Philadelphia, Pa, USA)

I cannot recommend Apex Learning. I spoke with a representative in June for my daughter to take AP courses online for English and Government. Well they were very happy and satisfied to take my money, but when we required more time for her to complete the two courses it was a different story.

I had informed the salesperson that my daughter would be attending a seminar in late July and then going to summer camp after that. She said no problem and could she work ahead. I said of course she would do that, but in case she is unable to can she be given more time to complete the courses.

I was told that yes she can and would probably be given more time to finish the courses. Well guess what? They are glad to take your $700, $350 a course and $25 for a refresher to take the exam. But no extra time and this was after about 3 weeks into the course I was told because she was not up to what they thought she should be in completing the courses and when I reminded them about what I had been told it was a different story. When I reminded them that I had been told she could get more time to complete the course they tended to either completely forget or came up with the she was supposed to had been ahead.

My daughter gave up her summer camp to finish the course and then came down with a sinus infection as well, but no one was willing to give more time, except for the instructor in the government course.

The organization is worse than a government entity, you cannot get through to a manager or supervisor, when you ask to speak with someone in authority they tell you we will give your message to someone and they will make a determination if it should go to a higher authority. Names are listed on their website regarding management, but there are no phone numbers or addresses to contact them.

It appears that this company is run like the "CIA", complete privacy and "Do Not Contact Us We Will Contact You."

They are very glad to receive your money but do not expect more.

Oh another thing, I paid $200 for books, if I had bought the books through them it would have cost me about $300-350 to purchase them, and I did not know when I bought them that some things were missing from the books i.e. as stories that are required for the tests.

I cannot encourage anyone to use their services, they lie and are unwilling to serve and help their customers. Just want your money and not anything more!

Disappointed!

My son is currently enrolled in the AP Statistics class. I have left several e-mails with the school and the teacher and it has been three weeks and I have not received a reply. When my son asks questions, he is told to refer to the text in the online study guide - which is not helpful. This course was $800! My son is a straight A student at a very academically renowned private school. He took this course through APEX because he needed the math class to fit into his schedule. After 3 weeks he is getting a C in this course and is extremely frustrated. I have tried contacting the school for the past three weeks with no reply. I am very disappointed!

Choose Another Program

My daughter took the AP English and Comp class during the 2010/2011 school year. She had previously completed several Potter School and Veritas Press online classes, and we were very pleased with them. The Apex Learning class, however, provided an experience that was inferior in both quality and content.

For starters, the instructor provided cut/paste standardized comments - not unique, helpful corrections for my daughter's papers. Further, after speaking with students from our local PS, we realized that the class provided bare bones, basic course content. Finally, the instructor was neither personable nor in any way invested in my daughter's academic success.

I found Apex Learning to be an organization that is run like a business - the instructor was not invested in my daughter as an individual student. The instructor followed the rules and did her job according to a set of standardized plans. She did not encourage or teach - she merely cut and pasted pre-scripted comments and assigned grades.

Also, both my daughter and I did not feel like her grading was accurate. For some papers on which my daughter had rushed through the work, she received A's - despite glaring issues in both writing and content. And in other papers in which my daughter invested a great deal of time and effort and, in my opinion, warranted superior grades, she received grades that did not accurately reflect the quality of the paper. In general, my daughter's grades were not well-justified, thereby inhibiting learning through correction of her errors. Also, follow-up questions to the instructor were answered with vague responses.

In closing, I know that I could have put my daughter in public school and received better instruction and a more caring and invested instructor than what we received from this program.

To end on a positive note: I highly recommend The Potter School and Veritas Press classes for regular and honors-level classes. This year TPS started offering AP classes, but we have not had any experience with them.

As for AP classes, my daughter is trying Patrick Henry's online AP classes. Based on PH's reputation for superior quality offerings, I am optimistic that my daughter and I will be much more pleased with them.