Khan Academy’s bold mission is to offer a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. In order to move toward this mission, the Khan Academy team has been working on a new system to track a users learning progress in all subjects, all devices, and over time in many languages. We call this the Mastery System and it has been in development and testing for nearly a year.
Course Mastery
The course page will now show
- The overall fraction of mastery points for that course that have you have achieved.
- The percentage of the course that has you have mastered.
- Your course mastery level (see Mastery Levels below for more information).
Courses will also have a Course Challenge Card at the bottom where you can take an assessment that is almost identical to a Unit test, but that covers a sampling of skills from the entire course instead.
Unit Mastery
The Unit page also has several new elements, which are labeled in the image above:
- The total Mastery Points available in this unit (for example, 1200 points on this unit--100 for each skill in the unit)
- A colorful bar across the top that tracks your progress through Levels 1 - 6.
- A left-hand column that contains the Skill Summary, which enables you to see your progress on each skill.
- Under Practice you can also see your progress from Familiar to Proficient to Mastered on each skill.
Skills
Each skill is worth a total of 100 Mastery Points. As you practice skills and answer questions in Quizzes and Unit tests, your level for that skill will go up (or down, if you miss questions in a Quiz or Unit test). Moving to Familiar will earn you 50 of the 100 points. Leveling up to Proficient will get you to 80 points. Become Mastered in a skill to collect the total 100 available Mastery Points.
Ways to reach different levels of Skill Mastery
Not Started
Haven’t started practicing the skill yet. In addition, users who practice a skill but do not score at or over 70% will remain at this level.
Familiar (50 Mastery Points)
Got 70% or more correct when practicing a skill, or got a skill correct on a Quiz, Unit test, or Course challenge.
Proficient (80 Mastery Points)
Got a Familiar skill correct on a Quiz, Unit test, or Course challenge; or got 100% correct on a practice.
Mastered (100 Mastery Points)
Got a Proficient skill correct on the Unit test or Course challenge.
If you already know some of the content in the unit, it’s totally fine to jump ahead to a Quiz or Unit test and prove your knowledge. Quizzes, Unit tests, and Course challenges are also the fastest way to level up your skills because you can move up multiple levels at once by getting questions on these activities correct.
Additional Indicators
Additional indicators are not levels, but are specific signals based on recent performance that may provide extra insight into what users’ most pressing needs are at the moment. These are not levels in the way that Familiar, Proficient, and Mastered are; rather, these are additional information that relate to a specific skill.
Struggling (
)
Attempted to practice skill, but didn’t reach a level (scored lower than 70%)
Can you lose points or skill levels, and how does that work?
Regardless of your current level (Familiar, Proficient, or Mastered), you may lose Mastery Points and go down in skill level if you get a question related to that skill wrong on a Quiz, Unit test, or Course challenge. However, getting questions incorrect while practicing will not cause you to lose Mastery Points or go down a level.
Mastery Progress Levels
Unit mastery levels are based on the percentage completion in the unit.
- At Level 1 you have completed less than 25%
- Level 2 indicates between 25% and 49% completion.
- Level 3 indicates between 50% and 74% completion.
- Level 4 indicates between 75% and 89% completion.
- Level 5 (which is considered Mastery) indicates 90% to 99% completion.
- You reach Level 6 when you reach 100% completion!
How does this connect to Missions mastery?
With Khan Academy missions, you also practice a skill multiple times in order to master the skill. The new Unit Mastery progress corresponds to your progress in a Mission. Here are how the levels correspond:
In the Missions system, a skill that is Practiced or Level One will appear as Familiar in Unit Mastery.
Mastery is not easily earned, and that’s intentional. But putting in the work to achieve it will prove you’ve earned (and learned!) it. We hope those of you in the new Mastery system will enjoy leveling up your skills and reaching 100% Course and Unit Mastery.