IXL Learning Reviews 

Using IXL feels like talking to a passive aggressive teacher who mocks you when you get a question wrong. Making mistakes is part of learning, but IXL makes it sound like if you get a question wrong, you are an absolute doughball. Also, the Smartscore is really strict, like you can get 8 questions correct in a row, you get one wrong and your score goes all the way back to where you begun, I am speaking from experience this has happened so much times.

This is the worst learning app I've used. It causes stress, I mean, why take off 6 points when you make the smallest mistake? And why only give one or two when you get it right, and half of the time I am right, but they say I'm wrong? For example, I will write 15 instead of 15.0. This app needs A LOT OF IMPROVEMENTS AND PREFERABLY CAN BE DELETED COMPLETELY. All this app has done is improve my anxiety. 1 star should be 0. I was generous

IXL is honestly one of the most frustrating learning platforms I’ve used. The scoring system feels way too harsh, especially when you’re in the 90s. You can be at a 98, make one small mistake, and suddenly you drop all the way down to like an 85. It doesn’t feel motivating at all, it just makes you feel like all your progress didn’t matter.

Instead of helping you learn from mistakes, it kind of punishes you for them. By the time you’re close to 100, the pressure is so high that even one wrong answer wipes out a ton of work. It turns practice into stress instead of actual learning.

A system that drops you that much for a single error doesn’t seem fair or realistic. Learning should encourage improvement, not make you feel like you’re constantly getting knocked down right before the finish line.
I HATE IXL!!!

I'd rather use an expensive app than use IXL. It's stressful. Minors are commenting because adults and teachers and non IXL users don't understand our stress and sadness with the Smart score. I don't mind the background that much but since our struggle with completing them I think they should add more and better games and awards. Honestly, CNN needs to report as well.

Scam. Monies taken from my account when I’ve not even used their services. I’ve reported it as fraud and they’ve taken the original payment again. I rang them in February and they had no idea what to do. Absolutely disgusting.

IXL is ANNOYINGGGG as someone who is has to do it ! At first around yr 1 up to yr2 i found it fun yr 3 was ok yr 4 JUST ANNOYING you have to answer so much questions on column addition and subtraction! when you start and go t to like 70 on the smartscore it goes up reallly quick until 60-70 there it starts giving you questions that werent on the example! its so annnoyingggg! nothing is ever fully clear ! on the website it says it teaches not tests but why if your doing reception and your in the 90s it will give x2=9 what is x? if its for teaching. do you expect the knowlegde just to go in their head? Its gotten to the point that if i enter that website i leave it straight away ! its js so annoying! once it took me like 600 questions and 3 hours to finish ONE lesson! The only fun thing in IXL are the games which really dont teach you anything ! YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR IT and there are other stuff out there for FREE and they are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better likw Khan Academy! it is totally free it is literally amazing i use it for coding! if im being honest at first I LOVED IT but it was same settings just different year. overall, if your doing yr12 it will be ... VERY HARD ! but i really don like it when i typing i accidentaly typed a single # hashtag and it ruined my score from 90 to 83 it gives you 2 points but takes 12 points. this app is definetly if you know all the topics which you probably dont and which is why some people decided to download it. before when i hated IXL i thought i was being weird and everyone likes it but turns out im not alone! IXL needs some fixing or should be banned from ALL countries

Hi, I'm a year 6, and with 2 years of experience of IXL, I'll say it, it has a GREAT idea, but a mediocre execution. Lets start with the first problem, the repulsive SMARTSCORE... Unlike most learning softwares where when you get wrong you just move on, IXL's smartscore will NOT let you move on until you finish it to 100... When you get a question correct at the start, you earn 10 points out of 100, but if you get it wrong, you get set back to 9 points its not too bad until you get to the "challenge zone" (from 70-99) where you earn a MAX of 4 points and LOSE 7 points, which means a typo can set you back 5 whole minutes! Don't even get me started on science... Sometimes you have to answer a number of questions correctly in a ROW to even move on! When you get something wrong, the way they explain it is sometimes confusing... This app is ok for revising and hands on learning, but I wouldn't use to straight up learn something. A disappointing 2 out of 5.

-Eggman reviews.

The “smart score”system is trash, pure trash. Like, when I get a question wrong AND I AM ALMOST FINISHED!!! It sends me back to the start 😭 like broo let me make mistakes 😫

Luckily I don’t use IXL anymore, but to everyone who is using it. I’m sorry 😞

Terrible. No one can use this, especially not neurodivergents like me. It’s torture. It’s ragebaiting on monster. I’ve heard multiple students around the world, including my school crash out, cry, scream, etc. I feel dumber and less confident after doing one lesson, and IXL has the gall to tell you the opposite. They don’t give you any learning, and won’t give you a reasonable explanation for when they are wrong. Also, the point system, aka smart score is evil. Many people get discouraged, and makes you want to cheat, cause it’s easier than trying to learn, cause they don’t teach you. It’s ruined my confidence for math, and many others. If you’re a teacher or parent, avoid at all costs.

This heinous app has not given me education: merely stress. It's design loop is meant for you to get the question right, see your score bump up, and make you happy. When you get the question wrong, (Which in the long path of life, is inevitable) it decreases your score, but it is mostly unfair about this, a raging bull kicking you off right before you can get your wanted time. Therefore, when a student like myself is struggling, it causes near painful anxiety and perfectionism, destroying confidence, the opposite of IXL's mission. IXL is a product which teaches nothing but anxiety and perfectionism, and you being 1 off is the ultimate failure.

IXL is one of the most frustrating and unfair learning platforms I have ever used. Instead of actually helping students understand concepts, it punishes them for making even small mistakes. One wrong answer can drop your score dramatically, wiping out progress you spent a long time building. That doesn’t encourage learning—it just creates stress and anxiety.

The system is completely unforgiving. Learning is supposed to involve trial and error, but IXL treats every mistake like a failure instead of an opportunity to improve. Students end up focusing more on protecting their score than actually understanding the material. It turns what should be a helpful educational tool into a stressful guessing game.

Even worse, the questions often become repetitive and overly long just to raise your score slightly. You can answer question after question correctly, only to gain a tiny amount of progress, and then lose a huge chunk instantly if you slip up once. That imbalance is what makes it feel so unfair.

Overall, IXL doesn’t support real learning, it discourages it. It creates pressure instead of confidence and makes students dread practicing instead of helping them improve. A system that punishes mistakes this harshly is not effective; it’s simply frustrating.

it sucks sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much

Nobody could like this because they think they are so awesome with their smart score but it makes me feel less smart

Unfortunate really, I hate this app with a passion and still have to use it constantly because my teacher keeps making assignments on it, its annoying to deal with especially when it pushes me back so hard when I accidentally type the answer incorrectly, this app is Half the reason why my grade is bad, because I hate doing these, don't get me wrong computer work is easy and fun but this? its a mockery and some form of punishment I just don't quite understand yet, I hated learning before and this app is only making it worse.

I am a middle school student who has to deal with ixl it is simply stressful and eye straining for me and the “smartscore” doesn’t help at all making it even more stressful seeing my score drop so far because I got one question wrong each lesson takes me a minimum of 15 minutes and it takes me even longer to finish it because of the horrible scoring system and I have to do things above my grade level shooting up to 9th grade things btw I’m in 7th grade it just not app to use in schools I believe it should be banned. Sorry for no punctuation ignore the name it’s a alt

I’m currently in senior school. But ever since year 2, I’ve been forced by my mum to do this stupid waste of time. Every time I get smth right, it only adds 2 points. But if I make a mistake, I’m lovingly rewarded with a deduction of 15 points. All that effort? Wasted. I have to restart. It made me highly self-critical, paired with trauma from an abusive mother who constantly told me my worth is based on what I get right.

And it takes forever — 10 MINUTES TO COMPLETE ONE SINGLE ACTIVITY. And I don’t have the patience to sit on my arse and stare at a screen while learning absolutely nothing. 3 minutes then I’m out.

You’re also extremely fortunate if your parents actually listen. As for my stubborn mum, everything goes in one ear and out the other. I’ve asked her to cancel the subscription. “I’ve already paid — you’ll have to wait until the end of the year.” Then I tell her to do it when it’s the end. I get a “yes, yes”. A sign she won’t do it.

In conclusion, don’t buy it. It just causes stress for kids/teens. There’s better options, such as Brilliant, Khan Academy, and EdPlace.

IXL feels like a one step forward ten steps back approach. My teacher assigned 270 tasks EACH for all of me and my classmates to work on throughout the year. Sounds crazy, right? Well, in a task, there's 24 questions. Assuming all of them were 24 questions(a tiny bit were 16, but majority was 24), that would equal up to 6480 questions. The diagnostics are good, but the tasks aren't great.

If you want people to be happier, get IXL, and make students do like 10 minutes worth of tasks. And don't push them to mastery(they can if they want, but it's not a requirement), mark it complete at 80.

Literally I'm a 7-15y old student and I had to do ixl but the only problem is that my hands shake alot while studying and I often press the wrong key like when I try pressing 2 i press 3 or 1 and then it just bumps me down from like 92 to 70 I was stuck doing a single thing for 2 freaking hours because this thing kept doing it like I had the correct calculations in my book and did them but it just kept going wrong

THIS SITE IS AWFUL! My math teacher assiness like 20 to do in one week and its so overwhelming! plus they rlly affect my grade! one ixl i don't do and suddenly i have a 70! And don't get me started on the smart score! i swear i was at like 99 I GOT ONE WRONG AND GOT SENT BACK TO LIKE 79! Plus the explanations make no sense! its so bad i usually just look up the answers