Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill

	Title: Schaum's Outline of Geometry Purchase Item Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill List Price: $17.95 Our Price: $4.00
Customer Reviews:
Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill Good for basic refresher
I bought this book as a recommended book for a masters Geometry class I was taking. While the concepts of my class were far more advanced than this book, the content of the book made remembering about the geometry and basics (probably good through hs geometry) more clear. I good book to take you through high school geometry.
Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill Caution - There are Mistakes
I bought this book to use with my daughter for added drill and review of Geometry and was shocked to find an inaccurate mathematical statement after the Commutative Law of Multiplication (3a X 5 = 5 X 2a = 10a) and three errors in the solutions provided to practice questions in the first eight pages. I haven't ventured further, but based on my experience thus far, I will need to review every example and problem for accuracy, something I hadn't planned to do and shouldn't need to do.
Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill Excellent if you need a refresher course in geometry
I found myself needing to review geometry for the SAT and needed a succinct, clear, and accurate guide. This outline has more than exceeded my expectations. By the time I worked through most of the problems in this book, my geometry skills had doubled and the SAT geometry was relatively easy. I highly reccomend this book as either a refresher guide or as a textbook.
Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill Review and practice
This is a great way to reivew principles and then use the problems for additional practice. Some problems are fully worked, others have only the answer listed. Great addition for someone who learns best by doing problems.
Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill Good for drilling but not for teaching
We know from the book's success and from other reviewers that it is good for preparing students who need many easy exercises to drill for a rudimentary exam in geometry. I want to discuss it from the point of view of teaching a student who is interested or could become interested in learning geometry. In a rigorous presentation of geometry one starts by treating "point", "straight line" (and "plane" in solid geometry) as undefined terms. One states their assumed properties as postulates. One defines all other objects in geometry in terms of these and one derives all other assertions about about geometric objects by logical reasoning alone; one may not use without proof even what is obvious from looking at a figure, e.g., that if two points A, B are inside a triangle then the entire line segment AB is inside. The teaching of geometry in high school has long been intended as an example of rigorous reasoning but to fully adhere to the above standard would make a course too subtle, long and boring. The challenge for the writer of a school textbook or a curriculum is to present a reasonable amount of geometry, especially geometry needed in applications, and to loosen the standards of rigor by not dwelling much on rigorously proving what is obvious. How does this book handle the problem? A thin veneer of rigor appears in some places, to be abandoned after a few paragraphs. On pp. 64-65 the book stresses that "point", "line" and "plane" are undefined terms. But it immediately goes on to tell us that if a line segment is divided into parts the length of a line segment is the sum of the lengths of its parts. So, "line" is an undefined term but the book feels free to talk about its segments and their lengths without further explanation. On pp. 85-86 the book lists 10 postulates of algebra. They are all instances of the fact that in an algebraic expression we may replace any quantity by one that is equal to it. The distributive, associative and commutative laws are not among the postulates but of course the book does not hesitate to use those. After the 10 postulates of algebra come the geometry postulates 11-19. Postulate 14 says that one and only one circle can be drawn with a given point as center and a given radius. Since a circle has been defined on p. 67 as the set of all points at a given distance from the center, it should have been obvious to the authors that there is no need to state this as a postulate. Postulate 15 says that any geometric figure can be moved without changing its size or shape. Needless to say, nowhere was "moving" defined in terms of the undefined concepts point and line. In sum, there are a few pages in the book where the student is told that geometry is built up by deductive reasoning but they seem to have been inserted as an afterthought and bear no relation to the bulk of the book. With the logic of the book muddled, how are students to know what they can use in a proof? Here "principle"-s come to the rescue. The book contains about 200 "principles". Examples: principle 6 on p. 146: The diagonals of a parallelogram bisect each other. Principle 4 on p. 153: the median of a trapezoid is parallel to its bases and its length is equal to one half the sum of its bases. A few pages later the student is asked to prove some trivialities and if he guesses that of the countless "principles" he has read, the ones he needs to use are among the ones immediately preceding the problem, he will be right. How far does the book get into geometry? Let A,B,C,D be points on a circle and E be the intersection of AC and BD. Facts about the angles and lengths of this configuration are given much space and, together with Pythagoras' Theorem, represent the limits of the book's scope. As another reviewer noted already, the cover promises solid geometry but the book has none. Redeeming features of the book are chapter 15, pp. 291-305, which gives the basic ruler and compass constructions and chapter 16, pp. 306-317, which lists and properly proves the theorems of substance in the book. The way I see it, these 27 pages contain the mathematics of the book; the rest is drill. If your student has or could develop an interest in math, science or technology, the geometry book for him/her is Harold R. Jacobs: Geometry (W.H. Freeman). Math has been my preoccupaton for 60 years but it was still a revelation that geometry could be presented in such a stimulating and attractive manner. There is no straying from or diluting the subject as in other big colorful textbooks. The price is high but worth it. [...]
Schaum's Outline of Geometry by McGraw-Hill Product Description
Three million high school students and 172, 000 college students enroll in geometry classes every year. Schaum's Outline of Geometry, Third Edition, is fully updated to reflect the many changes in geometry curriculum, including new terminology and notation and a new chapter on how to use the graphing calculator.