This is the best algebra book in the world. The material and Examples are straight forward. Each section is taught very well. The exercises at the end of each section aim at bringing you to the next level of algebra. The trig section is also straight forward. Also,the the trig section is similar to Analytic Trigonometry(by Barnett,Ziegler,and Byleen).
The book is simply straight-forward. No matter what edition you have of this book,it's all about the same.however,this edition is great. An easy 5 stars. |
| As an unchallenged high school student 30 years ago, I never really put much effort into either algebra or trig and still managed to ace my tests. This lack of a rigorous algebraic and trigonometric foundation killed me in subsequent college calculus courses. This book fixed that problem, 30 years later! If you are looking for a book to challenge a motivated high school student, this is the book. I loaned it to one such student after I finished it and she very quickly completed a year and a half of high school algebra and trig in one summer and went on to ace honors calculus that fall. For myself, I picked up this book several years ago and started my math re-education. There are numerous margin exercises that are to be completed immediately after a new concept is introduced in a section plus 50-70 section end exercises. These exercises directly reinforce what you have just studied. There are numerous sections in each chapter. This layout is really nice because as a self study, it normally took me several days to complete a chapter and if I had to wait to do exercises at the end of each chapter, I am positive my retention would have been much lower and my frustration higher, leading to a consequent lowering of motivation. Fortunately, just the opposite happened with this book. Every time I completed a section I was motivated to learn more which reduced the time required to complete each chapter. Finally each chapter has a chapter review then a comprehensive chapter test. If you miss a question in the chapter review, the answer section point to the relevant section for review. Every margin, chapter review and chapter test exercise has the answer in the back of the book. The section-end exercises have only odd answers in the back of the book, but this is not a significant problem. I noticed several things about these exercises at the end of each section. The exercises are not just "make work" but increasingly challenge the reader. The exercises are such that they catch and expose deficiencies in math manipulation skills. If you are weak in some area of algebraic manipulation, it becomes readily apparent in the exercises. The even numbered exercises are variations on the odd numbered exercises. If you can do the odd exercises, you'll be able to do the even exercises and so not require the answers in the back. If you messed up the odd exercise and understand the nature of the mistake, you can still do the even numbered exercise with confidence. The Trig section is short (3 chapters) and dense. Again problems are uniformly excellent. The chapter on trigonometric identities makes the book worth its price by itself and pays off handsomely when studying calculus and you are attempting to solve integrals via trigonometric substitution. There are three additional chapters introducing linear algebra, conic sections and sequences. The book makes use of decent artwork and has technology sections utilizing graphing calculators, but is comprehensive without having such a calculator. Despite the hefty cost for a large format paperback, this book is definitely worth it. The binding has proven to be extremely durable. I just wish I had this book so many years ago. My college math courses would have been so much more enlightening. |
