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Title: Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card)
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Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
List Price: $139.95
Our Price: $69.99
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card) by Brooks Cole An insult to Precalc textbooks everywhere | I've seen lots and lots of Precalculus textbooks, and this one is just about the bottom of the barrel. Faires and DeFranza have put together a book that's dull, poorly-organized, badly-written, and overpriced. The page layout is hazy and unfocused (look sharp for the tiny, tiny symbol that marks the end of one example and the start of another), and good luck spotting where one subject ends and the next one starts. They insist on using several lines of unfathomable symbology where a simple English sentence would explain things much more clearly. This would be fine for a Calc III book, but come on...
And unforgivably, there are dozens of incorrect answers in the back. My guess is that some questions were modified slightly to justify publishing the Fourth Edition, but the publisher was too cheap to hire a few grad students to make sure that the answers matched the new questions. And for my own personal gripe, I'll add that it's very irritating that some of the answers are given in simplified form and others aren't, seemingly at random.
This book is useless even if you're using it in a math class. | | Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card) by Brooks Cole Poor teaching material | This book fails in teaching calculus.
It is simply a guide of problems without answers. Worthless for anyone looking to be learn calculus. It assumes a student has a good teacher who will explain everything. Very few classroom instructors spend enough time with students to make up for the deficiencies of this book.... | | Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card) by Brooks Cole Did a terrible job at explaining concepts | I've taken up to college level Calculus I before I bought this book for my boyfriend who was taking Pre-Calculus. Since I took Pre-Cal a few years ago (and actually enjoyed it), whenever my boyfriend asked me if I could help him on his Pre-Cal homework, I turned to this book, which he bought as required text for his class, to refresh my memory on how to do some problems.
But instead of reminding me how to do the problems, this book confused me even more! Examples from the book that were supposed to help seemed to skip more than 2 steps at a time and provided no explanation on why some steps were taken. I ended up just looking at some other books and going to the Internet to re-learn concepts I've already been taught.
All in all, buy this book if you have to (ie, is required for class), but personally, I wouldn't recommend trying to teach yourself (or even re-teach) from this book. | | Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card) by Brooks Cole Not much of a text | | I purchased this text as it is required for my precalc class. The review that follows this review talks about how this book is not a self teaching guide but is to supplement the classroom experience. I can't say that I agree wit that. The book is very difficult to read even after attending the classroom session on the topic. The author does a poor job of introducing topics and drawing out points. Symbols are used in a confusing manner without explanation. The author will introduce a topic, explain it in just a few sentences and follow with "therefore" followed by a conclusion that is not explained. The authors seem more interested in proving how smart they are and less interested in teaching. Not really a good book but the graphs are good and odd answers are in the back. | | Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card) by Brooks Cole A good text to teach out of. | This review is about two books: Precalculus, by Faires and DeFranza, and the Study Guide for the same book.
The reviews above seem to be about the text itself (which is, at the moment, not what is being offered for sale; the ISBN is that of the Study Guide).
While the comments from other readers may be valid relative to the uses to which they have put the book, I have found the book an admirable aid for teaching out of. It is compact, has good exercises and examples, is well laid-out and well planned.
Books which are good for self-teaching are not often useful for an instructor who can teach with competence. The text is not a substitute for the professor; it forms the third member of the trio who comprise the learning team: teacher, student, and text.
The book is not encyclopedic, which is a plus In my opinion. It leaves space for the instructor to supplement it with other topics. The approaches taken in the introduction of various topics are appropriate in the majority of cases; these are experts, who see the subject in perspective, and know how each topic fits into the bigger picture which is applied mathematics. A sophomore writing a book to help his freshman friends will write a very different book--possibly more immediately useful to them in some ways, but ultimately less useful! The reviewers seem not to realize that the book being offered for sale is the very Study Guide which could be of great help to those who want a self-teaching book. | | Precalculus (with CengageNOW, Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING Printed Access Card) by Brooks Cole Product Description | | Get a better grade with PRECALCULUS and accompanying technology! With a focus on teaching the essentials, this mathematics text provides you with the fundamentals necessary to be successful in this course and your future calculus course. Exercises and examples are presented the way that you will encounter them in calculus so that you are truly prepared for your next course. Your access to the accompanying CengageNOW learning system includes diagnostics, tutorials, homework, quizzing, and testing. Other tools found throughout the text such as exercises, calculus connections, and true and false questions help you master difficult concepts. |
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