Customer Reviews

Algebra 2: An Incremental Development, 2nd Edition

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have been using Saxon mathematics for 15 years, first as a 5th-12th grade student and more recently as a tutor. This program is excellent and like one of the other reviewers I can agree that even my "average" Saxon students have significantly better mathematics skills that those students using other programs.

I began using Saxon math in 5th grade. Prior to that I used a typical "learn and drill" method. A new concept was taught and drilled for 20+ problems and then the instruction moved on to another topic. By the time I reached an end of unit exam I had forgotten the early material.

Then in 5th grade we changed curriculums. I didn't become a "math lover" overnight. In fact, although my math skills improved, I adamently hated math all the way through junior high. Then I began algebra. By the end of Saxon's algebra 2 textbook I loved algebra and was making high A's in my homework.

A couple of years after highschool I was invited to begin tutoring math at a private school. At this point I reviewed my Saxon Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 eventually going on to study Advanced Mathematics for the fun of it. I would spend 2-3 hours a day studying math and loving every minute of it.

This independant study was 2 1/2 years ago. I recently decided to attend college as a math major. Last semester I passed Calculus I near or at the top of all the Cal I classes combined. My Saxon skills gave me the tools I needed to study well and grasp rather abstract concepts.

The one area that has concerned me is trigonometry. The Advanced Mathematics covered the topic quite thoroughly, however Calculus requires a lot of trig and it has been so long since I studied Advanced Math I've been afraid my professors will "spring" something on me I don't remember.

Yesterday my fears were alleviated. The math department held an extra credit exam for the Cal 2 students. The exam was a trig placement exam they would like to implement in the future. Because of my other classes I didn't have time to study so I decided to "wing" it and hope my studies 2 1/2 years ago would award me at least partial credit.

I'm quite pleased to say that thanks to Saxon I knew how to work every single problem on the test even though it has been 2 1/2 years since I studied trigonometry and I have not had any trig students since that time. Saxon works... Excellently.

If you are considering the Saxon texts let me encourage you to read the introductions to the texts. They are quite inspiring, imparting the vision Saxon had for math.

In addition students must work every problem. This is the whole reason Saxon works -- lots and lots of review. What most people fail to realize is that mathematics is like music; practice creates excellence.

Finally for those concerned about Saxon's lack of a dedicated geometry text, after having tutored math for 5 years I am convinced that Saxon's integrated approach is far more effective than traditional methods. Saxon teaches geometry concepts throughout the junior high and high school grades allowing for mastery of the ideas long before the formal proofs are introduced in Advanced Mathematics. This is excellent as I believe that older students have a greater capacity to grasp the rather abstract skills required for geometric proofs.

I'm very thankful for the curriculum switch in 5th grade. Because of Saxon I have transformed from a math-hating elementary student to a very succesful math major.

As a math graduate student who used this book in high school, it amazes me that I ever gave mathematics another chance when I got to college.

I hated this book. The assignments were never challenging, just tedious and time-consuming. I never felt that I was learning anything. When I began to study "real" mathematics (i.e. proof based analysis, abstract algebra, etc.) I found myself far behind the other students, even though I had done well with books like this in high school. I was pretty angry that I had spent years doing mindless calculations instead of learning to solve hard algebra problems.

That said, this book does teach basic computation very well, and that's more than most students get out of high school. For the many students who could care less about math the Saxon series is probably not a bad choice, particularly if the teacher isn't a mathematician.

I noticed that many users of this book homeschool--and I can see why this book would work well in such an environment. If you find that your kid is bored with this book, though, I urge you to find him or her a tutor with advanced mathematical training. The Saxon books (and most high schools, I'm afraid) are just not equipped for the talented math student, and it's a terrible thing to be intellectually bored and frustrated during the teen years.

Math is both a skill and a creative intellectual activity. Students need to master the basics (skill drill) and be challenged with unique and interesting problems (creative activity) that they have never seen before.

Saxon Algebra II is very good for skill drill: every lesson is followed by 30 problems. The same problem types keep recurring lesson after lesson. Because of this, students do gain mastery of basic algebraic manipulations.

However, there are no unique or creative problems whatsoever: NONE. There are no problems to challenge the student to apply what they have learned to a 'unique context.' Also the student is never asked to prove any thing. A few proofs are presented to the student so they can see what a proof is, but this is very rare.

To get through the entire book and work every problem will take a lot of discipline. This is because the material is so repetitive. Yes, students do need repetition to master the basics. However they should also be presented with some interesting, unique, and challenging problems.

I'm doing the saxon Algebra 2 this year, and I hate it! Last year I did Algebra 1(Abeka) and I never liked Math so much before! I always understood the concept and got good grades even though the Math was challenging. People rave about Saxon because they say it has so much review! This is wear I think they make a mistake. Every lesson does have 30 problems, true. The problem is they only give you 2 problems about the new concept that you just struggled to learn. For me that's not enough practice to get the concept into my head, so I find that when I get to the next lesson that reviews that concept I have to go back and relearn it all over again. I can't say that I have learned anything new at all in Algebra and I find the book far behind abeka when it comes to Algebra. The only new problems I've learned are dealing with Geometry. And when you learn something new, the book has the most round about way of explaining it. Once I figure out the new concept and have done the 2 dinky practice problems It takes forever to get through the 30 review problems. It takes me at least 2 hours to finish a lesson!!!!!
One more thing that really bugs me about the book is that the Author comes straight out and says that he doesn't like Mathematics! He certainly isn't passing on a love for Math, if anything he is passing on a hate for the Subject. I am a little worried this year that I won't get a good enough Algebra 2 education.

I used to look forward to Math every day, Not ever since I met this book. Maybe you think I'm just not very good at Math, but my best friend has the same problems.
I hope this review is some help! I'm a 10th grade homeschooler who wants to save you from falling into the saxon trap!

I am nearing the completion of my PhD in physics at a major research university, so I have studied a fair amount of math in my day. All the math I have studied is geared toward problem solving and understanding how we can describe the world around us using mathematics. This, it seems to me, should be what we are trying to communicate to high school students. I have spent the last two months regularly tutoring a poor girl who is trying her best to learn Algebra II from this book that was inflicted upon her, and I think the book is a disgrace.

It is obvious to me that they are intentionally making the problems more difficult than necessary in order to see if you can grope your way through the haze and figure out what they're asking you. There is no need of this in learning math. Difficult problems are fine, but at least make them clear and precise. That's what math is all about. The way they formulate problems amazes me. Why write that the volume of the gas is 0.007 x 10^-2 liters? What kind of foolishness is that? Either use scientific notation or don't.

This book uses proprietary notation when there is no need to do so. Write 3R - 2U in polar coordinates. What??!!?? I certainly know what polar coordinates are, but 3R - 2U is completely meaningless to me. OK, if you look back, you will discover that this is Saxon's notation for 3x - 2y ("R" is "right" and "U" is "up"). What's wrong with standard Cartesian notation? It has served me perfectly well for many years now. That's what the students will need to know if they ever actually want to use what they're learning outside of the classroom. With the amount of math I know, I don't feel like I should struggle to understand the meaning of a high school algebra II problem.

Finally, this book seems to move incredibly slowly. We've been repeadedly doing the same types of problems in different lessons for over a month now. If you could teach something well once, you might not have to keep teaching it over and over again. It looks to me like this author doesn't understand math very well, at least not in any way that he can figure out what the goal of mathematics is and how to communicate clearly and effectively to a student. As someone who understands the significance of mathematics, and regularly has to use it in many contexts professionally, I would strongly urge everyone to look elsewhere for a way to learn high school algebra.

After experimenting with several math texts in our early years of home schooling, we tried Saxon. I now have three children at various levels in the series. My eldest student, having used Saxon since grade 3, is currently half-way through the Algebra II text.

One of the key distinguishing features of Saxon is the continuous review. As in traditional texts, each day's lesson presents one to two new concepts, but most texts then have the student do 30 of that type of problem only. Saxon will give several practice problems then the student will have 25 to 30 problems of mixed type, a few of which will be the new topic the rest are problems from previous lessons. This continuity of practice allows students to develop long-term memory of procedures as well as make connections between different math concepts and strategies. In many of the levels, each problem references what lesson the concept was taught in so students can easily look back if he has trouble. Unfortunately, Algebra II (second Edition) does not have this feature. I anticipate that future editions will remedy this however.

As far as the Saxon series in general, student test results are an easy benchmark to go by. Standardized test results have not arrived yet for current exams but two year old test results (equivalent to the Saxon 7/6 text) show the following for the Stanford 9 exam for 7th grade:
Poblem Solving 75th percentile
Procedures 58th percentile.
Specifics of subtest results: Above average in measurement, estimation, number relationships, number systems, probability, and geometry; Average in Problem solving strategies, patterns and functions, algebra; below average in statistics. I anticipate the next exam results (Algebra II) to show an even greater percentile rank.

Algebra 2: An Incremental Development -Testmasters(Saxon Algebra)

The school where I taught used Saxon Math texts from 1990-2003. At first just 5-8 grades then soon after K-8 grades supplimented with Saxon spanish materials. This school is 90% English Language Learners 12 months or more. Middle school students were scheduled by math scores and recommendations by Saxon Placements and teacher recommendations. There was 6th grade pre-algebra, 7th grade algebra and eighth grade algebra II. After a few years there was no remedial math in those grades and all 7th and 8th graders were in pre-algebra or higher. Scores K-8 rose from 23 percentile average 2nd thru 8th grades to 48 percentile. Eighth grade Algebra students scored in the high 80 percentile range. Egual to the top schools in the county.

Regretably, these texts were discontinued and the math test scores have declined back to the 23 percentile level.

John Saxon intially designed these texts. A former figher pilot, test pilot on the X-15, taught electical engineering at the Air Force academy developed them for the use of his own children. Other parents wanted them, so eventually the began to publish them. The point here is that engineers have to develop things that work or there is a professional price to pay. Textbook writers and publishers are not held to that standard.

These texts are highly effective and can be very usefull in backing up traditional texts by matching to the standards.

I teach at a very large high school, and this book and other of different levels were used extensively from the lowest level to the highest, which included math and physics. ours students improved from the lowest level, but never move beyond a certain level, mainly because the text are of very low level. Review, indeed they do. but what good is to review old material that is not challenging and does not offer enough of the material seen on standarized test and AP exams.

we finally managed to removed this text from our school after much debate. our students are starting to show improvement using better books, and with it, better teaching.

Let me be perfectly honest; I used to loathe mathematics with my entire being, that was before I began using the Saxon texts. Now I am confident in my study of algebra II and I really wish that each student would use this book!!! The examples are informative, precise, yet altogether interesting! Mr. Saxon leaves nothing to befuddle the student, and his approach reinforces the students confidence and their ability to do more advanced types of problems.

God bless Mr. Saxon, -his knowledge has brought joy and understanding to so many students- may he rest in heavenly peace! :)

Before my sophomore year in high school I went through the beggining of this well written mathematics textbook. It was enough to clarify all the points on Algebra II, and cleared up any confusion from previous years. With a well structured answer to problems, a predictable pattern, and no smiling faces or unnecessary colors trying to make out that math was fun, the book focused on the basics neccessary to understand advanced math, which started me off way ahead of the game. I would reccommend this book to already imaginitive homeschoolers and such students who want the clear and consice knowlege without having to sort through large quanties of extraneous information.