Customer Reviews

College Algebra

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

textbook for college algebra.

As with his other texts, Larson approaches subjects from an analytical perspective AND from a graphic/geometric perspective.
This allows students who despise the Xs, Ys, and Zs of algebra to "see" what might otherwise escape them if approached only analytically.

Excellent text.

This book sucks if it's the only tool you have to learn College Algebra. I am currently taking this course and this book sucks as a reference manual. It presupposes that you know quite a bit and offers few examples of concepts being presented. My teacher is less than stellar, as he is excellent at math, but not so hot with the English language. So between this text and my teacher I am having a really hard time grasping anything in this class. I swear I'm learning more from youtube videos and online math labs.
*edit*
Since writing my original review of this book, even my professor agrees that this book falls short in terms of adequately explaining concepts. Most examples are given only in theoretical terms with no examples given using actual numbers to show how make use of the provided formulas. Moreso there is a huge difference between the examples given and the questions that are given as review. Basically, Larson provides examples using the most basic forms, but writes questions that are significantly more complex, making novices completely confused on how to bridge the gap between the two.

The language in the book is extremely cryptic. I often have to re-read portions over and over just to get the gist of what's trying to be said. Most sentences in this book are constructed in such a way you'd think Rubik was the author of this book. I have had less trouble with dissecting and understanding Shakespeare or Aristotle than this book, and I'm not majoring in any form of literature.

The worst thing about this book is the attached Webassign homework system. Hopefully you don't have to use this garbage either. It's a web site where you go to complete homework. It's a good idea in theory, but half the time things don't work. On paper I can finish the assigned problems in less than 10 minutes, but it takes anywhere from 5-30 minutes more to correctly input my answer into this system... and I am no slouch when it comes to interfacing with computers, websites, etc. Also you're given something like 5 tries to get an answer right, so I've wound up getting locked out of answering the question because I used up all my tries attempting to get my answer inputted in a form that the website will accept. One thing that is nice about Webassign is that there's a link labeled "Watch It" for some problems where a video pops up with someone verbally explaining the steps involved in getting to the answer, showing steps on a whiteboard-like display.The problem here is that 1) these aren't available for every problem assigned, so cross your fingers that you already understand that concept, and 2)There are multiple people who narrate these things, so the quality of the explanations vary greatly from narrator to narrator. Some of them do a fantastic job of explaining and writing out the steps, and some basically just repeat the question, combine multiple steps without showing any work and say the answer. It's completely inconsistent. The good videos are usually 5-10 minutes long, but the bad ones are like 30 seconds- 2 minutes, with the bulk of the time spent repeating the question.

This book is garbage, and my belief is anyone saying otherwise is probably well versed in higher-level math and are just skimming this book for a refresher, using it as a reference, or work for the publishing company and want to make sure their pockets stay fat, regardless of whether students learn or not. It's no mystery that new editions of textbooks come out about once a year (because so many things in Algebra change from year to year) so maybe this book is written like this on purpose so a good chunk of students will fail and have to buy the 6th edition next year.

I'm currently using this book in a college algebra course. I find the book to be very problematic. It assumes that you know too much background information. It gives examples of problems, but often only the most simplistic form of a type of problem leaving you to figure out for yourself the methodology for solving the more advanced versions which may even contain additional steps.

The leap in this book from quality level of example to sophistication level of the actual problems is just unbearable without excellent teaching/tutoring.

It often skips multiple steps in its explanations leaving you scouring the internet for video examples to make up for it's lack of breaking down it's conclusions. It also has an odd organization of including a pre-chapter that contains quite a bit of algebra in it rather than focusing on pre-algebraic information (which it premises to do) so you will find yourself rummaging back to the P chapter just to even begin to do the exercises in the other chapters which is annoying when it would be more intuitive to keep similar information together. In it's defense this book does cover quite an exhaustive amount of material.

I'll start out by saying that when I took this class I myself had no intention of taking any more mathematics beyond this class. Fast forward a couple years and I'm about to take a calculus course. When I took the class, this book seemed illogical in its explanations for the fact that it didn't do a great job in breaking things down in plain english. However, it has just enough in it for you to figure the plain english out on its own. I ended up in a huge quandary when in my Gen Chem course in college suddenly required me to know log again. Me--having forgotten entirely all the properties of logs (because yeah, you're never gonna need it). That said, I needed a reference. So there I go and instantly I'm able to read it, and I find the language useful and easy to understand.

So the moral of the story is this: This text is great if you need a back reference, but you'll need a great teacher or a really logical mind to figure out many of the problems.

Oh, the examples also don't go over the most difficult questions you'll find in the text--so the instructor's edition is MANDATORY. Then at least--if you have the answer you can reason backwards to the problem to find you mistake(s)

I rate this a 4 though because it was also a very good resource for some things I needed to go back to in calculus and whenever I feel the need to refresh skills.

As far as the necessity of algebra--no its not necessary, but if you look at the pay difference between bachelor's degrees that use even a little math (such as accounting or management) and no math at all (English majors, humanities, psychology) the discrepancy in pay is at minimum $11000 (as of 2007). Personally, I'd rather put myself through a little hell during my four years in order to get a job that actually pays what I'm worth. And that's not too much to ask.

Everything was perfect. The description of the book was correct. The book arrived quickly and in great condition. Thank you for such a hassle free experience.

I'm right on the verge of graduating and the only thing standing between me and my degree is this stupid College Algebra class, filled with useless information that I'm quite certain I'll never use again! Ok now that I've vented about that, I must say that I cannot understand why my college switched from Blitzer's College Algebra 2nd Edition to this text. As you may have guessed this isn't my first attempt at passing this *#$% class. A few semesters ago when I took it we used Blitzer's book, and while it was still Algebra and fairly loathesome, at least it was somewhat understandable! This book is clearly written for students who are good at advanced math and plan to go on to higher math. (Talk of Calculus in the pre-chapter! God help me!) Ok, so what if you don't plan on doing that? What if you are just taking this class because your state government says you have to or you can't graduate? I wish someone would write a Collge Algebra text for the rest of us!!!