Customer Reviews

College Algebra

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

In his latest update of this text, Sullivan takes the reader through a high school or undergraduate level course in algebra. Though the title says "College", all of this material is also eminently do-able at the high school level, for advanced students, aspiring to major in maths or science. While at the university level, it appears to be targeting those students not majoring in maths, physical science or engineering.

Why? Because the dividing line is calculus. The book gives a good treatment of what you should know in maths, up to, but not including, calculus. It also has a chapter on probability. Which I don't think is usually considered part of algebra. But, pragmatically and correctly, Sullivan chose to include it.

The text has numerous examples, with only a little emphasis on a strict derivation of theorems. Another indication that it does not target a maths major. Sullivan gives informal explanations that should suffice to satisfy most readers.

Each chapter also has a prolific number of problems; around one hundred. Very suitable and convenient for a lecturer [you?] to assign as homework, since the book only supplies answers to half of these. Enough to keep your students happily [?] busy.

As other reviewers stated, the examples do little to help you answer the questions or the associated online content that most colleges use via Blackboard..

I've learned nothing from the book. The book I paid $150 for ($100 after my scholarship). The examples skip most of the steps. This is fine for someone who can infer the steps with ease, but leaves someone who can't completely bewildered.

I have had to use videos on Youtube and a few websites to piece together an understanding of the material, along with some help from my instructor when I could understand the problem well enough to explain to him what I didn't get.

Even worse, many concepts (especially problem solving with algebra) are lightly touched with one or two incomplete examples at the end of the section and nothing else.

The online component is no better. Pearson has no excuse to omit steps in examples when the explanation for an entire problem would use almost no space, and yet they still do it.

The quality of the textbook is absolutely unacceptable.

This book help a lot for my son homework in the high school, the book College Algebra from Sullivan is good for the students learn algebra.

I'm not a huge fan of math but I did not find this book to be a hard read. It does take a little time to manage your way through it.

This book provides examples which explain mathematical concept step by step so that it is easy to understand. However, some of the example or content describe too much which make me confuse. This problem also appears in the MyMathLab examples. Moreover, this book creates many formulas from one basic formula that is not necessary.

I am not, by any means, a mathematician but this book was required for my College Algebra course. The examples given are very far a few between and steps are usually even skipped while explaining some concepts or examples. There are simple too many gaps left for the student to fill in for themselves. If you are VERY proficient in math than this book will serve you well. But if you like me and your not a math major but need to get the class out of the way, than beware this book! I HIGHLY recommend investing in another book to supplement this one. There are many online resources (such as purplemath.com) that also help keep you up to speed. Either way, do not depend on JUST this book to help you understand the material. College Algebra Demystified also does a very good job at explaining what this book does not and in a much more straight forward and easy-to-understand way.

The college I go to requires this book for Math 1050. I have taken other Math classes and this is the worst math textbook I have ever had to buy and use for any math class ever. It is just so awful. How is it awful? Well, for starters the author uses ridiculously easy examples to explain concepts and then throws a hardball in the homework. And the hardball problems are the ones my professor also wants me to be able to do. All of the really hard problems are evens, so the solutions manual would serve better use as a birdcage liner. And for the hardest sections of all, there is no help at all with this book. 3.6 for instance covers applying functions to real life, as in really complex and hard to do word problems. The author skips steps and does not explain anything at all. The examples are on two pages. That is it. From those pitiful two pages I am supposed to be able to derive a function for a photo frame. The only example of such a problem is an even numbered review problem in the review section of the book. I also am in the online version of my college's Math 1050 so I also get deal with the lack of materials to help me learn this stuff from the virtual version of this book on My Math Lab. No help. Most of the time it comes from my professor. And she seems clueless as to why we don't know anything.

This book is just awful. I cannot imagine why any college would want to use it unless they get money from the author to foist this book, which should be shredded and used as kitty litter, because, frankly this book is WORTHLESS. It will only frustrate you. So beware if your college requires this book: you get to shell out good money to subsidize fail of epic proportions. Yes, this book is that awful!

In other pre-Algebra courses I used text's by Blitzer and could figure out and remember what to do without even attending a lecture. His texts were great with tons of examples and practical uses and everything was easily explained and subject matter seemed to flow from one concept to another seamlessly in a way that built upon each chapter. Sullivan's text on the other hand is the worst text I've ever come across in my life. There are too few examples, hardly enough practical uses explained, not nearly as clear of an explanation, and poor organization of the contents. The contents seem as though they are jumbled together and rarely seem to build directly off the previous chapters. The explanaitions were so bad I didn't even understand them when the teacher was explaining what was in the book. I you have to buy it go ahead if you don't run away as fast as you can from this book.

This is the worst math textbook I have ever had the misfortune of coming into contact with. It does no real explaining at all, with the easiest possible examples and no step by step aid. It reminds me of a reclusive, bumbling but idiotic savant genius trying to explain something...in another language! The examples were skeleton problems; worked out in shortcut ways with no reasoning or explaination behind them. There was a little module on the sidebar titled "In words" that would be helpful, but there were too few of them and they were too short. It was very disappointing. Most people use the textbook as supplementary to instructor's notes and lectures, but this book was like the bare bones, with every other piece missing.