Customer Reviews

Basic Economics (with InfoTrac and Economic Applications Printed Access Card)

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

 

 

I got the book quickly and it was in perfect shape. Though it was in used section it was advertised new and it was. The web code was in place and good also.

I was very pleased with this product. I ordered it on a Friday a received it the following Monday. Extremely fast shipping! The product was just as described. Excellent!

Book has alot of highlighting and written notes on several pages in the book and is very distracting especially when learning a new subject for the first time.

This textbook is the most bland and uninteresting of every textbook I have ever read. The content is generally written out in an extended technical format with virtually every chapter packed full of formulas, graphs, and tables without nearly enough descriptive information to make sense of it all. So much material is glossed over in each of the 19 chapters, it is difficult to digest most of it especially in a distant learning 1-semester college course (without having in-class lectures).

I have to say, for a "basic economics" book, this is anything but. In fact, the material written about is so complex and the quizzes and tests so challenging that, for an added fee, you are encouraged to purchase an additional "study book" to accompany the main book! The author clearly knows a lot about economics, but not a lot about making the material interesting nor digestible. I read each chapter twice, studied the review notes and chapter summaries, and still struggled to grasp many of the economic concepts. The quizzes and tests released by the publisher are likewise so challenging that it is terribly daunting to take them, even with an open-book policy.

Finally, for being a 14th edition the book and its accompanying material surely isn't devoid of any errors! Some portions of this book are updated to reflect 2005 and even 2006 information, while other parts have been carelessly neglected and still contain conflicting information from earlier editions. The PowerPoint summaries provided by the company are riddled with typos and technical/formatting issues; some even have "editor comment" notes still stuck to various slides. Finally, both the quizzes and tests have multiple blatant ERRORS in them, so answers which are factually correct based on the book's own material were scored as incorrect on more than a few occasions. I can't believe that such an expensive book, at its 14th edition, would still have such errors within its materials. Apparently the author doesn't believe in proofreading or just dreads reading over his own sandpaper-dry material. This book has left a bitter taste in my mouth and was anything but enjoyable to read. Based primarily on the errors encountered in the book and related materials, I have recommended that the professors at my college explore other alternatives, and they agree.

I buy a lot of my textbooks on Amazon. I have always gotten great service and substantial savings.