Customer Reviews

Functions Modeling Change: A Preparation for Calculus

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I have taught Precalculus out of this text (and all its previous editions) on and off over the past ten years, and find it to be a thought-provoking and challenging text, and a good one. What the student reviewers have said is true: the problems are not repetitive, and students often don't like the book... initially. I have found that it takes a bit of time for each new class to adjust to the style of the writing and the conceptual (rather than procedural) approach. There aren't many problems that are worked out line-by-line, so it's a tough book for a kid who wants to learn from the book instead of from the class meetings. If you're shopping for a book to base your course around, this book can be a wonderful option, but what makes it great is the variety and unpredictability in the problems. Students who successfully complete this course should be, at the end, more flexible and independent problem solvers with a rich understanding of the rule of four and how different function families inter-relate, but will need a lot of help along the way to get there. Also, I do supplement the book when we study trig, as our kids don't see trig in Algebra 2, and need a little more time with the basics at the front end. Used in an independent high school, mostly with 11th graders.

Maybe I just learn differently than most people, but I hate math books like this one. It walks you through a few easy examples then drops you into problems. I'm not sure why it splits its exercises into two different sections "Exercises" and then "Problems" continuing the same numbering. Poor writing or micro-managing authors, I guess.

Anyways, The first half of the problems are fine then they start throwing curve balls at you in which you are supposed to magically divine new ways of solving the problems that you have never seen before. I'm sure some of this can help work your brain and all, but often times it just frustrates students until we go to class and the instructor shows us the rule that we supposedly learned 2 years ago and should have remembered to invert in order to solve the equation. It would be ideal for us to remember it all, but that's just not the way it works. Stop trying to punish us and give us a hint or reminder, even in the explanation of the section. Something like "Useful equations to remember"

The only good thing I have found with this book is at the end of the chapters there is a whole section of practice problems which I sat down and worked through before my tests and that helped quite a bit.

The other major complaint I have realized recently is a complaint with most Math books I have used. They only give the answers to the odd problems in the back of the book. Now, I understand they do that so all the little kiddies don't just copy the answers and turn in their homework without doing or learning anything, but for people like me who are actually serious about building a solid foundation in math, I would love to see the answers to all of the problems so I can make sure I am on the right track or figure out what I did wrong. I would also love to see more supplemental books that contain the steps to solve the problems. I know this book has one, but I read it only has every 4th problem? That's barely worth the cost.

I'm definitely venting years of frustration in math on this book, but I have used so many other math books just like this one that it all applies.

I am a math professor and I inherited this text book to teach precalculus. I have now switched to a different book. Here are a few specific points. It spends so much time in exponential growth/decay, business math, logarithmic models but does little on the actual exponential and logarithmic functions (as preparation to calculus). It treats (only) common log and natural log and not even a word on log with other base. I do not understand why there is a whole chapter (8) on compositions and inverses when that was done in chapter 2. Moreover chapter 8 comes after exponential, logarithmic and trig. functions -- poor arrangement. Last, polynomial and rational functions come later in ch.9 after all of the complicated trig functions/identities. This may be a matter of choice but I would rather do polynomials first.

I must say that it is well written and could be a good pre-business calculus book. I still have a problem endorsing it with this arrangement.

I will be very honest with you. If your teacher requires you to buy this book or plans on using this book for your math course, just drop the class. It's not worth the pain of going through a quarter or a semester trying to figure out all the bits and pieces the book just wouldn't explain. I can understand the material and having understood it I just can't believe how they ask certain questions and expect a student to know them based on the examples given. The professor may explain the material but the book doesn't give enough assistance. I feel terrible for the next person who uses this book. Good luck.

This math book is so bad that it makes me question the math department that chose it at my school. It has the least explanations, the most poorly drawn graphs, and is easily the most boring math book I've ever used. It could have easily been made with a typewriter, that's how bad the its appearance is. I feel cheated by my school for requiring this book. The only thing worse than this book is its accompanying student solutions manual. The one thing you can rely on in any college math class is the solutions manual. No matter how bad your professor is you can absolutely get an A in the class by following the many examples in the solutions manual. This one however only works every-other odd; so 1, 5, 9, 11. It skips entire sections. I feel like these two books have made pre-calculus a nightmare. So thank you Connally, Hughes-Hallett, and Gleason for making math awful for thousands of students. ... I wish I could give it fewer stars.

I have to use this book for a college math class and I have completely given up trying to learn anything from it. It gives very brief explanations and examples and then asks questions that it has not addressed at all. Everyone in my math class HATES this book, we were even warned about the fact that most students don't like it by our teacher when the class began (now that's a bad sign). I also have a private math tutor who, while he does understand what the questions are asking (he has a masters degree in Physics), doesn't understand why the authors of this book ask their questions in such ridiculous and hard to understand ways. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!!

This textbook has its good side and its downfalls. On one hand if you have a great teacher who explains a lot, the text does a really good job of testing your knowledge of the actual concepts behind what you are supposed to be learning. However, if your professor just tells you to read the book and doesn't lecture very much, you are left wanting more explanations of the material.

the answers on the back of the book are incorrect! it doesnt describe how to do problems well!

Honestly... This book is horrible. Nothing is explained, it's just a bunch of examples that don't have anything to do with the problems. My teacher even said that he doesn't like this book because it's no help at all. Do a lot of studying and don't miss a class is my suggestion, because if something isn't clear when the teacher explains it, it really won't be clear from the book.

Since students rarely take the time to read a math textbook, I think the most important feature is the quality of the problems at the end of each section. For most math textbooks, each section has a bunch of problems that are very repetitive and do not focus enough on conceptual understanding. Functions Modeling Change has a nice variety of problems that force students to think more deeply about the material.

Also, the book emphasizes the "Rule of Four," which I have adopted in my teaching now. Whenever we represent a function, we learn to do so in four ways: with words, with tables, with graphs, and with formulas. Students learn that when they are given one of the four representations, they need to be able to convert it to each of the other three. I feel this process creates a fuller understanding.