Gateways to Algebra and Geometry: An Integrated Approach [Hardcover]

John Benson (Author), Sara Dodge (Author), Walter Dodge (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395771242
• ISBN-13: 978-0395771242
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,147,082 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is, quite simply, an awesome book., October 2, 2008

By 

Rianyn (Red Forest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gateways to Algebra and Geometry: An Integrated Approach (Hardcover)

Contrary to the previous reviewer, I have very fond memories of this math book, as well as the following algebra and geometry books. I even kept a copy, and have used it to help my younger sister understand concepts that her newer, more dumbed-down text book failed to explain well or even address.

However, the thing about it is that it's challenging, significantly more so than other pre-algebra books. My school used this book over two years, so the first half in seventh grade, and the second half in eighth grade. That allowed us to cover each section more thouroughly. My teacher was also quite good and was a huge fan of Gateways, and taught it well. With the inherant difficulty of the book, I can see how a crappy teacher could ruin the experience of this book, and how it would suck if you were fundamentally not a math brain. And thinking back, I can imagine that trying to do it in one year would be rough.

Then again, I really don't see a problem with text books actually being challenging, and actually making students think. This book did a good job of that. I remember the problems that had no real answer. Frustrating at first, but after a few minutes it makes you start to see outside the box a bit, that the solution could be that there is in fact no solution. So what if the problem doesn't fit the exact template of the example? That's called making you thnk about and apply the concept, not regurgitate the methodology shown in the example. It's hard because it's teaching you how to think about math concepts for yourself. And having used the algebra book in this series too, it does actually segue into algebra quite well.

Sadly, thanks to whiny parents, whiny students, and falling standards in schools, books like these are falling by the wayside, replaced with dumber, easier books that don't usually go the extra length to teach you about the underlying concepts.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible Book... Avoid, April 6, 2009

By 

Thaumaturge - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gateways to Algebra and Geometry: An Integrated Approach (Hardcover)

This book presents the (well known) topics in a disjointed and incomplete manner. No one should be forced to struggle through such a text. To add insult to injury, the answer key also contains errors.

Avoid at all costs. Using just about any other text would be an improvement.

I can only assume the person giving this text a good review had a teacher who made up for the text's inadequacies in class. Good textbooks stand on their own.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is, quite simply, a bad book, February 27, 2008

By 

Michael Morrison "Math Lover" (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gateways to Algebra and Geometry: An Integrated Approach (Hardcover)

My daughter has this book as her text book for Middle School prealgebra. I love math, but I hate dealing with this book. It is a clue that in the introductory "letter to the student" the authors essentially tell the student to expect to be confused -- sometimes for days -- before getting a concept. The examples tend to be poor and convoluted. Often there is no example in the section for the difficult problems assigned. If you can't find a way to solve the problem it may be because the problem has no solution - they just don't forewarn you that some of the problems have no solutions. You get to learn that from the teacher the next day after struggling with a homework assignment containing an impossible to solve problem. I have found some problems which preceeded the explanation of how to do them by a chapter or two. Quite a few of the concepts and problems have nothing to do with preparation for algebra that I can tell -- and I just complete a 1000 page college algebra text book. If you want to learn strange names of concepts used by ancient Greek mathematcians -- without any explanation of what they used the concept for-- this is the text for you!