Customer Reviews

Geometry: Student Edition

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a long time mathematics tutor and teacher I know this book very well. I don't think the material is presented or explained in a way that is especially helpful for young people. As a tutor I have to constantly reintroduce the topic and/or try to stay ahead of the student's class. Beyond that, the students are asked to do only the simplest of proofs. Additionally, a new topic will be introduced and then no problems appear in the exercise portion of the section to help the student test and practice his or her understanding of the newly introduced topic (and of course, those problems invariably will show up on the chapter exam and the final).

Moreover, I think the book just fails the kids. It seems to omit certain standard concepts by being "accessible" and undemanding of even the most minor critical thinking skills. I believe that both of these shortcomings will leave the student unprepared for the challenging problems on standardized tests and on college entrance exams. Not to mention any sort of subsequent advanced work in high school and college. Another thing about the Larson book is that the answers to many of the problems are so arithmetically peculiar that the student has no feeling that maybe they actually got the right answer. Good problems reassure the student that they are on the right track. Also, once a new concept or definition is introduced it is never repeated.

Overall, I think that the more capable students will be shortchanged and misled into thinking that they know more than they actually do and the less capable student might pass geometry but will perform poorly on college entrance exams and be unable to successfully progress in mathematics if they need to do so.

This textbook is more useful for the flashy (and admittedly very good) teacher's ancillaries. But this review is not for the ancillaries. It is for the text itself.

The text's treatment of proofs is very cursory and not rigorous enough. The diagrams for the algebraic problems are too confusing, compiling numerous different concepts into one problem. While I agree that students must learn to differentiate one property/theorem/rule/postulate from another, it doesn't make sense that most, instead of some, diagrams are over-complicated. Personally, I don't like the format with the examples, mainly because it downplays the necessity for students to become LITERATE in math, not just a good "example comparer." The text has little actual TEXT to speak of.

I have not been teaching HS for very long, but I do not like this book. I am not a textbook dependent teacher, but I do (woefully) recognize that students have poor study skills and don't reference notes all the time. I do not teach out of the textbook and I spend many hours planning lessons, lecture notes, my own examples, etc. I had many complaints that the problems were confusing, included too many ideas at the same time, etc. Some may be successful in "teaching themselves" from the examples, but I am very disappointed that textbooks no longer have TEXT. I may be a math teacher, but I understand the importance of reading and how it helps a person to process the material.

On the other hand, the teacher resources is a great set of worksheets, study masters, note taking guides, etc. Perhaps the authors spent more time on those resources instead of the text.

I am a relearner of geometry, having been years since I have been in high school. A lot of new stuff is in this text than what I remember. I love the "Key Concepts" which identify the main idea I have to learn. The theorems and postulates are well written and thoroughly explained. There are several ways to review concepts. I do wish the answers to the "Guided Practice" problems, which help to learn from the examples, were in the back of the book. As a self-study learner, I find the text easy to understand and would recommend this edition.

As far as the review about how the postulates "cannot be proven," On page 9 the text says postulates are "accepted without proof." Also, there is no problem #24 on page 306.

Our school uses this book for all Geometry classes. The book is quite thorough, but serves the teacher more than the students. The students for the most part don't read it; just use it to find the assigned homework problems.

One glaring weakness is on page 306 where Postulate 7 is proven from Postulate 5 in problem 24. After hammering into my students that postulates cannot be proven, there goes the book proving a postulate!

McDougal-Littell Geometry is used in the school district where I tutor students in all levels of high school math. In this area, Geometry is typically being studied by advanced 9th graders and average 10th graders. I've gotten quite a bit of opportunity to familiarize myself with this book since the vast majority of students' homework is assigned directly from this text.

All-in-all, it covers the standard Euclidian Geometry syllabus nicely. There's a basic refresher of arithmetic, an introduction to the two-column proof, and a smattering of chapters dealing with the basic shapes (triangles, parallelograms, circles, etc...) To this end, the book achieves its goals and a highly ambitious instructor can easily lead their students through the entire book in about 12 weeks.

My major qualm with the book is that it is extremely redundant, watered down with "fluff" and fails to inspire students with interesting and challenging problems. No doubt, my gripes echo those of many educators who must wonder, "Who is writing this stuff?" Theres absolutely no reason why a 9th or 10th grade level student should spend the first ~ 70 pages of the text putting dots on points of intersection, adding 2 + 2 (line segments) and using the distance formula. These three or four concepts are buried in several dozen pages of "fluff" that would fail to challenge students half their age! The chapter introducing two-column proofs gives no historical context, or context at all for that matter. It simply fires off one disconnected concept after another and haphazardly throws them together at the last moment. Why not introduce a proof (and the mathematical jargon) with a useful historical example? Students are usually baffled by proofs at this point in their studies because they have no idea where they came from-- up until now, they have just memorized a bunch of rules. With proofs, they attempt to apply the same method and, invariably, become frustrated since you must approach a proof with a different mindset. The remaining chapters all examine shapes, but, by the last third of the book the proof has been largely abandoned. (It must not be in the state test rubric, so why include it?) The sample problems and exercises are extremely simple, very redundant and completely unimaginative. Theres rarely an inspiring real-life example and geometry is not placed in the context of higher math.

I would be more forgiving of these weaknesses if this were a 6th-8th grade math text. In that case, a little more "fluff" is acceptable and redundancy helps solidify shaky content knowledge. But for the intended audience, this book is just "O.K" to me and could definitely stand to be improved.

This book is way too easy, especially for a high school geometry class. There aren't any proofs over 3 steps in the whole book. I want my students to learn how to reason logically through a proof, not how to see that since two triangles share a side by the reflexive property they are congruent (with the other given information). I had to create my own curriculum for the proof section because of how easy it is.

I saw another review on here talking about postulates vs theorems, and its true. This book tries to tell the students that SSS and ASA are postulates... they're theorems! And, to back track, who defines 'point', 'line' , and 'plane'... Euclid, being one of the only things we criticize him for, and this book! really?

On the up side, this book as a lot of extra resources for the teacher. The teachers edition is packed full of extra materials, lesson plans, unit plans, and hands-on activities.

This book does go through many important topics that I have seen missing in other geometry books, but the bottom line is that it is TOO easy and there are too many mistakes giving incorrect information.

If there is such a thing as a math textbook that explains applications to real-life situations and makes it so the reader can understand, then this is it.

Length:: 2:03 Mins

-8th grade honors student
-Fantastic Teacher
-Hard if you don't understand the concepts, looking back at the examples doesn't help
-problems are way to hard or way too easy!

2 Stars!!

I love the "Key Concepts" which identify the main idea I have to learn. The theorems and postulates are well written and thoroughly explained. There are several ways to review concepts. I do wish the answers to the "Guided Practice" problems, which help to learn from the examples . I find the text easy to understand and would recommend this edition

Ordered this text for an at-home copy for my son. Arrived in exactly the condition and as quickly as I expected. Thank you Amazon!