Customer Reviews

Geometry Success in 20 Minutes a Day

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a homeschooling mother of 2 high school students. I have been teaching geometry but with great difficulty. It has been 30 years since I have taken geometry and it was not a happy experience then and a struggle now. We do use a regular textbook but they are not always as clear a I would like them to be. I have been using this book as a back up in teaching the basics. They are clearly presented and easy to grasp. Each chapter presents a concept with self tests to make sure you understand before you go on the the next idea. It is a great suppliment to our textbook and a good review for the GED test.

Can you explain the difference between a ray and a line segment? What's the formula for calculating the volume of a pyramid? Does the phrase "distance = the square root of the square of X2 - X1 plus the square root of Y2 - Y1" mean anything to you? If not, you need this book - NOW. Here's why...

This book teaches you not only the theorems of geometry, but also its vocabulary. The 20 lessons are presented in a logical order, building on each concept in a sequential way. The lessons really only take about 20 minutes to complete and they are structured to give you enough chance to practice each concept so that you get it without getting bored.

When it comes to SAT prep, however, it falls short and here's why...

SAT problems are complex, involving at least two geometrical theorems to solve one problem. This book does an excellent job of presenting the theorems one at a time so that you can practice them, but it never gives you the opportunity to practice multiple theorems at once. For example, a typical question on the SAT might show a figure of a circle with a square overlapping part of it. You are told that the perimeter of the square is 24. The question asks you to give the area of the circle. Where do you begin to answer a question like this? To solve it you must first find the radius by finding the length of each side of the square. To do that, you must know the basic theorem that the perimeter of a square is 4x the length of each side (p=4s), then you have to solve for the unknown length of each side of the square, thus giving the radius of the circle. From there you must use the radius to find the circumference to solve for the area... you get the idea.

If you couldn't answer the questions at the beginning of my review, PLEASE get this book to use as a solid starting point for your geometry studies, but you'll do yourself a disservice if you rely on it as your only learning tool.

Bottom line: this book is hands-down the best tool for gaining a solid learning of the basics of Euclidian geometry. Completing the lessons in this book will give you a foundation solid enough to pass your a G.E.D., but this book alone won't prepare you enough for the SAT.

I bought this book for my teen daughter who is having trouble in her h/s Geometry class. My daughter is a gifted student, but put her in a classroom with a caring yet inaccurate teacher and watch those grades sink! This is especially troublesome when the teacher is giving incorrect information and mis-grading papers. My daughter's head was spinning--the teacher said one thing, the school textbook said another. End result: disenchanted, frustrated, and failing student (in a class full of failing students)!

Anyway, this book starts at grade 5 math (just as a very brief refresher) and quickly but easily glides into high school math. By page 28 my daughter was helped immensely with some of the concepts that were poorly explained or completely overlooked by her teacher. It has bolstered daughter's courage to know that she is not a complete math dummy (she is straight A's in Algebra 2). Armed with a new sense of mastery, she is going to have a conference with the teacher and review each and every incorrectly graded question on her prior exams.

The only "con" I have---and it is not a "con" at all but rather a plea to the author--is that there are only *SOME postulates and SOME examples given--none very agebraic, as far as I could determine. I wish the book had continued in its format and gone into the slightly deeper and more complicated "stuff". The book would be a real winner and it would sell many more copies if the author done so. An ideal format would have been to leave each chapter as it is, but add another 2 or 3 pages onto each chapter as optional--going into a TAD more detail with a couple of basic algebra equations for each. The author would pick up a bunch more readers because there is a HUGE market of students who need SAT/ACT
prep but not at the really complicated (translation: scarey) level of those big, fat, heavy Barron's/Peterson's/Kaplan's guides.

Hopefully the author is reading this post and will revise the book--it's very worthy of doing so!

*Rest assured, there is an ENTIRE list of postulates and theorems at the end of the book.

My daughter was struggling with Geometry (specifically with proofs). This text allowed her to get a basic overview of geometric concepts before tackling formal proofs. This is great as a refresher course, although you'll need another source to actually practice the formal proofs.
There were a couple of answers in the answer key that were incorrect as well, which can certainly be misleading for others who might stumble over that them.

Too many mistakes in the book. The author is confused about the units. At least in one place the area of a triangle is given in meter square and the sides are in inches.
Answer key has numerous mistakes as well.

Okay, first of all, most geometry books for high school and college cost around $150, weigh more than a brick, and are filled with so much fluff that its impossible for students to remember it all and any teacher to effectively cover every aspect of every chapter unless he/she goes through the book very fast which will leave the student behind.

This book on the other hand is basic and to the point. It cuts out all the unesseccary fluff and covers the basics for geometry in a fashion that will leave the reader comprehending everything. Its written to the point that anyone could grasp the fundamentals of geometry. One of the best things I like about this book is that each page is very open with a lot of white space and is not crammed with a bunch of visual garbage which makes it easier for the eyes to follow.

The examples are very clear and shows the reader step-by-step how to work through each problem so they will be prepared to take the quiz at the end of the each chapter.

As for my personal opinion, I highly recommend this book for people who need a quick and easy refresher in order to prepare themselves for the harder more in-depth geometry courses in college. It also serves great as a reference. This book will build the basic foundation of your geometry studies. Also, I think that this book, combined with the Practical Math, Algebra, and Trigonometry versions are the best 4 books you can buy to prepare yourself for the ASVAB test. The books are small, to the point, and are all you really need to know to succeed.

*This is her son's message* I am new to Geometry, I have never before taken it, and on the pretest I had already detected errors where I confirmed with customer service that I was correct. Also there are errors in other chapters and a few problems in chapter 11, which I also confirmed in a later email with CS that I was right again. The book's title is Geometry Success in 20 Minutes a Day but the quality of the information inside the book looks like it was put together in 20 minutes. I was seriously hoping for more.

I purchased this book for my daughter who will be entering the 9th grade this fall and will be taking both Algebra II and Geometry during her freshman year. Needless to say we were both nervous about this decision and so we purchased this book just to help prepare her. In addition we purchased another book in the same subject area, but this one is the one she is learning the most from. It starts w/ the basics and then provides examples and practice questions. Each section then builds upon the previous. The explanations/concepts are easy to understand and to apply. My daughter now feels more prepared to enter Geometry a year prior to most other students. She feels that when a concept is now presented in class, she will have a basic understanding of how it is applied. Great purchase. The title is appropriate too, 20 minutes is what each section generally takes.

Great geometry tutorial and refresher. One thing to watch out for though is the publisher uses an exponent next to the unit identifier for square areas and cubic volumes. For example square feet are displayed as 4 ft ² rather than 4 sq ft.

Geometry Success in 20 Minutes a Day (Skill Builders) this book is the truth.. my brother was struggling with the concepts and failed his NYS regents final exam... the structure of this book really helped him master the concepts in a 2 week period... I had him retake a practice regents final exam and he scored a 95% after using this book and my 1 on 1 tutoring with him.. GREAT BOOK!