Customer Reviews

Maths: A Student's Survival Guide: A Self-Help Workbook for Science and Engineering Students

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

 

 

As a finance professional, I was becoming overwhelmed with the growing complexity of financial products. Over time, my patch work math education was beginning to fray resulting in growing frustration and loss of confidence.

Jenny Olive's book is very helpful for people entering into a self study math program to bring together their fragmented college level math education and build mathematical understanding. If you were like me, the fast pace of college level courses forced you to cut corners and rush through material without the deep understanding that builds confidence. The book begins with Algebra and moves on to Trig and Calculus. The explanations are extremely lucid and the exercises are put together intelligently to move you toward greater complexity. And yes, there is no substitute for working out the problems as any good mathematician will tell you. I disagree with a previous reviewer on this score. Although, I felt (somewhat arrogantly) that I did not need to review Algebra, I found myself red faced and stuck in some of the more advanced problems. Fortunately the clear explanation and repeated problem solving gave me the insights that I was lacking. I found it helpful to work with a graphing calculator to help visualize some of the mathematics. It's also a great way to learn a graphing calculator!

I understand that Ms. Olive is adding two new chapters to her next edition, which she has kindly made available on her website for persons who own the current version. It would be nice if she would make it available in a downloadable PDF version.

I am hoping that the author will choose to follow this up with similar books on Probability and Linear Algebra. Her recommendations for further reading would also be very helpful. Great math books (and math teachers)are worth their weight in gold. Buy this book for your math library. You won't regret it.

I didn't take any Math senior year, and I took 2 years off after high school, and now I'm going to be a Computer Science major, so I really needed this book! I bought it a week ago and I'm halfway done, so now I won't have to take precalculus over again. The previous reviewer is right, it could include more, but if I have time, I'll just buy a Schwab outline to cover vectors and so on. One thing about this book is that it has few exercises, which is fine, because what person self-studying is actually going to do 30 exercises . . . I would, but the few exercises gets me moving through the material faster.

This book is written for someone who has been exposed to the subject but did not understand it, or has not had a math class in a while. Ms. Olive has taken extra effort to help the students avoid the pitfalls often encountered in these math topics. This attitude is reflected throughout the book. I felt that with the numerous problems solved at the back of the book (in detail), the price of this book,was a frugal investment. With vectors and additional physical science problems added to this book, I would give it 5 stars.

I stumbled onto the author's web site while searching the internet for a rarely used math technique. I was very impressed to say the least, impressed enough to buy the book. As a physicist I have had all the algebra, trig, geometry, all the calculus, statistics, Diff EQ's, linear algebra, and even non-euclidean geometry. Almost every class was a struggle, memorizing a hodge-podge of techniques (Especially Diff EQ's!) with no clear explanation of both what was being done and why. With the exception of a single instructor (for Vector Calculus) this author is the only mathematician/author I have come across who can explain math clearly.

I don't fault the math instructor for his/her opinion. Your brain is either wired for math or it isn't. If it is, you pick it up pretty easily and think those who can't just aren't trying. You just intuitively "know" it and her book would seem verbose. If you aren't wired for math then it is a struggle, and you need it explained VERY clearly. The big problem I have had is that those who intuitively understand it (mathematicians) could almost never explain it at a level I could understand. They rely on their intuition.

EDIT (5/11): Have had time to actually read considerable sections of this book. It is even better than I initially thought. I knew HOW to do the binomial expansion from statistics, but now understand what is actually going on. Partial Fraction Decomposition also makes sense. No need to memorize the formulas as it is now obvious what they are going to do. Just figure them out when you need them! If math had been explained this clearly in school, It probably would have been one of my favorite subjects.

Learning math is like building a house. later stuff builds on the earlier work. If you have a non-square or non-level foundation, or build the walls crooked, you are going to have problems later on. The farther you get the more you have to jury rig stuff. If you really do a bad job then eventually you just can't continue. Wasn't good at math until I became interested in physics. My math teachers never bothered to show useful applications. Math was just lines and graphs and equations = abstract and BORING. Why would anyone waste time and effort on a subject that is boring with no useful applications? Then physics came along, which is basically math used to understand how the universe works. THAT was fun but my math was just too weak to really understand the physics. Eventually ended up going all the way back to junior high school math and restudying ALL of it. Did thousands of problems (maybe 10,000), filling up a notebook every couple of weeks. It was a LOT of work but worth the effort.

It has been many years since I studied any maths , and then only at a fairly basic level. This book takes me to places I never knew existed before,but to my amazement I could actually understand what was being taught.I especially found the step by step solutions to the problems most helpful.Unlike some texts that just give you the answers,and you are left wondering "how did they come up with that"? All in all a most user freindly book.

It is curious that a maths professor is the only one to give this book a relatively negative review, strange! I am sure he knows it all and assumes we must be like him and can read those terse dense tomes so often inflicted on us the less well prepared. If that happens to you, you will need the metphorical life belt that this book is to help you on your way. Likely as not, you won't need professorial help, that is one of the most important features of this book verbose or not.

I read the book, and I mean I read the book! Line by line and worked through the examples in the main text, stopped for the dark lines and pondered the examples she puts for you to read below those dark lines, once the point dawns on you, and it useually does, you move on better equipped to work the mathematics that is to come in the book. The stunning thing about this book is that all the questions are fully answered and explained so that you can, if you are honest, do the exercises and see what you missed if you come up with the wrong answer, what ever you do, don't look up the answers do the problems honesly, otherwise you are wasting your money.

So many math tomes offer unexplained answers for odd numbered exercises, this book answers all the exercise questions in full plus tips and cross referencing between topics in the text. That alone is value for money, no added cost for a solutions manual so common here in the US.

The majority of us have had less than stellar teaching at grammar and high school in math, thus a line by line from first principles approach brilliantly authored is a god send. There are next to no math books at this level that can be mastered on your own without the benefit of a tutor. the only other books that approach this level are the more advanced Stroud and Booth programmed books best consulted after reading this book.

I recomend this book to all who need a way into math without a tutor, work the text and the material beneath the dark overlines, and you will prosper mathematically. There is also a web site too that has much to offer.

Could it be improved? Not really, the only improvement would be to venture into other topics such as fourier analysis to posit one example.

I am a mathematics teacher, at the secondary, community college, and college (undergrad and graduate) level. This book does not address the basic needs of the struggling student, namely: what is mathematics for? Further, the book is verbose so that even the successful student will get bogged down in the sheer magnitude of the book.