Practical Business Math Procedures w/ DVD, Business Math Handbook, and Wall Street Journal insert [Paperback]

Jeffrey Slater (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0073133086 | ISBN-13: 978-0073133089 | Publication Date: January 19, 2005 | Edition: 8

Practical Business Math Procedures is a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and applications of mathematics to personal and commercial business problems. The text uses basic arithmetic and problem solving techniques and illustrates their use in retailing, interest and loans, banking, payroll, taxes, investments, insurance, and a variety of other business situations. The text is well known for the motivating integration of interesting real world examples and photos from the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, and many other business journals. PBMP’s is the most popular and widely used book for this course and is carefully written and developed to support students with little math experience with practice quizzes, thousands of exercises, color coded procedures and diagrams, supporting tutorial videos on DVD, and the highest standards of reliability and cleanliness.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Slater has been teaching 30 years at North Shore Community College. He has acted as a consultant for the office of personnel management in Boston and New York. Jeff tours the country giving speeches on student retention at colleges as well as national conventions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 8 edition (January 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0073133086
• ISBN-13: 978-0073133089
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #857,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An elementary approach to a college class, April 14, 2006

By 

Webster J. Batista ",friend of" (Gardner, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Business Math Procedures w/ DVD, Business Math Handbook, and Wall Street Journal insert (Paperback)

I am teaching a business math class and was issued this text book by the college. While reviewing the book I found it to be more confusing than helpful. I found the majority of the ideas presented in the book to be of common knowledge. Rather than presenting the concepts in the book in an analytical manner, the author uses a personal narrative to convey the ideas. The author introduces new concepts with successive chapters, but does not explain how these concepts are derived. The author explains concepts at face value, rather than explaining how the concepts come about and how to apply them to other situations outside of the ideal situation. The first 6 chapters or so, out of a total of 22, are a review of basic math skills starting with addition and subtraction of whole numbers and continue to basic uses of percents. In addition to those 6 chapters, more of the successive chapters become redundant and are not presented in a logical order. Integrated into the text are numerous amounts of extraneous articles that are meant to reinforce the underlying point, but instead simply add bulk and distraction to the text.

I found that the concepts of the book are poorly presented and are not explained thoroughly. I would STRONGLY recommend not using this book, especially for a college level business class. A person with little to no everyday business experience would find this book to be very simple. In my opinion this book is primarily geared to a 9th grade level education in a public school system and not a college level class.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A little muddled, July 11, 2008

By 

Alex Perkins (Allegan, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Business Math Procedures w/ DVD, Business Math Handbook, and Wall Street Journal insert (Paperback)

Math is my adversary. I took a lower class which uses this textbook hoping to come out with a reasonable grade. (I did pass.)

The book starts off with elementary math, fractions, multiplication, and division before veering off into payroll and taxes. I didn't like this book because I tend to be an analytical person when it comes to accounting and basic math. I like to have answers for the "Why" questions that pop up continuously. This book doesn't explain a lot of things to my satisfaction. Particularly when it gives me formulas and doesn't explain them well enough for me to figure out problems.

A lot of the math included in this book is now being done by computers with specialized software. Having to halt my thinking and do manual math such as stocks, bonds, and mortgages, I found the book to be muddy in its explanations. Like I said, maybe it's just because I expect thorough explanations for why this formula is used when the author used a different one half a page previously for the same problem. Errors were rife throughout the book from wrong amounts to some formulas that were incorrect.

Luckily, my friend had the teacher's edition so I ended up working a lot of problems backwards before I finally learned it. However, I don't recommend this book if you want things explained.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars lost in translation, January 12, 2007

By 

J. Liller "elainejess" (VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practical Business Math Procedures w/ DVD, Business Math Handbook, and Wall Street Journal insert (Paperback)

I used this book in a business math class and I found it to be confusing and hard to follow. I have a good grasp on business concepts and this book left me feeling more confused after my class than when I began. The approach to this class certainly is not one I would reccomend for college level (for any level for that matter).