Customer Reviews

Pre-Calculus For Dummies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The aim of this book is to introduce the subjects of pre-calculus in an easy, yet complete way. For the most part it accomplish it's objective, nevertheless, it has some typos and errors that will cause the student to get confused (i.e. the first time the student is shown the formula for the difference of cubes the book says something like this (a-b)(a^2+ab+b^3) which is wrong and in latter examples the formula takes the correct form of (a-b)(a^2+ab+b^2) which causes some confusion). Overall, this is a very good book specially for a review of the subjects.

UPDATE
P.105 Changing a Log's Base
log5/log3 does not equal ln3/ln5... it should read log5/log3 = ln5/ln3.

p. 107
#4
"Figure 5.5 illustrates this last step, which yields the parent log's graph". If you look at the graph, it is labeled f(x)=log^x. The parent log being graphed is f(x)=logx. Two very different equations.

I checked Wiley's website. I cannot find errata for this book.

It seems the authors break their own rule in the first chapter on PEMDAS. This is a simple problem, but they wrote it out wrong in answers where they perform addition and subtraction first before multiplication. I think it should be the other way around. i.e. Ex 4 - Ch 1. abs(5 * 1 - 4 + 6) = 7 not 9. Every monkey knows multiplication is performed first. I'm not sure what the authors were thinking starting with subtraction first???I'm kinda blushing here...I punched this into my TI-89 Titanium and I get the same answer as I had come up with for the nominator. Calculators follow PEMDAS rule, so am I missing something here? Please, put an errata up people and have a forum, otherwise your books are useless. This is a refresher for me as I'm going in for calculus next fall. Mistakes as such would flunk a student in those courses...

I ordered this book because I was struggling in my pre-calculus class. It was a great help to my understanding of whatever I had trouble with. Some examples could be made easier to understand but overall the book was worth buying.

This book is well-written. It explains the most complex lessons, from class, and "dumbs it down" for those of us who need that extra help. Pre-Cal for Dummies has helped me in many cases.

This book helped explain pre-calc but still left me confused. I would still suggest it to anyone needing help because you may get more out of it than I did. I know other "dummie" books have helped me.

Not recommended for supplementary reading for classes because it very slow paced and examples do not help. It is for self-paced learning rather than coursework, but it does provide some reference if you happen to get lost in class.

The book was on time, no problem with invoice and purchase. Very reasonable price, tough there are some errors in the book

I translate for engineering students from foreign countries, and I use this book to help me with my limited knowledge of Calculus, pre-Calculus, etc. I find all the "for Dummies" series very helpful.

a great book that was delivered in great condition in a very timely manner. Thank you!