Customer Reviews

Precalculus With Limits: A Graphing Approach

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have been teaching Advanced Precalculus in a college preparatory high School for 14 years. I also teach AP Calculus and know what my students must cover to be prepared for a Calculus I course. This precalculus text is excellent in teaching precal students EVERYTHING they need to be prepared for calculus. It is also very user-friendly. For instance,it is a very readable text and most examples are worked out using a variety of approaches. With the multiple solution approaches to examples, students can see an algebraic solution, numeric solution, and graphic solution to the same problem. This enables students to see how all these things fit together and make important connections between graphing and hand-work. Multiple solutions is also beneficial in a classroom setting as not all students have the same learning style. Visual learners will benefit by seeing the pictoral representation of their solution, while sequential learners will appreciate the step-by-step algebraic worked out solution, etc. All applicable examples are solved using a graphing calculator, which is essential for current technology requirements. The book is also easy to adjust for block or regular scheduling. (approximately 1 section a day on block; 1/2 section a day on regular) I have used several other precal texts and much prefer this one. The material is well laid out and ordered. The difficulty level can be adjusted to be challenging for a high school advanced precalculus course or otherwise. Students wishing to review a previous precalculus course or teach themselves precalculus will appreciate this text, as well. I read the other reviews of this book listed at Amazon. While it is true there are typographical errors, I don't find them any more excessive than in other texts I use. I don't use the "test generator" software as I make all my own tests and quizzes, so I cannot comment on it. Based on my years of experience as a Master Math Teacher, I would have to disagree with the other negative reviews of this text. Of course, this is only my opinion. I can tell you that the other teachers at my school using this book love it, as well. Hope this information is helpful.

I have taught from this book and also from the Addison Wesley (AW) series by Lial and Hornsby. Those are much superior. Here are my complaints about the Houghton-Mifflin books by Larson, Hostetler, Edwards.

The examples in the text don't match up to the exercises that follow each lesson. Sometimes the information needed is in a later lesson.

Terminology used in this text isn't the same as in others. For example, most books call the descending powers form of a polynomial equation the 'standard' form. These authors call that the 'general' form, and use various terminology for different forms of conic equations.

Theorems and principles are often offered without explanation. Some, but not all, have proofs in the appendices.

The student solutions manual must have been written by 4 different grad students. Successive solutions can have quite different approaches.

Publisher generated tests have errors. Be especially careful of the multiple choice problems.

There have been serious typos, and often examples that can't be followed. The trig chapters are the worst.

In the instructor edition, the answers for the odds are in one place in the back of the book, and the answers for the evens are in another. They should both be in the margins of the page where the problems are.

The materials on the CD are dumb. They simply match the student solutions manual, but are 'animated' to just offer them line by line.

I'm not convinced the instructors on the video lecture series have actually ever taught the course. They don't anticipate the common errors that students will make. They simply show how to work out the problem. HM can take some lessons from ZD net Whiteboard lectures.

If you are buying this book because it is required for your course, I strongly suggest you cancel out of the class and find another that uses a better book. If you must take the course with this book, by sympathy to you. Dugopolski's College Algebra and Trig is vastly superior.

This book is full of confusing and inadequate explanations. It is infuriating in places. Typical is the sample solution on p. 544 to a system of 3 linear equations. It is a series of minimially explained steps that is a devil to follow, and does not emphasize the basic underlying technique of eliminating variables.

It relies on graphing calculators. This is fact, not criticism, since such reliance is in the area of personal preference. Some like to use calculators as an aid, other's feel it hinders learning.

There are much better books on the market!

they do 10 different probelm types in one section and they dont explain how to do each probelm. this book helps a lil bit but over all it doesnt help very much. just hope that you have a good tutor or a teacher to help with precalculus.

I am not impressed by this textbook. My Trig students use selected chapters of this book and so far I have had the most difficulty with Chapter 4: Trigonometric Functions. The topics are misordered. For example, 4.2 introduces the idea of domain and period of sine and cosine, but students do not actually graph the functions until 4.5 (approximately one week later)! Students have to learn unit circle values beginning in 4.2, but the tricks for memorizing these values are withheld until 4.4. Another problem I've encountered is the example problems which sometimes skip steps that are not obvious. This is difficult for students to follow, especially when teachers encourage them to show all work. Overall, I would not recommend this text.

Precalculus with Limits, unlike other precalculus books, easily teaches and reviews the basic mathematic background needed for further studies in the area of Calculus. The book contains many examples and less theoretical explanations - briefly outlining how to solve certain problems and then practicing those theories with many examples. Additionally there are plenty examples for economics students, engineering students and students of physics. Simply a great book!

Last year I took an Algebra 2 Honors course and the book was absolutely horrendous. My teacher was fantastic, but every once in a while we ran out of time during class to finish the lesson. I would go to the book and try to learn it on my own, very unsuccessfully.
However, I must say that trying to teach yourself something out of this book is not impossible; they give good examples and explain them. I do wish they would take a little more time to proove things, because as a student I find it easier to memorize formulas if I know where they came from. Also, I feel that they do a good job covering everything you need to know before you take calculus including Polynomial functions, transcendental functions, trigonometric functions, systems, matrices, statistics and probability, analytic geometry, and 3-demensional space. There is an additional chapter on limits and the first derivative as a rate of change. If you are looking for a book to teach yourself precalculus and limits, this book is fairly safe for that.

This textbook arrived in fine shape. The book is an excellent tool to use at home in coordination with the high school class in this subject. The book is written for the high school student taking upper level math in mind. The layout is informative and easy to "get". Parents will be able to quickly scan a chapter and assist their student who needs help with a problem.

I ordered this to use with students I tutor. It arrived promptly in the exact condition promised and the price was affordable. I would definitely order from this source again.

i ordered the textbook my daughter will use in upcoming academic year - it was exactly what I had ordered and in condition as stated; reasonably priced