Customer Reviews

Precalculus

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a beautiful book that leads from algebra very smoothly. As a precursor for calculus, it covers all the important topics such as trigonometric functions, identities and equations, polynomial, exponential, rational and logarithmic functions and some analytic geometry. The only topic that it is lacking is probability and statistics.

The majority of the problems have real-life applications accompanied by colourful pictures. With an average of about 90 problems in each chapter section, it does a good job of not being too repetitive. The chapter readings are easy to comprehend and well-organised into little sections and examples.

Overall this is a great textbook to self-study Precalculus from and I had a painless time absorbing it.

Last week I ordered a copy of the "paperback edition" of this
book, with ASIN 032100969X. This is NOT a paperback edition!
It is the "Student's Solusions Manual - Precalculus" -- great if
that's what you're looking for, but if you wanted a paperback
edition of the textbook (in this case, for my teen-aged
daughter), you may be disappointed. This is not the textbook
plus answers -- it's just the solutions!

At first I was going to take this up with the vendor
(ecampus.com, who by the way shipped it right on time; it got
here in under a week with standard shipping), but then I realized
it wasn't their fault -- it was amazon.com's description that
was faulty :^<

Oh, the solutions book does have at least one minor typo: p.173,
#105, "The expression is not undefined if (x+1)(x-4)=0, that
is, if x=-1 or x=4. Thus, the domain is the set of all real
numbers except x= -1 and x=4" They meant "The expression is
not DEFINED if..." (that's 'cause (x+1)(x-4) was the
denominator of the expression).

If you are purchasing this book for a college class and need the access code (homework assignments are on the CD), beware as it may not work at your particular school. There were other students in class who also purchased their codes from someplace other than the campus bookstore and they had the same issue. Technical support responds within 12 hours via email (there is no phone # to contact them unless you are an educator). However, they are unable to resolve the issue. Therefore we will be purchasing the access code for the 2nd time at the college bookstore so we are sure that it will work. To be fair, Amazon has been more than helpful with our issue and will allow the whole package to be returned for a full refund (can't return the CD by itself) even though it has been opened. However, rather than spend the time packing this up we are going to purchase only the component that we need so we can keep the book.

This textbook is one excellent aid for understanding math. The trigonometry section is the best part of the book. It is mostly self explanatory, and being that trig is one hard topic to understand, the book breaks it down to a comprehensible level. My only problem with the book is that it contains way too many word problems, which most students would like to skip. The concept checks are also a pain in the butt. My professor assigns basically all the odd problems in the section, taking me a whole day to finish the homework. There are other minor annoyances in the book. For example, the harmonic motion section only provides one example for the whole section. A good thing to have is the solutions manual. There are also way too many things to cover, and this leaves you somewaht overwhelmed. On the other hand, Lial and Hornsby provide straight forward examples, which, are sometimes way to easy in comparison to the practice problems provided. This book is however, a quality book and well presented.

This was an excellent book. My child whipped thru the book in three months getting an "A" in class. The word problems were the best because it really made him hone his analytical skills. I highly recommend the book.

I wanted Robert Blitzer's pre-calculus book instead but I got the wrong book. But looking over this book, it explains the topics really good and gives good examples. Also this book is similar to Robert Blitzer's pre-calculus, so you could buy either both.

When I recieved the book it was in perfect condition. We were very pleased with the fast shipping as well. We will order from this company again. Thanks!

The book came on time and great condition but the only reason i returned it was only because it didn't come with the mymathlab which i really needed. i felt it would be too much money to purchase the book and have to purchase the mymathlab code separtely.Over all that was my only problem.As for amazon they handled my return with no problems or hassle.

The book was received very quickly in good shape. My son is currently using it for his math class.

I hate this book. It only gives a few solutions, maybe 5 out of a 100 (if your lucky). I don't know if I am doing my work right or not. There is no way to check. Every math book I have had gives answers to odd# questions in the back, this is very helpful to see if you are going in the right direction. Not this book. You can spend hours and not know that you are doing it completely wrong. This does not help if you have 300 problems to do, and a week before class meets.