Customer Reviews

Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus (with CD-ROM, BCA Tutorial, vMentor, and InfoTrac)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

There is a mind-numbing sameness to precalculus and calculus textbooks, and this book is more of the same. The coverage starts with real numbers, exponents, expressions and solving equations. The basic principles of functions, polynomial, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions, solving systems of equations, sequences, series, counting and probability, analytic geometry and limits follow this. I personally can do without the chapter on limits, when I teach precalculus, I am hard pressed to cover the other material. There is plenty of time to cover limits in calculus and it provides a better context. There are a large number of exercises at the end of each section and solutions to the odd-numbered ones are included in an appendix. As appears to be the case with many books, some of the exercises could have been left out with no decline in quality. At times I suspect there is the mathematical equivalent of an "arms race" to see how many exercises can be included at the end of a chapter.
The previous paragraph could be used to describe nearly every precalculus text on the planet, so it fits into the category of obvious, but necessary. Therefore, the key point is what makes this book different from the competition. The answer is not much. The approach is the standard statement of the new material followed by a series of worked examples, which is also the fundamental strategy used in all lower level math books. Short biographical asides of some of the major historical figures in mathematics are interjected on a regular basis. I like that, but wonder how often the students read them. What is different about this book is that the quality of the writing is somewhat better than most. In a field where there is very little to differentiate the texts, that is enough to make me rank this book in the top two precalculus books that are available.

I'm in my 60's and have not studied math in school for over 40 years. This was my first math book for college since the 60's. I found it easy to read, clear, and too the point. I was able to understand it. That says a lot. Math has always been hard for me, so this book is well done if I can learn from it.

The book is easy to read and interesting. I am able to teach high school students out of this book, but it has enough depth to still be useful to a first year university student. It has good write-ups on the predominant mathematicians. It's the best pre-calc book I've come across.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Your service was first rate and the book was delivered in a very reasonable amount of time. The book was in excellent condition for the price I paid, about half of new.

The author gives you lots of practice problems and because I bought the "instructors" edition I got the answers to all of the problems. I find it helpful when learning math, if you're having trouble, to look at the answer and "reverse engineer" the problem. Sometimes doing it this way, in combination with the examples, will give you clues as to how you should work the problem. If the answer that you are headed towards does not look like the answer in the book, you can analyze your work and figure out what you are supposed to do.

If you are someone like me who has not taken a math course for a few years, or if you have always had trouble with higher math like I have, you would be well served to refer to a book from an earlier level of math for additional help, such as my old Algebra 2 book. (I always keep my old math books.)

The author tends to use a lot of shortcuts without explaining that he has done so. If a user of this book, is not proficient in math this can serve to confuse and frustrate the user.

The CD, while it does have lots of good practice problems and the practice test routines are cool, has little in the way of examples. I really don't see the sense in having so many practice problems on the CD when the book itself is crammed full of practice problems. I think the CD would have been better if it explained more of the actual problems from the book.

The last two math books I used had, "CD" or "video tape" icons beside some of the problems that indicated that the problem was worked out on the CD. The "precalc" had no CD problems from the book and only a handful of "video tape" problems.

I have never used the CD, but the book is okay. If you are going to take calculus in the future than you should get a cheaper precalculus book and save some money. This is essentially the same as the 4th edition, except the price tag. Only get if you absolutely must for a class.

All this book does is prove the authors are very educated, but lacks the ability to pass on the knowledge. The sections of the chapters make an attempt with examples to the reader of explanations on how to solve problems. More often than not there is a twist in the very first problem in the exercises to throw you off rather than support and reinforce the example just given. Top it off with the answer in the back without a hint of explanation. In short this book is very poor and not conducive to learning even with the support of a knowledgeable professor to back it up.

The texbook's scope is wide and encompasses algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and various concepts. The last chapter is a preview about calculus. The explanations are lucid and relavant to the exercise sets. In addition, there are numerous mathematical vignettes about concepts and historical people. After the completion of a precalculus sequence, the textbook is excellent as a reference.

This and the student guide have enough errors in the solutions that it'll have you questioning your work. Thank goodness for a patient professor (and I'm an A student). The sections don't cover very well the material in the questions at the end of the chapter. It is written a little better than the Algebra book by the same authors but if this can be avoided, avoid it. My own professor doesnt teach out of it, just assigns work from the end of the chapters...thats how bad it is.

I have found SO many errors in this book and the solutions manual that I am really questioning my work. I am only doing about about 25% of the total problems. I am 1/2 way through the first chapter and have found error after error. Some of the 'answers' in the solutions manual do not even have the correct problem they are answering! This is maddening!

This is a very good pre-calculus/math analysis book for high school, although the edition is old. I used this book for tutoring high school students.