Customer Reviews

Precalculus

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book consists of about 10 chapters.
(your precalc professor will probably only cover 8 of them).
Each chapter consists of about five or six topic sections.
Each section contains about 5 pages of reading and another 2 pages with review questions (approximately 90-120+ questions).

I initially bought the fifth edition and weeks later upgraded to the 6th. I see only two differences between the old and new edition. The prerequisite chapter (covering review material from previous math class) is located in the front of the 5th edition, but in the back of the 6th edition. As for the five pages of reading material per section, I found them to be exactly the same (as far as I could tell). However the review questions in the back have a somewhat different order. In my opinion, about 90% of the review question (the examples that professors assign for homework) are present in both edition. However, in the sixth edition, some of the questions are in slightly mixed order. What this means to people buying the fifth edition, is that after each math class, you'll need to compare and match the review questions in your book with those of your fellow classmate's sixth edition text. Personally I don't believe that it's worth the effort to buy the old edition, since you can find the new sixth edition ... on Amazon.com, ..., etc.
Something I strongly recommend is purchasing the solutions guide. The titles are Study and Solutions Guide by Dianna Zook, but the title is misleading. It is ONLY a solutions guide, with answers for the odd-numbered questions broken down into four steps. The text book only supplies the odd-numbered answers without being broken down into steps. ... Just keep in mind that the sixth edition textbook and solutions guide has a publish date of 2003 or 2004. The fifth edition textbook and solutions guide has a 2000 publish date.

6th edtion TEXTBOOK ISBN 0618314342
6th edition SOLUTIONS guide ISBN 0618314377

5th edition TEXTBOOK ISBN 0618052852
5th edition SOLUTIONS guide ISBN 0618072713

Another suggestion, if you're purchasing this book used, is to buy the instructor's edition version (ISBN 0618314369). I say used because the publisher doesn't allow the sales of these books to non-educators, so you'll have to purchase them from amazon's used section, ..., etc. The only difference between the standard and instructor's edition is that the standard student edition has the odd-numbered answers and the instructor's has the odd and EVEN-numbered answers. Unfortunately these answers are only answers and not broken down solutions. You'll have to buy the solutions guide to have those and even then you'll only get the odd-numbered broken down solutions.

As for the #1 rule of math and science courses:

It's a well accepted rule of thumb that a student should study 2 hours per week for every 1 hour in class. For example if you're taking a four credit hour precalculus course, you should be studying an additional eight hours per week on top of the four in class. For those of you who work and don't have that kind of time, I would recommend that you study at least 1 hour per week per hour you're in class. That means you'd be in class four hours per week and would study another four outside class. Trust me, if you don't do this, you won't pass! Another note about this book, don't let the reading discourage you; a lot of this text reads as if speaking to a mathematician, not a lonely undergraduate student. Even if you don't understand all the theorems thrown at you (trust me you won't) continue reading and MOST IMPORTANT: do the review quesions. At least do the review questions that your teacher assigns, but if you can do them all or at least the odd-numbered ones, it would serve you well to do so.
If you haven't looked at a math book for over five years, might I recommend that you purchase a math video tape tutorial. It won't substitute for going to class or buying the text book, but it's a great introduction and was very helpful to me in calculus. On Amazon.com just type "Standard Deviants pre-calculus" (free shipping over $25 is good incentive to buy from here) or go directly to company's website if you want descriptions of what these VHS / DVD discs are about. Word of caution, buy "standard deviants" NOT "standard deviants school" which are much bigger volumes geared toward school learning environments.

...

Good luck,

Rob

This is the best precalulus book I have ever read. It tackles the subject from several different points of view, yet in a cohesive and easily undestandable manner. The balance between the theory, examples and practical applications is superb. This is the only precalculus book you will ever need and every high school student should have it on his desk.

When I first started to use the book I was impressed by the pre-requisite chapter, and I also thought the book was easy to read. I used this book for a summer session. Due to my very busy life, I found it necessary to read ahead of the instructor to be ready for tests. I found the writing in the last third of the book hard to follow. Our instructor told us not even to read these chapters because he didn't like the way the material was presented. I would give this 5 stars if the CD was included, but that is an extra [$$$]
If bought for self study, you may find you need the CD, online help or solutions manual.

I reported them to Amazon months ago - nothing's changed.
There are two different books on amazon.com:

BOOK 1: "Precalculus 5/e" by Larson & Hostetler (search for 0618052852 on amazon.com). It has a very good supplement - "Study and Solutions Guide" by Dianna Zook (0618072713).
Both books were published by Houghton Mifflin Company, which has nice resource site http://college.hmco.com/mathematics/students/.
I have no affiliation with this publisher. From the pull-down "Precalculus" window Select Title "Precalculus 5/e Larson/Hostetler ((c)2001)". You'll be very pleased with the links you find there. If you seriously want to ace Precalculus - get both - "Precalculus" and "Study...".

BOOK 2: "Precalculus Functions and Graphs: A Graphing Approach/Precalculus With Limits: A Graphing Approach (Student Study Guide)" by Larson (0618074104).

Here's one bug:
Somehow reviews posted for BOOK 1 got mirrored onto BOOK 2 or vice versa (compare books' reviews).
Another bug:
Book 2 in reality has a title "Study and Solution Guide" and its authors are Bruce Edwards and Dianna Zook (not Larson). Compare it with "Study and Solutions Guide for Precalculus Functions and Graphs : A Graphing Approach and: Precalculus With Limits : A Graphing Approach" (0669417297), which is older: 2/e, (c)1997.

Book 2 gives solutions to odd-numbered excersizes and to all Chapter Practice Tests and to Chapter and Cumulative Tests in both "Precalculus Functions and Graphs...3/e" (0618052909) and "Precalculus with Limits...3/e" (0618052917).

Those two books were published in 2001 by Houghton Mifflin Company. On http://college.hmco.com/mathematics/students/ from the pull-down "Precalculus" window select either of their titles. Click on "Purchase this Product or Study Aides" and you'll see the whole learning package which includes aforementioned "Study and Solution Guide" ISBN: (0-618-07410-4) (for some reason Bruce Edwards is dropped and only Dianna Zook is listed as author; apparently, amazon.com doesn't hold monopoly on making mistakes).

Make sure you are reading reviews relevant to the book you consider buying.

As an undergraduate community college student, this was the text used for my Precalculus course. I entered the course confidently, since I had always fared well in mathematics courses.
This book seems to be geared toward students with a more extensive mathematics background than myself, a Business Administration major. There is not enough background material on some precalculus methodologies, and this puts the student at a considerable disadvantage if a class is missed. Matters become especially complicated (for the non-math major) if the professor skips sections. It would be best to proceed through this book in order, but that is not possible in one semester.
The shining parts of this book are the "real life examples." These scenarios clearly demonstrate useful applications of the material in each chapter, and answer the age-old question: "Why bother learning THIS?"
Another positive aspect of this book is also a negative: The chapters are very short, due to a lack of background information.
For the student who attends every class, pays attention, and takes good notes, this book is an asset. The book would be less useful as a learn-on-your-own tool, except for true math prodigies.
My most major complaint is the price of the book. When is price gouging of textbooks going to end? Unfortunately, students have no choice but to pay, and the publishers take advantage of the situation. I always buy a used book whenever possible. ...

This is the best resource I found for studying Precalculus and laying down the required fundamentals necessary to succeed in Calculus. There are plenty of examples, real-life examples, and informative insets.

More than half of the book is a review of algebra and trigonometry, slowly building up to chapter seven, where the Precalculus really begins.

I had originally taken a precalculus course at a community college and used a different book from this one. In addition to using an inferior book, the instructor also decided to skip over trigonometry altogether. It was mainly due to this fact that I decided to pick up this book and learn trig on my own (as well as review algebra) as I entered calculus and found the need for it absolutely essential, and I'm glad I did. The book is laid out in a very reader-friendly format, which tends to be rare with mathematics textbooks. Each chapter is concise, the examples given are formatted to give a true representation of the end-of-chapter questions. The book does not assume that "the other half" of the information presented is being explained by an instructor, keeping each chapter-section self-contained and easily understood. This is exactly the book I wish I'd had years ago when I began toying with the idea of self-study to prepare for calculus placement tests, and certainly the book I wish I'd had when I took precalculus. I'll be keeping this book, along with the solutions guide, on my bookshelf permanently as a reference book for my calculus classes and beyond.

I did not get a chance to try out the companion-software on the CD-ROM, so I cannot give a fair review of it. I can, however, recommend this book to students wanting to do self-study, those wanting a supplement to their existing precalculus textbook, and to teachers looking for a text to use in their classes. Now, if only my calculus textbook was as clear and concise, I'd be in great shape. . .

Richard Feynman, one of America's greatest physicists, once said most of the popular textbooks (on physics) were somewhat mediocre. Larson has written one that is much better than the rest. everything is explained clearly. However, I would recommend those who are aspired for an austere treatment of elementary mathematics, ie, pre-calculus and beginning calculus, to go for the book High-school mathematics by some Russian mathematicians. ISBN: 5030010114 This series is just so comprehensive with lucid explanations that every high school math teacher should take a look at it. It's both fun and benefitial to read books on math translated from another language.

WOW!! AWESOME BOOKS JUST AS NEW ONES. THIS IS GORGEOUS!! WITH AWESOME DVD... TOOO CHEAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!! XD OMG, I WILL DEFIANTLY BUY ALL MY BOOKS HERE!! ONE WORD: INCREDIBLE

I believed I was ordering the Pre-calculus textbook but got the problem solutions book instead. I suppose I should have known $6-7 was too low a price for the textbook. Pages were dog-eared. Maybe I'll order the textbook.