Customer Reviews

Schaum's Outline of College Algebra

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"The Schaum's Outline Of College Algebra" like almost all of its counterparts in this superb series of text books, provides an efficient path to mastering its subject matter.

But beware of the so called "Digital Edition" which contains only half the number of pages as the paperback edition. As a student of mine recently discovered, the digital edition does not include the numerous examples which are the heart and soul of all the Schaum's outlines.

Amazon, by listing the digital edition as simply another edition of the book the way it would list both hardback and paperback editions of a book that both contain the same text, is misleading those who think they are are loading the entire text of the original book.

I suggest that digital and non-digital versions of a book that are substantially different be presented separately or better yet, the digital version should have the complete text. Amazon has built up a deservedly good reputation of truthfully presenting its products. Why spoil it?

I've been away from college for 4 years and did not want to spend a lot of money and time learning the Math I needed to get into Calculus. When I went to the bookstore, what impressed me about this book was the number of solved problems and the additional supplementary(unworked) problems. Also it looked very concise. I got bogged down on some parts because I just didn't get some of the things the author was trying to say, but after I stuck at it and worked through some of the solved problems I never stayed stuck. If you want to get through Algebra fast I do highly recommend this book.

I used the college algebra (2nd ed) outline to CLEP (college level exam program) algebra for credit. I also clepped trigonometry using the Schaum Trig outline (2ed). If you studied both outlines really hard it should be adequate preparation for college calculus. The algebra outline probably covers more than what would be covered in a college algebra course; so, you may be able to skip some of the latter chapters depending on your needs. The text also includes a very good table of contents. I have referred back to this text a few times while taking more advaced math classes. It is a very good book/study guide.

I've been using this book to brush up on (and, in some cases, learn for the first time) certain important Algebraic concepts before my Calc II class begins in the Fall. I can't yet say how well it's prepared me - but in most cases, the explanations are lucid, and examples do much of the talking quite well when the exposition is far too dry and concise.

One warning: The book's riddled with typos. No, x^2+8x<15 is not equivalent to x^2-8x+15<0; y^2=4py isn't the equation of a parabola; etc. Bear this in mind when going through the Conic Sections chapter, where - for some reason - it editing seems to have been especially bad.

I purchased this book when I enrolled in College Algebra in the hopes that it would be a good reference guide to use if I was unable to grasp the concept of a particular problem. Instead, I found that it was basically echoing what my textbook was saying. I was hoping that Schaum's Outline of College Algebra would break things down into basic explanations, but instead, I remained lost.

Schaum's College Outlines are the best outline/summary/worked problems series that I have every found. Readers, especially students, need to be cautioned, however, that outlines and summaries and worked problems only work usually if you use them right. For example, most students work problems before putting definitions and theorems or equations or theory onto flash cards and learning the latter four first, or they just work problems and forget flash cards for theorems and definitions. Try studying a pile of homework problems as tall as a room before an exam! Multiply this by the number of exams, both in High School (which should be using Schaum's Algebra, by the way) and college, and it spells FAILURE. Problems, even those worked out for you, only are useful AFTER you know exactly what the theorems and definitions say (with one example for each), preferably backwards and forwards and shuffled (as you can only do on flash cards). A card should only have 2 lines or less of ordinary size writing on front and 2 lines on back for rapid shuffling and reading. I'll have more to say about this in other reviews.

book has decent material for its price, however i am finding a lot of errors as i'm working thru this book. there's an error on pg. 169 sect 17.4 parabolas
(1)y^2=4py
it's supposed to be y^2-4px

that's an error in the example used to teach the concept,not just a small error in the samples. although there's plenty of errors in the sample problems as well.

use this book to review like i am, it's got some decent proofs in here but not all of them. check out www.wikipedia.com for extra information on proofs on certain sections.

overall for $12, u can't go wrong, just make sure to use it as a review, and remember the book has errors.

Schaum's has several flavors of its outlines on Algebra in circulation. Of all of them, I would say that this one is the best, not only for college students but for high school algebra students who plan to study mathematics further in both high school and college. It takes you from the very beginning and talks about numbers and number systems, gets into the meat of algebra with solving various types of equations and equations in more than one variable, and finishes up with some linear and matrix algebra. The explanations are very well done, and thus the book acts as a supplemental textbook and reference as well as a compact source of exercises, solved problems, and essential equations. I have examined the section on exponents and logarithms, and I really don't see that the outline's approach is antiquated at all, as some of the other reviewers have claimed. If I had any criticism of the book at all it would be that it needs more "word problems" than it already has. After all, if you get to the point where you can solve equation B for variable X, then a computer can do the rest of the work for you. The work in mathematics as well as engineering is figuring out what equation will yield a solution to the problem at hand.

College algebra, often taught in high schools so the name is a misnomer, is a course that nearly all students must get through. The abstractions of replacing numbers by letters and then rearranging them are thought processes that some find easy and others find very hard. Yet, it is a mental exercise that serves you well, it prepares the mind for problem-solving situations that occur throughout life.
This book, a collection of worked exercises in what is called college algebra, starts at the very beginning and in short increments works through all of the topics found in college algebra courses. Problems are solved in several ways, each step presented in detail.
Like all the other Schaum's books, this book is an excellent choice for a quick review of the material. People who want to learn college algebra generally will not be able to use it as a text. For them, the best use is as something to supplement their main text or manner of learning.

There is such a thing as too brief of a review. If you want tutorial help in solving problems more then the easiest, this is not the book for you.