2 comments about Teaching Secondary and Middle School Mathematics (3rd Edition).

1. This book is okay. I had to buy it for a methods class. It's at a very basic level, and so doesn't really have any information of substance on how to actually teach math. And it's really really really pro-NCTM, inquiry learning, etc., which is fine but I felt it was a little biased.



2. Yes, this book is very biased towards the NCTM way of thinking, but it is a very good book overall. It is one of only a handful of textbooks I've seen through my years which is actually readable, and it's got some pretty good tips for beginning teachers. The examples of activities are particularly good, highlighting a lot of the benefits of teaching in this manner.
   
   Unfortunately, as a whole, it goes into little depth on many topics which require further discussion, and it replaces that with some trite little "what would you do?" sections where the answer is always 'it depends' with a long explanation of why. After one or two of these, you'll have had quite enough. If that space were taken with a more thorough analysis of the tactics, particularly with the benefit of utilizing their unconventional methods of assessing students, then this would be a five-star book.

4 comments about Essential Mathematics for Political and Social Research (Analytical Methods for Social Research).

1. Jeff's use of political science examples with the range of mathematical constructs makes this a particularly good book for beginning graduate political science students and undergraduate political science students who want to prepare themselves for graduate study. If you are new to political science and looking for a math refresher, at least scan through the book in the library before you adopt something else. My only regret is that the answers to sample problems are only available through a teaching edition.



2. Explanations for students with no previous math background, with many examples concerning polical science problems.



3. This is a great book with easy-to-understand concepts and examples. I got the book from Amazon on free-supersaving shipping and it came in less than two weeks and the book is in brand-new condition for approximately half the price listed. I think it was a great offer.



4. This book is the best book of many that I have found for someone who is attempting to decipher the mathematical side of the social sciences. I say this particularly because the author provides useful mathematical tips and insights to variables and terms to those who are not familiar with all of their differing uses in the seperate branches of the social sciences.
   
   Another reviewer said it best when he/she said that this book was written to help readers understand mathematics as a language. This author truly treats the understanding of mathematics as a language teacher does. The author does not fall into the usual trap that so many authors before him have done, which is to assume prior mathematical knowledge beyond algebra. This book makes mathematics far more accessible than its counterparts before it for someone seeking either a refresher course or perhaps to merely buttress their mathematical understanding.

1 comments about Mastering Essential Math Skills PRE-ALGEBRA CONCEPTS (Mastering Essential Math Skills).

1. I reviewed all six of the new Mastering Essential Math Skills titles at the 2008 NCTM conference. As a math consultant, I was impressed by all of them. This particular title addresses a very important need. So many students enter their first algebra class with huge gaps in their foundational skills. This book does an excellent job of introducing the pre-algebra skills which are essential to success in algebra. Just like Fisher's original books, each lesson contains review, new material, with instruction, and problem solving. After having gone through this book, students will have the necessary skills to be successful in algebra and beyond. Excellent also for students who are struggling in their pre-algebra or algebra class. Highly recommended. An excellent summer refresher.

2 comments about 15 Realistic Tests for the SAT Math Level 2: With Solutions.

1. I teach high school math and tutor on the side. I picked up this book because of the number of practice test. My student and I are on test #4 now. I find the questions adequately difficult. The solution is not always clear. This is a good product if you have a decent teacher to guide you through the problems you don't understand, but not for you to teach yourself.



2. This book is very good to use for the SAT Subject Test.
   It may be harder than the College Board's Test but that help you get more prepared for the test. If you can finish a good part of this book and in the correct time, you should have a better chance on the actual exam.

5 comments about Math the Easy Way.

1. A young friend of mine was struggling in math(algebra). I am not the sharpest tack when it comes to math, so I shopped around
   for the best resource I could find, and I came across this little gem. So certain are the authors that your math grades will improve in 30 days, that they offer a full refund if you are not
   satisfied. After tutoring my friend, who was flunking algebra,
   she earned a B on her next report card. I have since used this
   most excellent resource to polish up my own math skills, with great effect. There could probably be more examples, especially
   for the more difficult math problems, but I still highly recommend this book.



2. My only beef: there are several incorrectly computed answers in Math the Easy Way. It also has several typos, though I think these are minor.
   
   For the student willing to learn by this book, though, you couldn't do better. Highly recommended.



3. I got this book shortly before going back to college because I knew the entrance exam would contain a fair amount of math and I was rusty. The book is very thorough and offers clear explainations of not only the solutions to problems, but also the theory behind those solutions. With the help of this book, I was able to test out of general math, pre-algebra, and basic algebra.



4. I order this book because my math teacher recommend it to all the class but it was not what I expect it will be. She tell us that this math book will help us improve our math skills and abilities but its not true! Right now I still have the same skills that I have before I ordered and the exercises and explanations are complicated, simple, fast and hard to figure out. Beside I didn't like how it arrive to my house it was all folded out and it seems like it was already return before and used so don't expect to buy books here again. S_R_C



5. I had high hopes for this and the first ninety pages or so were exciting for me. I understood some things for the very first time. I spent a couple of weeks on this and made sure I understood every page before I moved on to the next one. But when it got to the algebra section, it simply lost me. No matter how many times I read and re-read and thought about what I'd read and looked at the examples, I simply did not understand. It would have helped if they had explained how they got the particular solutions they got, but they didn't. I just gave up. I can't say it was a total waste, but it really doesn't deliver what it promises. It's helpful to a certain extent, but I wouldn't really call it easy. Two stars.

5 comments about Calculus Demystified : A Self Teaching Guide (Demystified).

1. I bought this book, along w/ several others, as prep for starting a masters program. I had completed Calc 1 - 3 as part of my undergrad many years before, but had been away for so long I knew I would need a refresher on Pre-Calc as well as early Calc.
   
   I wanted the book to be a lead-in to re-taking Calc 1, so I was looking for some quick review of Pre-Calc topics, then the meat of the book to be Calc 1-2 topics.
   
   I never got past the first chapter with this book--
   * Reference/Editors notes appear to be left in the text in some locations -- These were things like "If you need more help see [SCH1]", of course "[SCH1]" means nothing to me (the reader), because it does not appear to be a chapter marker or even a reference to another book.
   
   * I found too many of the problems are presented w/o a step-by-step demonstration (or even a solution) -- How can I tell if I am successfully working a problem if I do not know the end result?
   
   * Several of the problems they provide w/o solutions contain material that was not in the chapter, yet is required to begin the problem.
   
   In general the book did not help me at all. I gave it two days, assuming the first day was just general frustration, when the second day resulted in the same feeling I moved on to another book.
   
   I recommend a different book--"Calculus For Dummies"



2. i personally bought this product for re studying calc that i had already learned back in high school. ITS GREAT!!!!



3. Whatevery your plan is, do not rely on this book. If you are reviewing the subject, this book will make you feel stupid. If it is your first time learning Calc., it will stop you from persuing mathematics.
   The biggest problem is that it does not really teach you the material. All it does is give you an idea of how it works, and then gives you hopelessly complicated examples (which will have you thinking 'I will never learn calculus!'.)
   If you are into 'the hardest possible way to learn something' only THEN is this book for you.



4. this is a cheap book that lacks many topics covered in my college calculus class.



5. I have to agree with most of the negative comments posted here. I took several courses in calculus in college but wanted to relearn it quickly. Instead of dragging out my old texts, I bought of copy of this book. Big mistake. The volume is written for mathematicians. There are few practice problems, and the ones that are included do not have solutions! The chapter exams consist of extremely difficult problems, making the use of this text discouraging. I ended up buying Calculus for Dummies and using my old texts to get problem sets.
   
   I would add that I also bought the 'Demystified' volumes on linear algebra and differential equations, and both of them were quite good. The calculus volume seems to be a dud, though.

1 comments about Mathematics: Applications and Concepts, Course 2, Student Edition (Glencoe Mathematics).

1. This is a good math book, I learn much more interesting stuff from it. I am 12 and am home schooled. This book explains things in a way that is easy to understand. The book looks good and shows how to do the problems clearly

5 comments about Foundations of Higher Mathematics.

1. This book provides an excellent introduction to mathematical logic, set theory, graph theory, number theory, and more -- everything which is "neat" in higher math.

   I would strongly recommend this book before any proof-based math class. The authors explain methods of proofs very well, and give some principles universally important in mathematics -- Zermelo's thm., Dirichlet's prin., and such.

   The exposition in this book is great. If this is your first exposure to, for instance, the proofs by induction, this probably provides an excellent description of what's going on and how it works, why it works.

   The book is slim (at least, the 1992 ed.) and not inexpensive. However, the authors' conversational tone makes it very approachable; at the same time, they are mathematically rigorous and very thorough.




2. I bought this book for a course in classical algebra. I found the book well explained and well done. It contains a lot of exercise and example of differents difficulty. It covers logic, set, relation, induction, function, combinatorial proofs, countable sets and uncountable sets, groups and some calculus. The book has a lot of subject in it and it make it very flexible. If you want to ontroduce yourself to mathematics, I would recommend this book if you want to spend some money.



3. I read and worked the problems in this book during my break as I transferred from a community college to a 4-year university, and found it very helpful in introducing me to all the fancy terminology, notation and basic proof writing that I was intimidated by. I found the problems to be hard enough to be challenging, but also neither impossibly hard nor hinging on a silly trick.

   If you are a eager HS student, or a curious college student, get this book and work the problems.




4. I am using this book as my text for my upper mathematics bridge class. The text is certainly useful, but often I am frustrated by the lack of clear explanations for theorems, relegating them as exercises for the reader. I am not saying that the author should spoon feed the reader, but what do we do when we get stuck? For what we pay for this book, it certainly has some improvements to make.



5. I bought this book so I could self-teach myself a prerequisite course to an advanced mathematics requirement course. Therefore, I needed to learn the material as well as if I had taken a course using this book, although I did not have the requisite professor as a guide. That said, this book suffers from some obvious flaws.
   
   As a transition book to higher mathematics courses, this book needs to accomplish a great deal. First and foremost, it needs to modify the apt math student from an elementary way of thinking about mathematics to a logical, adept, reflexive, adaptable way of thinking about mathematics. This is done through way of introducing the logic of certain mathematical foundations and then allowing the student to participate in proofs to verify the theorems. Most of the times the theorems are presented in an understandable way, and the authors do explain and illustrate many of them; however, the way they typed their proofs (and many of the practice problems use a demonstration proof as a guide), in clustered format, although often acceptable, was very hard to follow. Also, early in the book they explained the benefit of visual explanations of their concepts, so I found it frustrating when they sometimes (but almost seldom) visualize or explain the theorems in more mundane terms, especially when they do not even write the proof for the theorem in the book.
   
   Maybe as an accompaniment to a course in foundational mathematics (what this book is designed for), this book can successfully supplement an instructor; however, as a guide to someone self-taught (especially for the expense of buying), this book could improve a great deal.

5 comments about Schaum's Outline of Mathematica.

1. This is an excellent introductory book on Mathematica. If you need to learn some basic features of this language, it is the best tool.
   
   The author did not spend too much time on theory. The rules and syntax are explained very clearly with illustrative examples. Of course, the theory may first sound very dry and dull, but once you follow the examples, you will see that things will settle in your mind easily. Clear, concise and effective discussion of the topics makes your job easy and enjoyable.
   
   The best way to learn and explore various features is to try to modify the parameters in the examples. Make use of your own creativity to discover new features. In many examples, the same outcome can be obtained by several different ways.
   
   This book, in general, covers the fundamentals of the language, but it is sufficient to use differentiation, integration, 2D and 3D graphics, differential equations, linear algebra, etc. Mathematica, certainly, is quite a sophisticated language, there are many more intricate features.
   
   For more advanced features, please try "Mastering Mathematica" by John W. Gray.



2. This is typical of the Schaum's outline series: a decent, no-frills introduction to Mathematica at a reasonable price. When you look at the other books on the subject, they cost 8 to 10 times as much. Get this one, work hard and save some long bucks. The others may be pretty but are they really worth it?



3. I have another Shaum's Outlines book. I was expecting to get jump started in Mathematica but I found the book overtaxing and tedious. I found a better (free) website to help me.



4. although there remains useful information in this work, it is largely outdated, and offers techniques and methods incompatible with more recent incarnations of mathematica.
   
   it can still offer effective instruction if you are willing to tread the interminable help pages in mathematica for the appropriate syntax and parameters, but to a new user even that is a forbidding task. strongly recommend you look elsewhere, until the current edition is updated.



5. I could write a lot about this guide if I knew more about mathematics. First of all, if you want to make the most of this guide you should be fluent with calculus. Next, note that it is, IMHO written in a somewhat scatterbrained fashion. While there is a TOC and the book follows that format, the contents seem to be a stream-of-consciousness format. Finally, it is 2 versions out of date! A lot of commands that are graphics don't work properly and many new commands are not included. Still, Mathematica is pretty backwards compatible so you'll learn a lot. The worst thing is that (a) NO VERSION 6 docs exist or will be printed by Wolfram; (b) NO VERSION 6 docs exist by anyone else. This is one of the few books that cover math material lower than calculus! On top of that, it isn't in the cost stratosphere! For that reason, its one of the few reasonable options.

2 comments about Mathematics for High School Teachers- An Advanced Perspective.

1. This book is one of a kind. It affords an integrated perspective of traditional high school mathematics, making explicit the intimate relationships between arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. Additionally, it indicates and suggests lines of development that are pursued in undergraduate courses. Both purposes - showing the unity of the subject, and indicating further development - are accomplished by placing traditional high school topics in a broader conceptual and historical perspective.

   The book is divided into two parts; the first, titled "Algebra and Analysis with Connections to Geometry", deals with numbers, functions, equations, polynomials, and number systems. The second, titled "Geometry with Connections to Algebra and Analysis", deals with congurence, symmetry, similarity, area annd volume, axiomatics, and trigonometry.

   To give some idea of coverage, the second chapter (on real and complex numbers) discusses irrational numbers, a proof of the irrationality of e, the nested intervals property of the reals, countable and uncountable sets, and the diagonal proof of the uncountability of the reals. The chapter on equations briefly discusses cubic and quartic equations and states the unsolvability of the general quintic; the names of Gauss, Ruffini and Galois are mentioned. The chapter on integers and polynomials discusses induction, recursive definitions, simple diophantine equations and the fundamental theorem of arithmetic. It also indicates the analogies between the integers and the set of polynomials (both are integral domains). The chapter on number system structures discusses modular arithmetic, the Chinese remainder theorem, and gives examples of number fields other than the real and complex number systems (e.g. quadratic fields, and finite fields).

   The projects at the end of each chapter extend the material covered in a natural way, and are challenging. To give some stray examples, the coordinatisation of the Riemann sphere, the Cardano-Tartaglia method for solving cubic equations, Fermat's last theorem for n = 4, constructible numbers, and the impossibility of squaring the circle and doubling the cube.

   The chapter bibliographies are annotated, up-to-date, and list excellent books for further study.

   I have a few criticisms. The first is that surjective functions are not discussed, and in this connection the Schroder-Bernstein theorem does not get mentioned or proved. A second and more serious criticism is the slender coverage of analytic geometry. Only five or six pages are devoted to this. As a consequence, the authors cannot discuss the rich field of algebraic curves in particular, and algebraic geometry in general. There is also no mention of projective transformations (i.e. projective geometry) or continuous transformations (i.e. topology). Finally, there is no mention of Klein's Erlanger program.

   These quibbles aside, the book is well-conceived and well-written. It can join Courant and Robbins' "What is Mathematics", and Stillwell's "Mathematics and its History" as a book that gives a bird's eye perspective of (part of) the discipline.

   Professors teaching undergrad courses would want this book on their shelves; it shows some of the connections between high school material and the relatively abstract courses taught at college (e.g. Galois theory, group theory, algebraic number theory, and real and complex analysis). Undergrad students might want this book for the same reasons. High school teachers who want a bird's eye perspective of high school mathematics from a sophisticated point of view might also want a copy; suggested lines of development can be used as enrichment topics.




2. This is a good resource book. However, I think it would be a good idea to learn from other countries that are more successful in math education. Students from Singapore, Korea, China, Russia, and Hungary all are better than our students ON AVERAGE!!! Generally, of course!! For example, the Russian have many books that are available for those who do not have access to great teachers. Books are important source for self learning. In the high school mathematics, for example, among many of the books available, I will mention one: --High School Mathematics by Yakovlev, ISBN 5030010114. Over 800 pages comprehensive yet concise and lucid!! Take a look and you will seee. They say nothing more than just taking a student to understand math--itself. THEY DON'T SAY MATH IS FUN AND INTERESTING, WHY, BECAUSE...nonsense...! The joy of math comes from the history, the moment when a great problem is solved, the men and women who struggled with it...