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Rating: 
Summary: Not Great
Review: Gallian's Contemporary Abstract Algebra is my required textbook for this course. I bought Schaum's Outline to supplement it and help me with some of the proofs. Instead, I found exactly the same worked-out examples from Gallian. My homework problems I was having trouble with were also under the "extra" problems section which does not have solutions. Basically this book was useless to me. If you aren't already using Gallian, that's the book you should get; this one would be okay if you want to save a few bucks.
Rating:
Summary: Not Great
Review: Gallian's Contemporary Abstract Algebra is my required textbook for this course. I bought Schaum's Outline to supplement it and help me with some of the proofs. Instead, I found exactly the same worked-out examples from Gallian. My homework problems I was having trouble with were also under the "extra" problems section which does not have solutions. Basically this book was useless to me. If you aren't already using Gallian, that's the book you should get; this one would be okay if you want to save a few bucks.
Rating: 
Summary: I become a mathematics fan.
Review: I am an undergrad student in Computer Science. The content in this book is terse and very cohesive. And its cohesiveness is what I like most. Each successive chapter is developed rigorously upon previous chapters. A lot of proofs of most important theorems have been supplemented. These proofs I have been reading in awe, are real eye-openers. Mathematics had never been this entertaining. I strongly recommend this book, especially if you don't know what Abstract Algebra is all about. I had no idea when I ordered...
Rating:
Summary: The Cliff Notes of Math/Science!
Review: I purchased this book as a supplement to my text for my Abstract Algebra course. I highly recommend any of the Schaum's Outlines whenever you want a clear and concise summary of ideas with valuable problems (both solved and unsolved). The solved problems in this book take you step by step through several key ideas without spoon feeding the entire subject. Here are some caveats though. In case you are trying to purchase this book for a junior high or high school algebra class, let me warn you, This is NOT the same thing! Pick up the Elementary Algebra outline instead. Trust me. Next, my class concentrated more on groups than this particular outline did. I found the Group Theory outline to be a useful "co-supplement" for my particular class. Since different teachers accentuate different things, I recommend talking to the teacher and asking what they would suggest. Finally, I think that this book would have been served by including a few geometric arguments for groups including isometry groups in 2D. The lack thereof does not truly detract from the book but I feel the extra clarification would have been helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Very well explained
Review: I think this book would be good by itself in picking up algebraic theories and methods. Each section is well explained and the sample problems take you through the process step-by-step. The only problem I have with the book is that not all the supplementary exercises (to test your understanding) have the answers. Some have an answer, some have a partial answer, some have a hint, and some have nothing. This is a little aggravating, but it does not take away from the book.
Rating:
Summary: Very well explained
Review: I think this book would be good by itself in picking up algebraic theories and methods. Each section is well explained and the sample problems take you through the process step-by-step. The only problem I have with the book is that not all the supplementary exercises (to test your understanding) have the answers. Some have an answer, some have a partial answer, some have a hint, and some have nothing. This is a little aggravating, but it does not take away from the book.
Rating:
Summary: mm, not quite what I was hoping for...
Review: This installment in the Schaum's outline series doesn't do it for me. I had reason to pick this one up simply out of curiousity (and out of habit, by using other titles in this series for other lower-level undergraduate courses). It hardly stimulates any interest on the part of the reader; and the presentation is dry; not to mention that the selection of solved problems wasn't carefully thought out (most, I found, were proofs of some pretty standard results, which I would have rather not seen all over again). And the bare-hands computations weren't all that exciting, either. Ploughing through a course text proper would better serve the serious student of mathematics. There are other well-written books devoted to solved problems in algebra (group/ring theory, for instance). It's just a matter of scoping them out carefully, and dishing out the money (for photocopies, even).
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