Elementary Algebra

Rating:
Summary: I am a homeschooled student using the book...
Review: ...and I have found this to be a good course. We had tried several algebra programs before we tried this one. For the most part this is an excellent course. One drawback is that the author often does not mention key principles, in the assumption that the student will pick it up while working the problem, which is not usually the case! Overall, however, this is a good course. An optional supplement to the course: it helps to have a dad around who knows algebra...

Rating:
Summary: Great text, could use detailed solutions manual
Review: I have used Jacobs Algebra (and Geometry) for a homeschooled audience, in a once a week classroom setting of 8 - 16 students. I love the way the material is presented, especially the "boxes" which are used to multiply and divide polynomials and lead to an elegant method of completing the square. His emphasis is understanding WHY, instead of HOW, and my students enjoy it. I do have parents repeatedly request a "Solutions Manual" - the teacher's guide only contains the answers, not the solutions to the problems.

Rating:
Summary: Great text, could use detailed solutions manual
Review: I have used Jacobs Algebra (and Geometry) for a homeschooled audience, in a once a week classroom setting of 8 - 16 students. I love the way the material is presented, especially the "boxes" which are used to multiply and divide polynomials and lead to an elegant method of completing the square. His emphasis is understanding WHY, instead of HOW, and my students enjoy it. I do have parents repeatedly request a "Solutions Manual" - the teacher's guide only contains the answers, not the solutions to the problems.

Rating:
Summary: I am a homeschooled student using the book...
Review: Jacobs' book has a lot of really good, interesting problems to do, and that is the most important thing in a math book. The probems are unsurpassed by any other Algebra book that I know of.

I bought 7 copies of this book so far for people who are self-teaching this Summer. Or at least half-self teaching, because the reading level is a little high (many large words). Some people have a spouse, parent, sibling, or frient who are helping out by reading some of the problems to the self-learner, without doing them.

It would be good to come out with a version of the problems in this book with, say, a seventh grade vocabulary to open it up to people whose reading skill is not that high yet. This would SEPARATE the reading work from the algebra work.

In the end, of course, one must master language in order to master math. In the beginning, however, it is still good if one has the motivation to self-learn some Algebra, even before becoming am master-level reader.

Rating:
Summary: excellent results with a gifted ten-year-old
Review: The question last summer was, "What next, for a younger child who's mastered all pre-algebra mathematics?" Was it too soon for algebra? And could a parent who hadn't seen algebra in the last twenty years help the child cope? We ordered Harold R. Jacobs' text, encouraged by reviews mentioning self-study, and began work in the fall, prepared to stop any time if the child found it difficult or stressful. Quite the contrary, it was mentally very stimulating -- the lessons took us carefully from familiar arithmetic concepts to equivalent algebraic content, and presented each new subject one very manageable bit at a time. It was exciting to watch skills developing, and to see the child's enjoyment and growing sense of competence. The little cartoons and often-intriguing Set IV exercises added fun and interest throughout, and made it easier to keep going, especially during those mid-school-year doldrums. This book was perfectly suited to our schedule, which allowed only three lessons per week, after school -- we needed only about half an hour per lesson at first, then near the end, about an hour and a half. We're looking forward to Jacobs' Geometry book next year!