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Rating: 
Summary: This book has too many flaws.
Review: The most obvious problem with this book is that there are too many errors in the answers at the back. This results in a lot of time spent reworking the problems in attempts to get the "right" answers. I know it is very difficult to edit to a point that is closer to perfection, but such careful editing is of crucial importance in a math book. The book's layout and design are poor. For example, a bold line is used to indicate the beginning of an example instead of the beginning of a concept. This has the unfortunate effect of making it appear that the explanation of a new concept is part of the previous example. Though I did get somewhat used to this technique halfway through the book, I never learned to like it, and it continued to confuse me occasionally. I would have appreciated more exercises for practice at the end of each section. Often, I would get the hang of a concept by the second or third problem, but then there would be no more problems on which I could reinforce my newfound understanding. I will say, though, that there were plenty of applied problems and they were frequently useful, challenging, and even fun. I rated this book at 3 stars (instead of 2 or 1) because much of the material itself is good. I learned a lot and I did fairly well in the course (A-). However, I know a good textbook when I use one, and this one needs more work to fit that description. This book made taking the class more difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating than it needed to be.
Rating: 
Summary: there are better books out there, this is not one of them
Review: to be blunt, this book is not good. hungerford does not explain how to do precalculus very well in this book. it is difficult to read and to understand. a good example is if you were programming a VCR when the instructions are japanese (no offense). this is probably the reason why it is so difficult. if hungerford made this book more student friendly, then maybe he would've gotten a better review. until then, look for another book, this one is definately not one of the best.
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