Rating: 
Summary: Saxon Math is Great!
Review: I have used Saxon Math in the public school since 1983. I have homeschooled my 3 children with Saxon Math. It is a wonderful program. I fell in love with the Algebra 1/2 book the first year I used it . I have used all the books from Math 54 to Advanced Math in the public school and homeschool. I have used it with Gifted and Slow Learners. All students can be successful if they will follow the directions and do each problem. My children loved it. They even use it in college to clearify work they are doing or to tutor students.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource for motivated students
Review: I needed some extra preparation for calculus. After consulting several sources I setteled on Saxons Algebra I through Advanced math. They really work. With Saxon math it is true that what you put in is what you get out of it. If you follow the instructions Saxon will make anyone a master at Algebra, but at a cost, effort. It is NOT hard, but it takes work, the more you put in the better you get, with the Saxon approach. It does break things down pretty simple though. This is great if you have problems with math, but for those who are better at it it teaches mastery. I would just suggest taking their placement test so you don't waste your time. The courses do take some time to complete. I homeschooled my daughter last year with their second grade and I am now using it to prepare for college, it does work!
Rating:
Summary: Good...but does not review enough, read to see why...
Review: I started using Saxon because I had heard many marvelous things about it--the teacher's manuals show the problem being solved step by step and the book reviews very, very often.
True; the teacher manuals are excellent. They go through the problems step-by-step, really quite useful.
Does the book review often? Yes and no. It's set up to where you must complete four lessons then take a quiz...a quiz based on the four lessons you did before you did the last four you just did. (for example, you do lessons 5-8 then take a quiz based on lessons 1-4) So, yes, it does review with it's quizes.
However, it does not review outside of the quizes. It gives you one lesson to learn something...one lesson, and only one. If you don't understand it, you must continue to read the lesson over until you understand it. Which is kind of a, "Well...yeah, of course." But sometimes it's nice to see what you're trying to learn in another lesson, to see it worded differently.
Not only that, but what if you are not a good retainer of information? If you are not a good retainer of information, then even if you do pick up the material, you immidiently go on to new material. You are expected to remember the material you just learned, as well as learn the new material. Forcing you to go back in the book and review what you learned earlier if you were not able to retain it.
Overall, I think this would be a better book if there was two or three lessons to cover the same material, and less teaching new material. There is a lot that they expect you to learn in only one year. Four stars, leaning towards 3.5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Text - produced PhD biophysical chemist!
Review: I used the Saxon books through all of my High school math courses, and think they are *the* best way to learn algebra. The key to the success is really twofold. 1) New types of problems are introduced with every lesson - but these are not drilled into the student by giving them 20 or more "practice problems" to do. Instead, only about 5 of the "new" problems are given for practice - letting the new ideas "sink in" over a period of days. 2) Constant review. Because the student is not burdened with lots of new ideas every lesson, the remaining homework problems are review of everything the student has done to date. This ensures that the student doesn't forget how to do the math, and makes reviewing for a test almost obsolete. I am now in graduate school, soon to get my PhD in theoretical biophysics. Learning Algebra so well in high school put me far ahead in college. I now tutor out of the Saxon books (and others, depending on which schools the kids go to), and the Saxon kids are far ahead of the others in terms of retention and understanding. 'nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: algebra 1: An Incremental Development
Review: I used this book to homeschool my daughter. She is not a math whiz. I wish there would have been a few more practice problems included in the assignment. But when she didn't get something it was helpful that she had to look it up. It reviewed her often. It is not a book you can skip around with. You have to go lesson by lesson. But for a child who is struggling they have a few more lessons to get it and review it. She has improved greatly. Because she does not retain well she has many times to reintroduce a problem and work it out. It is like taking a test ever day. That is why we picked it.
Rating:
Summary: Algebra made... understandable
Review: John Saxon, former Air Force test pilot, published an article in the May 29, 1981 issue of National Review titled "al-ge-bra MADE UNDERSTANDABLE." It was a screed against mathematics textbooks that "...confuse and frighten students by belaboring concepts that are trivial and by giving insufficient emphasis to concepts that are fundamental." Saxon condemned mastery learning and advocated teaching mathematics using "... an incremental development with a continuous review." In the mathematics textbooks he wrote himself, Saxon used an innovation he called "general repetition" -- presenting lots of problems so that students practiced doing what they learned over and over again so that they mastered necessary skills. Saxon's books, Algebra 1/2 - Algebra 1 - Algebra 2 - Advanced Mathematics - and Calculus, are an excellent way to learn mathematics. You can teach yourself by using them. I worked through the Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 books by myself when my son was in school, quite an accomplishment for a 40+ year old math dummy, and my son finished the entire sequence of books as supplemental work while using other textbooks in his school classes. The Saxon books helped make him a great mathematics student.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars for a mathbook, that is
Review: Saxon's explanations are lucid, but sometimes over-laboured; he's perfectly willing to repeat himself over and over. Following each chapter's explanation is a problem set of 30 or so problems, which tests the student on the latest concept and every single other concept covered so far. Needless to say, doing the same kind of problems over and over and over again gets very old. The one redeeming feature is Saxon's word problems, which are inventive and sometimes (as I found against my will) quite funny. Repetitive though the book is, though, it succeeds very well at teaching the student basic algebra; no one can go through this book and not know the material cold.
Rating: 
Summary: Very possibly the worst math textbook series ever written.
Review: The Saxon math series is very popular among administrators desparate for high standardized test scores and lazy teachers whose teaching interest or ability ends with the last page of the solutions manual.The Saxon books are better described as computation test-prep workbooks rather than as mathematics textbooks. They kill students' interest in real mathematics by drowning them in extremely tedious and needlessly complex arithmetic exercises. The author claims that fostering "automaticity" (sic) in students makes them better able to deal with mathematical concepts. In my experience, it just makes kids hate math. The books fail to develop algebraic concepts with any rigour, leaving students bored and unprepared for the more difficult concepts found in higher mathematics.
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Summary: Saxon Algebra 1 Solutions Manual
Review: The Solutions Manual offered through Amazon is for the 2d edition, not the 3rd, which has been out since 1997. Since no edition is mentioned in the write-up, I ordered it. Once received, I discovered that it was of no value to me in checking my son's homework. Now I've lost 4 - 6 more weeks of time while I wait for the Saxon Publishing cite to mail the current manual to me. In the meantime, I'm personally working 60 algebra problems nightly for my kids (30 for algebra 1 and 30 for algebra 2). It was a true disappointment. Be careful which edition you require.
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS COOl
Review: This book helped me pass my class with flying colors.....ok buh by
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