Algebra 1, Student Edition

Rating:
Summary: Total waste of time!
Review: All I have to say is that this "book" was definatly not intended for human use, nor was it written by humans who actually understand the human mind.

Rating:
Summary: A pretty helpful book
Review: I bought this book looking for some self help in the subject of Algebra,It's pretty good except that it does not give all the answers to all the questions,they only do a selected amount of answers,this is really trickey if you don't have an instructor to guide you.I would recommened this book to a person who just wants a review in algebra,I would give it a 5 star rating for that use,but only a 3 star rating for self help.

Rating:
Summary: The Material Presented
Review: I'm a student from Ridgeway Middle School in Memphis who is curretly taking Algebra 1. All I have to say about the book is that it is INFESTED with those annoying integration chapters that are: poorly made, come in the middle of the other chapters in a very unexpected time. Also, the book is poorly organized and, the worst part, it has some of the most ridiculus problems that NO ONE will figure out on their own. If it wasn't because my Algebra 1 teacher is a wonderful one, my generation would be lost.

Rating:
Summary: Crap
Review: My school buys this book obviously because it's cheap or something. Nobody gets this. The writers are too busy trying to sound intelligent and make themselves look good that they leave everyone behind. It's just crap. They act like your suppose to understand it already and the reason we have the book is to learn.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough examples. Explanations not clear.
Review: This book frustrated me incredibly during the one year period i had to use it in my schools Algebra class. This book assumes a lot of unexplained math vocabulary as well as insufficient examples in each chapter. If you are someone who learns primarily from examples and sample problems this book will definetely not fit your needs. There is usually one example for each type of problem in the lesson and it is impossible to practice your learning of that problem because in the homework (that includes answers) there is also usually one problem relating to that specific type of problem. I don't know if what i am saying is making sense but DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK unless you enjoy books with no detailed examples, advanced explanations of concepts you have probably never learned, and boring real world connections. After using this book at my school i checked out a few other books and have found that i really enjoy Algebra when i can actually understand it and apply my skills. I think the book is a major deciding point in a students grades. I think more schools should focus on down to earth, but still informative books and maybe then they would see more effort applied to difficult concepts.

Rating:
Summary: Too much to wade through
Review: This book presents too much material in an unorganized fashion. The sections concentrate on so much extra stuff that the math is difficult to follow. It is unclear what is important and what is not with all the vocabulary and activities and practice problems. I haven't seen later editions but it definitely needs to be cleaned up. It does have lots of real world examples and activities but this is algebra 1 and kids need to learn the basics first. One has to pick and choose what to do with it and that's not what I want.

Rating:
Summary: Buy A Different Book
Review: When I write this review, I am really referring to both volumes of the Algebra 1 series. I am a college engineering student and just completed my fourth calculus course. For the past year I have tried to help my younger brother in his Algebra class because this book didn't help at all. Examples are insufficient and the book and tests are riddled with errors. The teacher had to work out all the problems because there were so many mistakes that he could not trust his answer key. A sample of this book's terrible teaching method can be seen when it expects students to use the discriminant to find the nature of the roots for a quadratic equation. It simply has students complete a table in problem number 44 or something and then expects students to be able to tell from the results what the nature of roots for a quadratic equation are on a quiz. Few students succeeded in accomplishing this. In the chapter discussing radicals, the definition of a perfect square is never mentioned! Also students are told to tell the difference between rational and irrational roots by looking at their calculator display. Perhaps if you only use this book as a source for problems, it might be OK. But it is nearly impossible to try and learn something from this book which seems to be fixated on providing pretty graphics instead of relevant examples. My advice: Buy some other Algebra book. It is not possible to put too much effort into the search for a good algebra book because algebra is really the language of science and engineering that needs to become second nature. I haven't seen them myself, but I have heard good things about Algebra 1 by Paul A. Foerster as well as Algebra: Structure and Method by Richard G. Brown, Mary P. Dolciani, Robert H. Sorgenfrey, et. al. You might want to take a look at these books.