Cengage Advantage Books: Essential Algebra

First used this book (earlier edition) in college in the early 80's. I wish to revitalize my math skills and it is as effective now as it was then. Very well done, with small lessons easily mastered. If more instructors taught Math like this we wouldn't have so many students so puzzled by math in our schools and colleges.

I got this book for the second part of my math series for the year. The first part (last semester) I had a teacher that had another book. I didn't have an easy time obtaining the grade I wanted. I had to go for tutoring. This semester, I had to get this book. Before having this math class (the teacher I had this semester) AND this book.. I was dreading math. Now I'm psyched. I wish I'd have had this book last semester, it would have made all the difference. (The teacher is not the only important factor.) If you need it for school, great! But it is also great if you've been out for a while and need to refresh... it is easy breezy to follow (almost don't need a teacher).

I had a BA and was planning to enter a B.S. program after ten years out of High School. This book was a tremendous help in refreshing my mathematics skills. The material is presented clearly and in very understandable language. There are periodic tests one can take to chart one's progress between chapters, helpful reviews of terminology and appendices with review of some fundamentals you may have forgotten as well as a preview of the sort of math this book would lead into if one continued. The answers to the exercises are worked out in the back of the book (the odd numbered questions are shown at length) so that you can catch mistakes in methodology (and in arithematic).It is simply impossible to not follow the easy phraseology and straight-forward teaching techniques. You almost breeze through the material because it is presented so clearly and in such easy language. The instruction is explicit with a step-by-step analysis of the material and a lengthy explanation of how one goes about solving involved equations. I only wish I had these authors as my math teachers in high school-I'd have remembered without difficulty the math skills I need now.