Larson CA Study & Sols Guide 3ed

I'll start out by saying that when I took this class I myself had no intention of taking any more mathematics beyond this class. Fast forward a couple years and I'm about to take a calculus course. When I took the class, this book seemed illogical in its explanations for the fact that it didn't do a great job in breaking things down in plain english. However, it has just enough in it for you to figure the plain english out on its own. I ended up in a huge quandary when in my Gen Chem course in college suddenly required me to know log again. Me--having forgotten entirely all the properties of logs (because yeah, you're never gonna need it). That said, I needed a reference. So there I go and instantly I'm able to read it, and I find the language useful and easy to understand. So the moral of the story is this: This text is great if you need a back reference, but you'll need a great teacher or a really logical mind to figure out many of the problems. Oh, the examples also don't go over the most difficult questions you'll find in the text--so the instructor's edition is MANDATORY. Then at least--if you have the answer you can reason backwards to the problem to find you mistake(s) I rate this a 4 though because it was also a very good resource for some things I needed to go back to in calculus and whenever I feel the need to refresh skills. As far as the necessity of algebra--no its not necessary, but if you look at the pay difference between bachelor's degrees that use even a little math (such as accounting or management) and no math at all (English majors, humanities, psychology) the discrepancy in pay is at minimum $11000 (as of 2007). Personally, I'd rather put myself through a little hell during my four years in order to get a job that actually pays what I'm worth. And that's not too much to ask.

textbook for college algebra.As with his other texts, Larson approaches subjects from an analytical perspective AND from a graphic/geometric perspective.This allows students who despise the Xs, Ys, and Zs of algebra to "see" what might otherwise escape them if approached only analytically.Excellent text.