Math Word Problems Demystified

I have always struggled with word problems. Due to changing schools a couple times and different curriculum in each, I ended up taking Algebra I three times (needless to say, by year three, I was completely bored!), then later took Algebra II and College Algebra. Nevertheless, on the ACT I did rather poorly on the algebra section because it is made mostly of word problems. Same on the GRE. So before starting another degree program that is heavier in math than my first, I picked up this book to help me learn the concepts with which I struggle. Somehow, in all those classes (plus one more in college), I just never got it, but with this book, I finally did. I actually began to enjoy them! This book explains things very simply and gives just the right amount of problems to help you practice. The explanations on how to solve the problems and on how the practice problems are solved are very easy to understand as well. All I can say is THANK YOU, Bluman! I wish I had picked this up 5 years ago! :)

Get this for your 6th grade student. It reviews math they have had and teaches how to figure out word problems. It has great explanations and examples. It has practice problems and then quizzes at the end of a unit. Answers are either right after the problems or at the back of the book. Parents can use this to help kids, and math teachers can certainly use it for probably 5th through 8th or 9th grades.

This book is great. It breaks the various word problems into categories and then develops a plan to help solve that category. This book is easy to understand and has helped me tutor my children in this area. Most people roll their eyes at math word problems this book has changed that. I highly recommend it.

What most people can (and should) like about this book is that there are several questions clearly and fully solved. Each chapter is set up like a "lesson" with a short explanation of the type of problem, some vocabulary, and then a handful of annotated solutions to problems. Lastly, each chapter finishes off with 5 - 10 problems for you to try, and then gives their full solutions immediately thereafter. I love the format of the book. Having written "textbooks" by hand for use with my own students, I know that they appreciate having the answers IMMEDIATELY AFTER the questions. This way, each chapter is truly self-contained, the way it should be! ;) What I'm less fond of is the way the concepts are actually explained. Some "lessons" are better than others, but in general they are a little too superficial for my liking. You're probably not going to understand the *why* of what you're doing with this book, but if you just skim over the instructions and follow the solutions, step-by-step, you will almost certainly get the *how* -- which is what most people want anyway, I suppose! I use these books to train my staff of tutors. How I will likely use this book is to show them the description as written, and then we'll discuss all the questions that students will probably ask because the description doesn't quite illuminate the concepts. I do feel compelled to give this book a 5, (even though I personally am lukewarm when it comes to the prose) because I really do feel most people will be able to learn *how* to do these common types of word problems simply by following the examples in this book. This book would be great for students prepping for the SAT who feel intimidated by the mathematics word problems. This will provide a nice foundation set of skills to have before teaching all the "tricks" and harder problems of the SAT. This alone is not sufficient for SAT prep, but it's excellent "SAT prep" prep! With respect to the Ontario, Canada school curriculum, these problems are covered in both grades 9 and 10, so that's the grade level of the content. This is not a book for senior high school grades.. High-average to advanced students could also easily digest this material in Gr. 7 and 8. I would say it would be a helpful book for any Grade 9/10 student to have, as extra practice to accompany their school textbook or to get ready for SAT prep, and I will recommend it to my students.

I checked this book out of the library just because I always enjoyed doing story problems. What it does is give you a methodology to solve all those story problems you always struggled through in school. I worked virtually every problem in the book, just because I found it fascinating. It's amazing what algebra can do for you! I never realized how practical it was. I thought this was a great book for providing a solid understanding of how to do story problems. And if you like doing story problems, this one will give you plenty of practice!