Prealgebra

Love this book. The cover was a bit battered but the content was perfect. The delivery was delayed through no fault of the seller, however, they caught up with the carrier regardless and updated me with all information on its whereabouts. Have bought with serendipity countless times and this has never happened. However, they were very helpful. Happy.

The book is excellent for a student to use. However, this message goes to the seller. Please be mindful not to send used books. As you can see in the picture, somebody already used this book. (I highlighted those in green colour)

no words for this wonderful book, I bought it for my 5th grade son, its approach is more towards concepts rather than typical question-answers ; kids might find it difficult at first so need to put extra effort in beginning from parents.

Not sure why Amazon sent a defective product which is somehow not right. The delivery packaging seems OK from the outer look.

We love AOPS!! If your kid is nerdy for math, these take them through the curriculum in normal order but dive deeper into how the math works and creative ways to do really intricate things with it.

I am 46 years old and studying programming. I keep running into the same problem--my inadequate math skills. CS degrees seem to require through at least pre-calculus and often I'm finding I want to do something with my code, but can't figure out how to do the math that would enable me to do so. It has been terribly frustrating. I never made it past algebra in high school. So, I decided to dedicate an hour a day to learning math. I looked and looked for a math curriculum. When looking for an algebra book, I kept skipping the one by "the Art of Problem Solving", because it was listed as a gifted curriculum. When the others just didn't look good to me, I thought I'd give this one a try. I'm so glad I did! This isn't just for gifted kids, this is for anyone who really wants to understand WHY you do things in math the way you do. I could never remember the formulas and lists of rules in math. I'm a visual thinker and my mind just kept flipping things around. This book helps you understand why you do things, so you can recreate the formulas yourself when you need them and also apply that knowledge to other situations. This book's approach is to teach you by having you solve problems. Apparently, brain studies have found that when you are just presented with information your brain doesn't grow as much as when you attempt to do something and make a mistake, then learn what the answer is. This books' approach takes advantage of that to accelerate learning. In each chapter, it gives a brief (perhaps one page) of introduction to the current topic, then gives you problems to solve, without telling you how to solve them. Then it gives step-by-step answers and explanations about how to get to those answers and why. At the end of the chapter, it gives extra questions as well as challenge questions that are more advanced. The solutions guide gives full explanations for each of the chapter end and challenge questions. So, you don't have to have the answer guide, but I've found it great extra practice and review. I also enjoy that this takes the approach that you should always do the least amount of work. Where other programs offer "shortcuts", this one teaches the shorter ways of doing things as a matter of course. When you are in a competition, taking a timed exam, or coming up on a deadline on your work, you don't have time to figure things out the long way--if there is a quicker way. This helps you look for a quicker way from the start and get used to doing it. Also, it becomes obvious right away that when you look for the quicker way, often it is easier to check to be sure your answer is correct also. For instance, is it easier to multiply 125 squared by 16 squared or multiply 125 by 16, then square the result? Try it both ways. Sometimes math doesn't have to be as tedious as we've been led to believe. I started with prealgebra because I wanted to be sure I had a good foundation. I did Khan Academy (free online) up through prealgebra for review, but when I hit algebra, it just didn't give enough explanations (neither did Aleks online), and I wasn't retaining what I did learn. My daughter also used Khan an hour a day for months, but the explanations weren't enough for her either. I ended up moving over to Mathematical Reasoning by the Critical Thinking Company for her. I considered using their books for myself, but was not sure they go into as much depth as this one. So, the main reason I chose this series of books (they have about 9 math books above this level, incl. number theory, and statistics), is because I don't just need to know math to pass a course. I need to know math well enough to use it for my future profession. I need to KNOW it. I don't find this book harder than any others, but it's not fancy. It gives you the facts with no fluff. It is easy enough to understand, but it asks you to think--a lot. I put a circle in my notebook next to the problems I get wrong, and before I begin each day, I re-do the problems I missed the day before, and some problems I missed a few days or a week before. It's amazing how fast I forget how it's done. This repetition gets it into my brain. I also write why I didn't get it correct under the circle. Often, when I write, "I still don't understand this", it clicks a few days later. So, I recommend review like this; it really helps. Sometimes, my comment is just "Arithmetic error, be more careful" or "Always reread the problem before moving on to be sure your answer is what the problem was actual asking for." I've also learned to not just use scratch paper for my work, but have realized how much neatness counts in making sure I don't make a mistake. It became a habit that just made sense very quickly. I feel like I'm unlearning all the bad habits I learned in school. Just yesterday, I was presented with a programming problem in my studies, where I considered it for a few moments, then went "Oh, this requires adding all the numbers together up to a certain digit." And I knew exactly how to do it and was able focus on how to program it, rather than how to do that math. A couple months ago, I didn't know how to do that and now it's easy and makes perfect sense, so I'm unlikely to forget it. Awesome. Thank you Art of Problem Solving. BTW, Beast Academy is produced by the same company. I ordered the second grade level for my daughter, and she LOVED the comic book format! My daughter was reading about math and was really enjoying it and understanding it! She is going into 6th grade and found the workbooks really challenging. I would have started her on the 1st grade level, but that isn't due to come out till the autumn of this year (2017). For now, we have paused, but might try again once the first level comes out. This prealgebra book is for after completing the five levels of Beast Academy (labeled grades 1 through 5). But I'd say it's rather challenging for a sixth grader unless they are gifted, but I may be wrong. My girl has always been in a Montessori school and they do things differently. But do keep in mind that Beast Academy and Art of Problem Solving are gifted curriculum. Prealgebra and up are designed to help middle school students to compete in math competitions. But again, if you are out of school already and finding you need to know math well for your profession, this is a great choice! I wouldn't say that Beast Academy is too simplistic if you find the prealgebra book hard and want to review foundational math. I found the workbook at the second grade level challenging! And just for reference, my IQ is well above average--it tries to give you harder questions than your current level to ones that mathematicians find challenging. And it's a fun way of learning. Only downside to Beast Academy is the price. Ouch! I can understand they need to pay for all the many hours of work that must have gone into writing, drawing, and designing the books, but it's a bit hard to justify buying the whole series for my daughter. I recommend buying only the first book and first workbook to see if it is a fit for you or your child, before buying a whole level as I did. I might just buy the rest of the comic books for my daughter and just skip the workbooks since the comic books are wonderful. We didn't get too far in the workbooks since frustration set in for my child and she really didn't like math to start with, so I can't really comment on them. This prealgebra book is well priced in my opinion, as it is about 600 pages, with no space wasted. If it had been more, I might not have taken the chance on it, but at this price and this quality, I hope to do many more in the series! And, best yet, there are more practice problems, videos, and even an active discussion forum online--for free! If you just can't figure something out, you can post about it online or look to see if someone else has already asked the question. This is the next best thing to taking a course and you can do it at your own pace.