Because I completely forgot everything I learned in school...

books:


	• Painless Algebra (Barron's Painless) Lynette Long Ph.D. Barron's Educational Series, 2006 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Because I completely forgot everything I learned in school...

This book is easy to understand. I had forgotten absolutely EVERYTHING about algebra. This book is good for anyone who will be starting like I did.

There is also a CD Rom that teaches it (called "before you know it algebra"), It doesn't come with the book Painless Algebra. it's also geared towards younger kids, but it's good to have as many resources as you can when self teaching, so it can be explained in more ways than one for more understanding.

These books saved me from having to take pre-algebra as a prerequisite course in college, and I was able to start my degree program earlier. Buying the book saved me hundreds that I would have had to shell out between the classes and the expensive textbooks.

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Good refresher

This book is a good refresher, much like Cliff Notes. It could be a bit more explanatory in areas, but overall it is a great book to thumb through for the basics.

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Outstanding book

I've had to brush up on Algebra (I haven't used it in decades) and this book does an outstanding job. As a previous reviewer noted, the graph (on page 31) pertaining to rational/irrational numbers is; indeed, incorrect but, as far as I can tell, that's about the only error (BTW, the book does describe the difference between the two sets of numbers correctly - only the diagram is wrong).

Generally speaking, the exercises were excellent and so were the explanations. My only criticism are 1), I wish there were more exercises) and 2), all of the answers need to be explained - there are a few "tricky" questions that are very difficult to figure out if one hasn't used Algebra in a long time. It would be very helpful for the author to come up with a workbook that was correlated with each chapter in "Painless Algebra," in order to further reinforce concepts covered.

The final chapter, on quadratic equations (the bane of my algebraic existence) was the only one that provided much grief. As with most things in mathematics, there is more than one way to find a solution. I ended up using solutions found in other books, that were a bit clearer. Of course, that may just be me and I certainly wouldn't use that criticism to prevent others from using this book - overall, "Painless Algebra" was very well written and I would highly recommend it to others.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

For students who are intimidated by all forms of math, here is a set of easy steps that lead to an understanding of elementary algebra. The author defines all terms, points out potential pitfalls in algebraic calculation, and makes problem solving a fun activity. New in this edition are painless approaches to understanding and graphing linear equations, solving systems of linear inequalities, and graphing quadratic equations.

Barron?s popular Painless Series of study guides for middle school and high school students offer a lighthearted, often humorous approach to their subjects, transforming details that might once have seemed boring or difficult into a series of interesting and mentally challenging ideas. Most titles in the series feature many fun-to-solve ?Brain Tickler? problems with answers at the end of each chapter.

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