College Algebra includes all the topics critical to a college algebra course, including review topics. It is complete in its coverage of the building blocks of algebra, many types of functions, their graphs and conic sections. The exercise sets The exercise sets include sufficient variety and quantity of exercises to practice the ideas and skills covered in each section. There have been some inaccurate labels and directions in the PDF version that I have not seen in the online version.
Overall the text includes applications ranging across many subjects, issues, fields, and interests to be meaningful to a wide cross section of students. And the examples and exercises are generic and basic enough that they will not be out of date. The textbook introduces new concepts and notation in each section with clear explanation.
Pictures, tables, graphs and other visuals effectively illustrate ideas in a clear manner. The text is consistent in layout and approach to topics. Terminology is used in a consistent way throughout the chapters. Sections within each chapter break up the material such that it can be covered in a single class session.
One exception to this is 2. The latter is also included in 4. The content in the sections is divided into self-contained topics which allows for easy reference or for reordering or skipping to serve overall course objectives. Overall the text is organized such that concepts build on each other in a logical fashion.
However, I have also found that covering 2. The interface for both the PDF and the online version work well and navigating around the text with the table of contents is convenient.
The PDF version has numbers on the section exercises whereas the online version has links to selected solutions but does not have exercises numbers, which can be confusing.
I have not come across anything in the text that raises concerns or questions related to cultural relevance. I have used several textbooks for college algebra and find this textbook to be just as good or better than ones with high price tags, so being free to students makes it a good choice.
I will likely continue to use this textbook. The college algebra text covers all the typical topics for a course of this type. Within each idea there is an appropriate level of both mathematical rigor and application.
Though there were a few discrepancies between the online book and the hard copy and a couple of questionable solutions in the solutions manual, the accuracy of the text was excellent. The text has up to date applications and connections. I see no reason why the types of questions and approaches the authors take will not make for a long lasting and relevant text.
The language and organization of the text is excellent. It is very readable and student friendly. Additionally, the notation used is clear and unambiguous, leading to strong student comprehension. I did do a little reorganizing of the text.
It seemed like some topics, like linear and quadratic equations, appeared and then disappeared, but reappeared later in a slightly new context.
I thought it would have been better to keep them together so students could make more connections due to familiarity. The text is very logically progressive and organized in such a way that both deductive and inductive methods of learning are present.
It is consistently varied in that students are asked to think, explore and then do as a part of their learning engagement. Precise, but not so much jargon that the reader is consistently lost or needing to retrace their previous reading. Thank you for putting such a fantastic resource together for students and professors. I will definitely use this again!
The text covers the full-set of expected material from a college algebra course with an emphasis on functions. The table of contents contains easy and clear links to chapters and sections even the PDF has links! Every section uses worked and explained examples to showcase ideas and has a full set of practice exercises.
I encountered few examples that use time-sensitive data that would need to be updated frequently teen texting habits from in 4. Math textbooks are not easy reads for students, and I think most of mine would wish this had more examples with explained steps. Math jargon can be overwhelming and frequently the text and does extra work to clarify or define terms. The online text has too many things in gray highlighting boxes, and lacks the visual contrast of the pdf.
Overall I find the text more accessible than a standard math text. The terminology seemed consistent throughout. Sections also follow similar patterns which make navigation and reading more straightforward. Several of the sections contain too many topics and would be better served being separated into more manageable parcels.
Section 3. The text is clearly organized and follows a logical progression. I had no interface problems. However there are a variety of quality of life improvements that would make the text much more readable and approachable for students not the same grey boxes everywhere please. Many things link in the online reader, but are missing specific labels.
The search bar is a very nice feature and appears robust. The end of section key-ideas summary contains links to specific worked examples which is wonderful. There examples are by no means insensitive, but they are also not doing any particular work to be inclusive in the subject or topic representation. References to sports and physics in introducing topics has the potential to be exclusionary for students without the needed backgrounds.
Overall College Algebra is a fine textbook, totally in line with common standards. Potentially attention grabbing introductory questions are left unanswered.
Every section has a few extension questions, but there are few questions that would count as "Rich Mathematical Tasks" or demanding critical thinking. I do also wish a fully-digital text would provide a larger variety of fully-worked and explained solutions, and drop the convention of only providing answers to odd practice exercises. Too often ideas are introduced and explained via the fully-abstracted form, which only makes sense to readers already fluent in algebra. For a course titled College Algebra, all the topics covered and the level of rigor for those topics are mostly as one would expect.
In addition, the text contains chapters in Analytic Geometry as well as Sequences and Probability. The explanations are thorough yet not overly verbose. Compared to the textbook currently in use by my institution, I would need to supplement a brief section on circles which serves as a reinforcement of the completing-the-square skill.
Also, I would need additional linear application problems. All relevant topics considered, there are only minor differences in content depth and breadth. The content is timeless. The scenarios in which the content is applied are reasonably relevant. As far as I can predict, through the lens of now, the content will age well. In other words, no references to a fad were found.
For example, word problems required no knowledge of Tamagotchi. The clarity of this textbook was excellent. As a litmus test, I like have a text-to-speech program narrate some passages. The text-to-speech program performed admirably. This is not a scientific process, but merely a way to inform my opinion. The presentation of concepts was logical and consistent with other textbooks that share the College Algebra title. This textbook does a great job of breaking the content down into easily consumable chunks.
It has a relatively high ratio of sections per number of pages. If I were to adopt this text, I would increase the number of bookmarks on the PDF so students could quickly get to the exercises at the end of each section.
Overall the organization of the text is logical and seems pedagogically justified. The layout is such that the transition from topic-to-topic from within a section and between sections is non-jarring and natural.
Visually they did a nice job of breaking up the content with the use of headings, varying fonts, font styles, and colors. The inclusion of video links at the end of each section is a nice value added feature.
Again, personally, I would add more bookmarks to the PDF version. On a few occasions, I would have preferred the graphs right justified and the corresponding explanations left justified such that the size of the graph could have been increased. Similarly, there are a few points where I would have preferred the font to be a larger size.
This is especially true in the exponential and logarithm sections. Since I can zoom, this is only a minor inconvenience. Structure-wise I would like to have more white space between paragraphs. I understand this a trade-off between readability vs. For example, the four inequalities at the bottom of page in the PDF version would have been more readable if stacked vertically than listed horizontally.
These are minor issues. Overall the textbook has an attractive aesthetic and is nearly on par with modern retail offerings. I appreciate all the time and effort the creators put into this project. Any instructor teaching a college algebra class will find this text to be the perfect level of comprehensiveness. Some texts try to include too much and some texts leave to much out. With this text you can tell that the authors strive and succeed With this text you can tell that the authors strive and succeed at finding the perfect amount of information to present and discuss when teaching concepts.
The text covers the standard college algebra topics in an order conducive to learning. They start essentially with basics and equations followed by functions and then on to in standard order the five main functions: Linear, Polynomial, Rational, Exponential and Logarithmic. Following these standard functions are thorough discussions for every optional subject that shows up in different schools under different instructors. Each of these sections cover the material thoroughly and in a completely self-contained manner so as to allow the instructor flexibility of including or not including any of these sections without having to supplement.
A review of many of the examples in the sections and many of the homework problems and the solutions found at the end of the text have turned up no errors not already listed on the errata page. The authors have gone to great lengths to eliminate errors from the text. The content of college algebra has for the most part remained unchanged for years. This text is adequately relevant to the subject as it is taught today.
There are very useful links to youtube videos that explain concepts. These links will have to be monitored for accuracy as the years go by in the event that the author of the videos moves and deletes videos. I don't anticipate very many updates to the field of algebra, but if there are any, then the authors will be able to easily incorporate those updates in subsequent editions. The book is written in a very clear concise manner that aims to teach in a self-contained manner.
Student's will be able to pick up this book and learn from it with little outside supplementation. The jargon and technical terminology is perfect for a text at this level and teaches what needs to be taught. The authors walk students through learning in the way an instructor might do so in the classroom. This text is very consistent in the language used from section to section. The authors use terminology and symbols consistently from section to section and chapter to chapter. Besides consistency in the language used, the authors have managed to organize the chapters and sections with common fonts, text boxes, and overall layout so that students know what to expect and aren't distracted by the presentation while trying to learn new concepts.
The chapters are appropriately designed and ordered. Each chapter is broken up nicely into sections. The text is sometimes self-referential, however, that is the nature of mathematics and scaffolding of learning is very much apart of that. The text could be easily reorganized if needed, but I think that the authors have really managed to organize the material in a way that is conducive to learning and I don't see why reorganization except in perhaps very minor instances would be needed.
As mentioned before, the advanced chapters following logarithms are self-contained and can be taught in any order skipping chapters without loss of consistency. The order of the topics presented progress from easier to more difficult in a logical manner starting with a strong foundation and building upon that foundation. Within each chapter, examples and explanations are logical and flow easily from easy to more difficult. All navigation links to chapters and sections work well.
The links to helpful youtube videos all work as well. The text uses appropriate organization of graphics and text highlighting important concepts in a non-distracting manner. Colors for text, fonts, headings are all appropriate and help to focus the reader's attention to what is truly important.
After reviewing this text for several weeks extensively, I have yet to find a grammatical error. The authors have worked very hard to eliminate errors from this text.
The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way, however, there is really not too much effort to include examples or biographies that celebrate other cultures, ethnicities, or lifestyles.
For example, using NFL examples are fine for the person that understands football, but this will not benefit students that have now knowledge of the NFL. If there is any room for improvement in this text this would be the area.
Here are some specific things that the book does really well. The examples in the homework do a great job of including problems that cater to the major areas of mathematics instruction namely: Graphical, analytical, numerical, and verbal. Calculator steps look like they cater to Texas Instruments. I'm not sure how this can be expanded to include other calculator manufacturers. Content-wise, the author does a great job of planting seeds early on for future learning.
For example the authors introduce some simple transformations during the study of linear graphs before formally learning all of the other transformations in a later chapter. Later on, the authors do an exceptional job of teaching transformations including a very important and thorough discussion of how the order of transformations should be considered. This is something usually left out of most texts.
The authors seem to have found the perfect placement of this topic. Discussion of conic sections are very thorough and even include derivations of the standard formulas! Here are a few things that I think the authors could consider for their next edition. The discussion of graphing non-linear inequalities hearkens back to a method used for graphing linear inequalities. However, the only graphing of linear inequalities I could find in the text is in one variable.
There is no real coverage of graphing linear inequalities in two variables in the xy-plane which is really what is needed in order to move to the non-linear case analogously.
Otherwise, the discussion of graphing non-linear inequalities is adequately thorough. Also, as a personal opinion, I don't think that partial fractions belong in a college algebra text.
But if you are going to include such a section, then there should be some sort of discussion as to why you only need constant placeholders when dealing with linear factors in the denominator and why you need linear place holders when you have irreducible quadratics in the denominator. Otherwise the placement right after systems of equations is a perfect application. Finally, in the matrices section the authors present the shortcut method for finding the determinant of a 3x3 matrix which is fine.
The authors then point out that the method and not applicable to higher dimension matrices. The follow this with a statement that determinants of higher dimension matrices should be done with technology due to heavy computation.
I plan on adopting this text for my classroom within the next year or so. Thanks to the authors for the hard work and a wonderful product!
The content of the text is quite comprehensive and certainly includes the relevant content that would be expected of a college algebra text. Some might argue that trigonometric functions should be included in a college algebra text, yet I have Some might argue that trigonometric functions should be included in a college algebra text, yet I have found that most do not. The table of contents in both the online and PDF versions is very useful, considering it provides links that allow you to jump straight to a specific section.
The section numbering system, however, is not consistent between the online and PDF versions, causing slight confusion e. This is because the online version assigns section 1 of each chapter to the introduction, whereas the PDF version assigns section 1 to the first section of actual content, thus causing the two versions to be one section "off" from each other.
The index at the end of the book is also very useful, utilizing the links to quickly jump to specific pages where key terms are referenced. The text appears to be very well done concerning accuracy. Furthermore, the author provides instructors with a quick and easy way to report any errors. Typically, the main "content" of a college algebra text is not going to change over time, therefore the content in this text is up-to-date, relavent, and will not become obsolete any time soon.
The authors do include multiple instances of modern examples within the technology and real-world applications sections of the exercises. The text is pretty straight-forward with providing relevant content without excess dialogue or commentary.
The structure of the text is quite consistent. It is easy to navigate. From an instructor's point of view it should be easy to work through examples with students and provide ample opportunity to assign exercises. As previously mentioned, there is a confusing inconsistency with section numbers between the online and PDF versions. Otherwise, the navigation is quite user-friendly.
The links within the text that allow the user to jump to specific locations in the text as opposed to excessive scrolling and manual searching are quite useful. The authors appear to have gone to great lengths to make this a user-friendly, comprehensive text.
Furthermore, the inclusion of a wide variety of ancillary content for both instructors and students is much appreciated. I look forward to adopting this text for my college algebra sections. College Algebra provides a comprehensive and multi-layered exploration of algebraic principles. The text is suitable for a typical introductory Algebra course, and was developed to be used flexibly.
The modular approach and the richness of content ensures that the book meets the needs of a variety of programs. College Algebra guides and supports students with differing levels of preparation and experience with mathematics. Ideas are presented as clearly as possible, and progress to more complex understandings with considerable reinforcement along the way.
A wealth of examples — usually several dozen per chapter — offer detailed, conceptual explanations, in order to build in students a strong, cumulative foundation in the material before asking them to apply what they've learned.
OpenStax College has compiled many resources for faculty and students, from faculty-only content to interactive homework and study guides. Content Accuracy rating: 5 I did not find any errors or bias in the text. Clarity rating: 5 I found this book very easy to read clearly defined new terms as they were introduced. Consistency rating: 5 Overall the book is very consistent.
Modularity rating: 4 This book is easily reorganized and divisible especially on the level of the chapters. Interface rating: 4 I did not have any issue navigating through the book online or in the pdf.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I did not find any grammatical errors. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 I did not find the text to be culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. Comments Overall I think this is a great text for a College Algebra course and I will be adopting it in my class!
Clarity rating: 5 The text was clear and easy to follow with several color examples. Consistency rating: 5 The framework and consistency of the text is very much in alignment with what I currently use. Modularity rating: 5 The section size of each part appears to be appropriate in my view. Interface rating: 5 The interface was easy to follow using the online and PDF version of the text. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 No grammatical errors were noted. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 There were no culturally in appropriate issues that I detected.
Comments Answers to all questions at the end of the text is my only suggestion. Content Accuracy rating: 5 Since this text is on that is considered for adoption at my institution it has went through a very in-depth review. Clarity rating: 5 This text is not much different than most other college algebra texts. Consistency rating: 5 After a careful review I found this text to be very consistent with symbols and terminology.
Modularity rating: 4 The sections and chapters were of appropriate length, and only a few chapters directly linked to others. Interface rating: 3 All figures displayed correctly, most links displayed correctly, and all figures were referenced and clearly labeled. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I did not find any grammatical errors and examples seem to be worked out correctly. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 I did not find any culturally insensitive or offensive materials in this text.
Comments After an in-depth review of this text I feel it covers all the topics and does a great job of explaining with many detailed examples and supporting videos. Content Accuracy rating: 4 The content is accurate. Clarity rating: 5 Good use of mathematical terminolgy.
Consistency rating: 5 This text is consistent in teminology and framework. I did not notcie any issues. Modularity rating: 4 I think some of the content should be reorganized. Interface rating: 4 The interface is appropriate. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I did not notice any grammatical errors. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 There are many real world applications that are very good.
Comments It would be nice to have pop up video links in the Online version of the book. Content Accuracy rating: 5 Because the textbook is available online, the errata are regularly incorporated in the version that many students access. Clarity rating: 5 The book is certainly written in an approachable format and provides thorough explanations, often explicitly giving the steps involved in a particular solution.
Consistency rating: 5 The terminology is consistent throughout the book, and each chapter is organized in a logical manner. Modularity rating: 5 Much of the material could be selected independently and used to supplement an existing curriculum.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 As would be expected with any textbook, there are a few minor typos. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 Although the text does not seem to make specific efforts to be particularly inclusive or diverse, it is neither culturally insensitive nor offensive.
Comments After having looked through a number of different Open Educational Resources for College Algebra, I think Open Stax has one of the best textbooks currently available. Content Accuracy rating: 4 In looking over this text, I did find two errors, one in the solution to Section 3. Clarity rating: 5 Information is given clearly with terminology explained fully. Consistency rating: 5 The book is extremely consistent in its framework. Interface rating: 5 I found it extremely easy to navigate around from various sections, to problem answers and to media with the click of the mouse.
Cultural Relevance rating: 5 I found nothing culturally offensive in this text. Comments I believe this text is a great offering for a College Algebra course and you can't do better than free! Content Accuracy rating: 5 The textbook contains no errors as I read through the examples, or in the section exercises and their solutions.
Clarity rating: 5 The concepts of the textbook are clearly explained. Consistency rating: 5 The text is organized in a logical and consistent format while reading within topics. Interface rating: 5 The chapters can be accessed easily using the table of contents.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I have not encountered any grammatical errors while reading through the textbook. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 The textbook is free of any offensive language or anything that will disturb the reader based on cultural relevance.
Comments As the prices of many commercial textbooks are rising high, this book will be just a good fit for students who are financially challenged. Content Accuracy rating: 5 Text is accurate. Clarity rating: 4 The text is clear and easy to read. Consistency rating: 5 The text is consistent.
Modularity rating: 5 The text is broken into logical sections comparable to the text that I currently use to teach with. Interface rating: 5 The online textbook is interactive and user friendly. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 The text is free of grammatical errors. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 The book is not culturally insensitive.
Comments The text is comparable to the book a currently use to teach. Content Accuracy rating: 5 I did not find any math errors. Clarity rating: 5 The author uses a consistent narrative text that develops learner curiosity. Consistency rating: 5 The Text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework with no notable exceptions.
Modularity rating: 5 The text is divided into chapters and therefore it would be easy to use only parts of the text. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. Content Accuracy rating: 5 The textbook seemed to go through proof reading by many people.
Clarity rating: 4 The text seems more friendly to students to read than a typical textbooks on the market. Consistency rating: 5 From the textbook preface, I found that there are nine additional contributing authors in addition to the main author.
Modularity rating: 3 This is a bit too much to asking for the mathematics text. Interface rating: 4 The textbook has adequate format and spacing. Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I found no serious grammar issues in my scan through review. Cultural Relevance rating: 4 Mathematics text seldom has cultural issue. Comments Overall, the textbook is adequate to be used or be replaced many commercial textbooks.
Content Accuracy rating: 5 I didn't find any grammar or math errors. Clarity rating: 4 The textbook's language is easy to understand. Consistency rating: 5 I didn't find any consistency issues. Modularity rating: 5 The textbook is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. Interface rating: 2 The following are some good features: Important procedures and strategies are summarized in grey boxes.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I found no grammar mistakes. Cultural Relevance rating: 3 This textbook has little mentioning of any cultural issues. Comments The textbook covers regression for linear, exponential and logarithm functions, but not for polynomial functions.
Content Accuracy rating: 4 There have been some inaccurate labels and directions in the PDF version that I have not seen in the online version. Clarity rating: 5 The textbook introduces new concepts and notation in each section with clear explanation. Consistency rating: 5 The text is consistent in layout and approach to topics. Modularity rating: 5 Sections within each chapter break up the material such that it can be covered in a single class session. Interface rating: 4 The interface for both the PDF and the online version work well and navigating around the text with the table of contents is convenient.
Grammatical Errors rating: 5 I have not found any grammatical errors in the text book. Cultural Relevance rating: 5 I have not come across anything in the text that raises concerns or questions related to cultural relevance.
Comments I have used several textbooks for college algebra and find this textbook to be just as good or better than ones with high price tags, so being free to students makes it a good choice. Content Accuracy rating: 4 Though there were a few discrepancies between the online book and the hard copy and a couple of questionable solutions in the solutions manual, the accuracy of the text was excellent.
Clarity rating: 5 The language and organization of the text is excellent. Modularity rating: 5 I did do a little reorganizing of the text. Interface rating: 4 The text has clear visuals. The tables, charts, graphs and diagrams are easy to see and read.
Comments Thank you for putting such a fantastic resource together for students and professors. Clarity rating: 4 Math textbooks are not easy reads for students, and I think most of mine would wish this had more examples with explained steps. Consistency rating: 5 The terminology seemed consistent throughout. Modularity rating: 4 Several of the sections contain too many topics and would be better served being separated into more manageable parcels.
Interface rating: 3 I had no interface problems. Cultural Relevance rating: 3 There examples are by no means insensitive, but they are also not doing any particular work to be inclusive in the subject or topic representation. Comments Overall College Algebra is a fine textbook, totally in line with common standards. Content Accuracy rating: 5 A spot check of a few problems per section from chapter 1 through 7 did not reveal any mistakes.
In the Seventh Edition, Review Notes are featured more prominently throughout the text to help students recognize the key prerequisite skills needed to understand new concepts.
Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version. Its purpose is to make the learning of college algebra and trigonometry easier and enjoyable. The book provides detailed solutions to exercises found in the text. Students are encouraged to use the study guide as a learning tool during the duration of the course, a reviewer prior to an exam, a reference book, and as a quick overview before studying a section of the text.
The Study Guide and Solutions Manual consists of four major components: basic concepts that should be learned from each unit, what was learned upon completion of each unit, solutions to selected problems, and a short chapter quiz, including the answers, covering the concepts and problem types.
College level students will find the book very useful. By integrating interactive learning techniques, the Aufmann team helps students to better understand concepts, work independently, and obtain greater mathematical fluency. In the eighth edition, Review Notes are featured more prominently throughout the text to help students recognize the key prerequisite skills needed to understand new concepts.
An extensive array of exercises and learning aids further complements the instruction readers would receive in class and during office hours. She began her developmental mathematics offerings with intermediate algebra to help bridge that gap. The Precalculus series is a carefully constructed end to that bridge that uses the highly effective pedagogical features from her fastest growing developmental math series. Steadfast Support for your Evolving Course The College Algebra series, by Lial, Hornsby, Schneider, and Daniels, combines the experience of master teachers to help students develop both the conceptual understanding and the analytical skills necessary for success in mathematics.
With this latest edition, the authors respond to the challenges of new student expectations and new classroom models. The Lial team is now offering a new suite of resources to support today's instructors and students. Note: You are purchasing a standalone product; MyMathLab does not come packaged with this content. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.
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