Study Aid Review: The Humongous Book of Algebra Problems

 

To me the best part about this book is that it is, for the most part, just lots and lots of example problems solved step by step. The big gripe about math textbooks is that a lot of time you get a lot of explanation of the theory and formulas, but not much on how to actually solve problems. This can be compounded by the fact that some textbooks either skip steps in the examples they do solve, or they just show you how to do the easiest problems and you are left to fend for yourself on the harder problems. This book gives you a nice range of difficulty for the problems and does not cut corners or skip steps.

Of all areas of math, algebra is probably the worst to have missing steps when you are first learning it because it is the foundation for almost every other branch of math. If you are not good at algebra, you will have a very hard time in trig and calculus because they use algebra so much, that oftentimes simplifying the problems is harder and take more time than the actual calculus part. If you are going on to take classes like chemistry and physics, you absolutely have to be good at algebra because it is used to solve many problems. While proficiency in algebra will not guarantee you will do well in those other classes (you still need to know what equations to use or what concepts apply), even if you know the chemistry or physics material if you cannot do algebra you will have no shot at actually solving the problems.

While I never say any supplement be it DVD or book form is a substitute for going to class or doing problems assigned in your book this will definitely help you because chances are you can find a similar problem in this book, see how it is solved, and apply the process to your homework problem. The author also has similar books for other levels of math up to the first year of calculus. If you find this one helpful you may want to check those out as well.