Pre-Algebra Demystified

by Allan G. Bluman

Book Overview

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071439315
• ISBN13: 9780071439312
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recomend

I bought this book to help me before I started algebra class. I did each chapter at my own pace, and did all of the exercises. This really helped me. I aced my class! I found that this book has the perfect combination of visual with written instructions and explanations. I plan to purchase more books from the Demystifying series as I progress through my maths classes.

Great place to start a math journey or re-education.

Great math book. I dropped out of high school, and barely got by in math classes back then, and sometimes not at all... (C-'s, D's and F's). Im 40 now, and Ive been doing well with this course. Ive spent about 2 hours every Sat. and Sunday in a Barnes and Noble coffee shop for about 4 months to do it (Im on the final chapter now and only have 5 pages left). Finally I'm really beginning to understand math, and I Get it! Sometimes i had to stare at a problem for 10 to 15 minutes and think in through. But it finally paid off. Anyways, I feel like Im ready for intermediate algebra at the College level now for real. My only criticism is that i wish the graphing section had more in depth training on graphs and example problems/solutions, I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn math and build a solid foundation. I wish the author would put up a website for any reported errors and solutions also (there were only a few).

A Teacher Who Wants You To Succeed

Thank you, Mr. Bluman. You have cracked into my brain, and now I can do math, without a calculator, without feeling like my head will explode! Mr. Bluman is a gifted, no-nonsense teacher who can teach anyone math with this straightforward, brilliantly crafted self-teaching manual. He even tackles math phobia -it is real- and dispatches it effectively with tips to get yourself going every day. This book should be in every junior high and high school library. He gives you the tools and then with practice, you can solve the problems. The format of explanations step-by-step, repetition, practice, and practice tests and final tests in every chapter is an excellent approach to truly "getting it". Thanks a million!

Worked really well for me

I bought this book (and a bunch of others) because I wanted to prepare myself for a college math assessment test and score high enough that I could jump straight into statistics (I know, pretty ambitious!). My current situation? 1) I haven't studied algebra (or any math at all for that matter!) in about 20 years 2) I didn't learn math in English So, after opening the first algebra book and realizing I didn't remember how to do even more basic operations, like dividing large numbers by large numbers, I decided I needed to get something that went even further back. I bought about 10 books, thinking that it was a good investment, as skipping the basic math classes at about $300, plus the cost of books, for each, would save me quite a bit of money. After reading about 40 pages of the first basic math book, I was very disappointed. It was unclear, complicated and just didn't make much sense to me. I started to wonder if things had changed THAT much since I used to study. I put the book aside and pulled this one from the pile. Well, it has 12 chapters and I have completed 8 so far. The book is great! I read some bad reviews and, who knows, maybe chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12 are rubbish... But I doubt it! The approach is logical, practical and easy to follow. There are quite a few exercises and tests at the end of each chapter, as well as a complete test at the end of the book. I usually complete a couple of chapters, then take all the chapter-end tests from the previous chapters again before proceeding. This way, the information stays fresh in my mind. I liked this book so much that I bought about 4 or 5 more books from the DeMystified collection, including Algebra and Math Word Problems (the latter by the same author). Ok, so maybe I buy books compulsively at times, but I am very excited about math, probably for the first time in my life. If you need to take a refresher course, or if you need support for classes you are taking, I truly recommend this book! Good luck!

Awesome learning tool or refresher......

I bought this book for a relative that never learned math in high school. All his 40 years he has struggled with simple pre-algebra. He expressed how sad he was that he never learned higher math. I used some of my spare time to scope the options at a local bookstore. I bought a copy of this book, read through it and was glad I did because even I needed a refresher. After having my own personal positive experience with this book, I knew it was right for my relative. In just over 2 weeks he blew through this book. Each night he dedicated 2 hours for study, exercises and reviewed all materials from the previous evening for reinforcement as I suggested. He know has total mastery of the subjects and needs no help. He is now going to purchase the Algebra Demystified book to continue his positive experience and move forward. The book takes you through everyhting in quick simple steps, goes over rules like the associative principle, integers, parts of a division problem like the dividend, divisor and quotient. It starts you off with Whole Numbers to Fractions to Ratio/Proportion and touches on Geometry lightly. This book is neither intimidating or exhaustive. It simply gets to the point. It gives you the rules, walks you through 2 or 3 examples and gives you plenty of practice exercises. If you have the grasp...move on and review it again later. The only thing I would recommend is if you have trouble...maybe you will want to get a book of practice questions to continue to test yourself to reinforce what you were taught. However, if you pay attention and re-read the chapter you will probably be fine. Most of the chapters are only 20 pages of large print and plenty of white space. I truly doubt mathematics could be broken down more simply than this! Get this book and forget the overhead and confusion of books that are 500 pages of small print!