Schaum's Outline of Group Theory

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Fortunately for you, there's Schaum's Outlines. More than 40 million students have trusted Schaum's to help them succeed in the classroom and on exams. Schaum's is the key to faster learning and higher grades in every subject. Each Outline presents all the essential course information in an easy-to-follow, topic-by-topic format. You also get hundreds of examples, solved problems, and practice exercises to test your skills.

This Schaum's Outline gives you

• Practice problems with full explanations that reinforce knowledge
• Coverage of the most up-to-date developments in your course field
• In-depth review of practices and applications

Fully compatible with your classroom text, Schaum's highlights all the important facts you need to know. Use Schaum's to shorten your study time-and get your best test scores!

Schaum's Outlines-Problem Solved.

I also find the problems very well-selected and are frequently used later on, so you feel you didn't just go randomly solving problems.

The authors give many examples of groups and

groupoids, ranging from isometries to Moebius transformations, and a bit of free groups and group presentations are also covered.

The Sylow Theorems are proved in the usual way, as well as the Cauchy Theorem for abelian groups, even though it is not explicitly called by that name.


A Classic Text   June 21, 2006
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I had been studying group theory on my own independently using this book for the last seven months when I misplaced it while at work - along with the notebook which I had painstakingly and carefully created from my hundreds of hours of study in this book. To say the least, I've been absolutely devastated at losing my notes; but the Schaum Outline I can easily replace.

I had thought, after the book was lost, of trying another text. But most of the introductory textbooks on abstract algebra cover a lot of other things besides group theory. And as a result, they do not go very deeply into any one algebraic structure, but just scratch the surface. I wanted to focus on groups because, as stated in the Introduction of this book, this will bring me into the advanced areas of more quickly as a result of the narrowness of focus.

The notation in this book is initially peculiar. I was not used to seeing the notation xf for a function instead of f(x). The lack of parentheses was confusing, so when making my notes I simply added them, creating the notation (x)f. In fact this backward notation does seem to work better for abstract algebra, and after a while it becomes natural, and the standard notation f(x) becomes odd. So expect to see such things as this for automorphisms: (a*b)f = (a)f*(b)f.

Initially I did not want to use a Schaum outline to study groups. I wanted a hard-cover textbook. But I found this book irresistible in both its scope and its detailed discussion of group concepts. In summary, I would say that if you are truly serious about abstract algebra, you cannot afford to be without this fascinating, thorough, and inexpensive text.


Outdated notation and very dull   June 4, 2004
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

I know maths books aren't meant to be fun to read, but this book is *extremely* boring. It's got, in my opinion, too much content, and its content could've been explained more efficiently.

Most of the notation used in this book (it was published 36 years ago) is out of date, which can be annoying as it makes the confusion subject of group theory even more confusing.

The good thing about this book is that it's great value for money. However, as said above, it might contain too much if you're an undergraduate student like myself who just wants to understand the basic stuff.


Comprehensive but Dated   September 13, 2005
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a reprint of a book that's been around since the sixties. It needs an update, especially the exercises, which are somewhat disorganized. The authors, like many mathematicians, have difficulty with the spoken language and do not adequately motivate the material, on an historical or intellectual basis. That said, this is still one of the best introductions to the subject available, at less than 20% the going cost of a textbook.