Precalculus: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides)

Do logarithmic functions throw you for a loop? Does the challenge of finding an inverse function leave you overwhelmed? Does the Law of Cosines make you feel clueless? With this helpful, easy-to-follow guide, you will gain total command of these precalc concepts-and many more-in no time at all.

Precalculus: A Self-Teaching Guide includes an algebra review and complete coverage of exponential functions, log functions, and trigonometry. Whether you are studying precalculus for the first time, want to refresh your memory, or need a little help for a course, this clear, interactive primer will provide you with the skills you need. Precalculus offers a proven self-teaching approach that lets you work at your own pace-and the frequent self-tests and exercises reinforce what you've learned. Turn to this one-of-a-kind teaching tool and, before you know it, you'll be solving problems like a mathematician!

Despite those criticisms, this is an excellent book.


Too many errors to be useful, too few sample problems   July 21, 2002
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

The presentation of the subject matter is very adroit, but the problem with the book is two fold:

1) there are numerous errors. For instance, on page 150 problem 1 can only be solved using one measure of the triangle, yet the other measure of the triangle is incorrect for the degree measure provided. In the same set of sample problems, the 7th problem is entirely inconsistent with errors in both the problem statement, the solution statement, and the diagram of the solution statement. This is only a single example, but I marked each problem I found wrong in the book and found that there is a high (~10%) error rate . As another reviewer pointed out, there are even errors in the discussion of identities and axioms, which is horrendous for the students. Errors in problems sets only confuse people, but errors in the lesson is catastrophic, especially in a section you're supposed to memorize.

2) There simply are not enough problem sets to do in order to gain a mastery of the subject matter. There are usually 6 or 7 problems per section, and no additional problems which conclude a chapter. The standard textbook provides this sort of exhaustive problem sets, and this is quite useful for a mastery of the subject. You may be intimately familiar with the assertions of the text, but you will have a hard time applying them without practice.