College Algebra, Sixth Edition

As the best-selling text in the field, College Algebra provides unparalleled exercises, motivating real-life applications, a supportive pedagogical design, and innovative ancillaries and resources, making it a complete solution for both students and instructors.

• New! Model It real-life applications in nearly every text section are multi-part exercises that require students to generate and analyze mathematical models. First referenced in the Why You Should Learn It at the beginning of each section, these interesting applications illustrate why it is important to learn the concepts in each section.
• New! Enlarged printable graphs in many exercise sets contain problems asking students to draw on the graph provided.For added convenience, in the Sixth Edition these proofs have been moved from an appendix to the end of relevant chapters.
• New! P.S. Problem Solving, at the conclusion of each chapter, features a collection of thought-provoking and challenging exercises that further explore and expand upon the concepts of the chapter. These exercises have unique characteristics that set them apart from traditional algebra and trigonometry exercises.
• New! A wealth of student success tools includes: How to Study This Chapter, a chapter-opening study guide that includes What you should learn (section-opening objectives), Important Vocabulary, a list of Study Tools, and a list of Additional Resources to help the student prepare for the chapter; Why you should learn it, a section-opening, real-life application or a reference to other branches of mathematics, illustrating the relevance of the section's content; and What did you learn?, a concise chapter summary organized by section. These objectives are correlated to the chapter Review Exercises to help students prepare for exams.
• Abundant, up-to-date Real-Life Applications are integrated throughout the examples and exercises and identified by a globe icon to reinforce the relevance of the concepts being learned.
• A wide variety of Exercises, including computational, conceptual, and applied problems are carefully graded in difficulty to allow students to gain confidence as they progress. Each exercise set includes Synthesis Exercises that promote further exploration of mathematical concepts, critical-thinking skills, and writing about mathematics, and Review Exercises that reinforce previously learned skills and concepts.
• Special Algebra of Calculus examples and exercises highlight the algebraic techniques used in calculus to show students how the mathematics they are learning now will be used in future courses.
• Optional graphing technology support is provided in marginal point-of-use instructions that encourage the use of graphing technology as a tool to visualize mathematical concepts, to verify other solution methods, and to facilitate computation. In addition, the section An Introduction to Graphing Utilities helps the student become familiar with the basic functionality of a graphing utility. The use of technology is optional in this text; all exercises that require the use of a graphing utility are clearly identified by an icon.
• Explorations preceding the introduction of selected topics provide the opportunity to engage students in active discovery of mathematical concepts and relationships, often through the power of technology. Explorations strengthen students' critical- thinking skills and help develop an intuitive understanding of theoretical concepts.
• All Examples have been carefully chosen to illustrate a particular mathematical concept or problem-solving skill. Every example contains step-by-step solutions, most with line-by-line explanations that lead students through the solution process, making it easy for students to understand the concepts being explained.
• Additional carefully crafted learning tools designed to create a rich learning environment include Study Tips, Historical Notes, Writing about Mathematics, Chapter Review Exercises, Chapter Tests, and Cumulative Tests.
• A clear, predictable layout, in which solutions and explanations begin and end on the same page, allows students to see concepts and solutions as a whole, without page-turning distractions.

As with his other texts, Larson approaches subjects from an analytical perspective AND from a graphic/geometric perspective.
This allows students who despise the Xs, Ys, and Zs of algebra to "see" what might otherwise escape them if approached only analytically.

Excellent text.


Better--the second time.   December 25, 2007
avgvstvs (Omaha NE)
I'll start out by saying that when I took this class I myself had no intention of taking any more mathematics beyond this class. Fast forward a couple years and I'm about to take a calculus course. When I took the class, this book seemed illogical in its explanations for the fact that it didn't do a great job in breaking things down in plain english. However, it has just enough in it for you to figure the plain english out on its own. I ended up in a huge quandary when in my Gen Chem course in college suddenly required me to know log again. Me--having forgotten entirely all the properties of logs (because yeah, you're never gonna need it). That said, I needed a reference. So there I go and instantly I'm able to read it, and I find the language useful and easy to understand.

So the moral of the story is this: This text is great if you need a back reference, but you'll need a great teacher or a really logical mind to figure out many of the problems.

Oh, the examples also don't go over the most difficult questions you'll find in the text--so the instructor's edition is MANDATORY. Then at least--if you have the answer you can reason backwards to the problem to find you mistake(s)

I rate this a 4 though because it was also a very good resource for some things I needed to go back to in calculus and whenever I feel the need to refresh skills.

As far as the necessity of algebra--no its not necessary, but if you look at the pay difference between bachelor's degrees that use even a little math (such as accounting or management) and no math at all (English majors, humanities, psychology) the discrepancy in pay is at minimum $11000 (as of 2007). Personally, I'd rather put myself through a little hell during my four years in order to get a job that actually pays what I'm worth. And that's not too much to ask.



Late shipping   September 19, 2005
Flo (Phoenix, AZ)
0 out of 9 found this review helpful

I paid extra to have the book shipped expresss, but it took longer to get to me than when I ordered other books with regular shipping.


I hate Algebra and I hate this book!   January 24, 2004
8 out of 22 found this review helpful

I'm right on the verge of graduating and the only thing standing between me and my degree is this stupid College Algebra class, filled with useless information that I'm quite certain I'll never use again! Ok now that I've vented about that, I must say that I cannot understand why my college switched from Blitzer's College Algebra 2nd Edition to this text. As you may have guessed this isn't my first attempt at passing this *#$% class. A few semesters ago when I took it we used Blitzer's book, and while it was still Algebra and fairly loathesome, at least it was somewhat understandable! This book is clearly written for students who are good at advanced math and plan to go on to higher math. (Talk of Calculus in the pre-chapter! God help me!) Ok, so what if you don't plan on doing that? What if you are just taking this class because your state government says you have to or you can't graduate? I wish someone would write a Collge Algebra text for the rest of us!!!