Uscmp Precalculus and Discrete Mathematics

In my opinion, UCSMP Precalculus and Discrete Mathematics is the best of its kind. If you want to venture into a more perfect mathematical world, tackle many areas before you are ready for calculus, and have a good time just by reading along, this is the perfect book for you. However, if you are studying for an important exam, what you will need is more than just an excellent walk-through book (Hopefully you know what I mean).

This textbook starts out with an emphasis on logic, whose application is present and integrated deep within throughout the entire 13 chapters. The seemingly unusual relationship between many areas of mathematics, along with Mathematical Induction which is introduced in Chapter 7, consititute the theme of this book. I personally enjoyed this book, and it is very thought-provoking in a sense that it gives us a new way of thinking about mathematics. I give this textbook 5 stars for excellent integrity.


This book makes no sense.   May 13, 2004
4 out of 9 found this review helpful

I am in a pre-calculus class, and we use this book. The book teaches logic in the first chapter, and after that every definition in the book is written in logic. There are problems in here that are extremly difficult and when you try to figure out the answer or how to solve them it just says that you should have learned it in a previous course, maybe this is tru but I do not think that is a reason not to put any kind of an explanation. I know that in my class the teacher teaches strictly from this book, and uses all of tests and quizzes that come with it in the teachers edition. Nobody, except in 5 or 6 rare circumstances has ever passed a test or quiz. Even in these 5 or 6 times that someone does pass a quiz or test it is within a D range. Nobody in our class has learned and calculus, or even anything that could be called pre-calculus. When we have problems the teacher suggests that we consult the book, but no one can make any sense from it. The language is so convoluted, and makes use of strange symbols that most of us had never seen before, and the book just assumes that we had them in a previous course. I realize that the book is part of a series, but there should be a symbol key or something. The teacher allows retakes where she gives us all the answers before we take it so it is not hard to do well, but this does not lead to an understanding of the math. Without these retakes every person in the class would be failing. I don't think that this should be the case in a class composed of reasonably intelligent people. Somebody should be able to pass this class but it has not yet happened. The questions on the exams sometimes don't seem to have any connection to the chapter that we did. The entire class is struggling to learn this material, we have been for an entire year, and it has proved impossible so far. I don't think that this textbook sets reasonable expectations of the students. It should not be used in my opinion, if the results of our class our any indication of other peoples experiance with it.