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Title: Algebra and Trigonometry (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0132191407
Author:
Robert F. Blitzer
Publicate Date: 2006-02-23
Publish: 2006-02-23
List Price: $153.33
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $79.33
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $39.34
Amazon Merchant Price: $122.66
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| Customer Review: |
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1: best pre-calc book ever
my first go at pre-calculus i had the most horrid and difficult to follow text book in the world, and quite naturally failed the class. this book of my second go at pre-calc has been one hundred times better. difficult concepts are not dumbed down but rather explained in a way that makes them seem easy, examples in the text are well laid out, explained completely and linked to problems in the excersises that are similar. the excersises themselves progress from the easiest form of a problem to the hardest so one builds on the previous. honestly, buy this book, you will not be disappointed.
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2: Textbook industry: Use 1/3 of book, Respend money for same darn thing
First, I wouldn't say Blitzer's books are as great as hyped...a decent portion of explanation was wordy, convoluted and confusing. I mostly stopped reading the book and only took notes of the teacher's explanations.
I have to disagree about exercise difficulty. Each chapter or section started with easier exercises which increased in difficulty. However, in the 2nd Edition there were quite a few errors in the answers to odd-numbered problems in the back of the book, so if you couldn't arrive at the same answer you wondered if you were really wrong or not! Had to wait until the next class to find out...bad!
My HUGE GRIPE is our college makes a big deal of all teachers (with the exception of ever-changing technology/computer texts) using the same book...but WHAT'S THE POINT? Each book is designed to cover several courses so the textbook publishers can rake in BIG MONEY for their thick book. The next year, they add some different charts and change some problems so you can't get by on your old edition if the college goes to the next one...which the college ALWAYS does, for no benefit...regardless of the errors you must put up with, that are undoubtedly a result of the pressure to constantly "upgrade" the book.
So, you buy a book that is SUPPOSED to cover at least 2 courses, you use less than half of it, then when you take the 2nd course, you have to RE-BUY IT!
In addition, they now market books with CDs using the publisher's own online-course website instead of the schools...which you cannot access unless you buy the new-edition book with THEIR CD. The stupid college uses the publisher's online-course website even if the college's own online-course website is perfectly fine.
So now I have to buy this stupid 3rd edition in addition to my 2nd edition, and I have to get the one with the CD. This is just the publisher's way of forcibly preventing people from recycling textbooks. If I am not allowed into the publisher's course website with a used CD, I am withdrawing from this college and transferring! I'm only at this college to take some courses required to transfer to a top college, anyway. I will GLADLY take them somewhere else!
College deans pay attention...YOU DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO DEMAND COLLEGE STUDENTS WASTE THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY MAKING TEXTBOOK MANUFACTURERS RICH...USE YOUR OWNED DARNED WEBSITES FOR ONLINE COURSES!
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3: Excellent Book!
This book teaches a real understanding of the concepts, not just memorization or how to enter the data into a calculator. I am returning to college after a 27ish year hiatus, and needless to say, needed some brushing up.
The first text that I attempted to use was given to me by a co-worker and omitted much of the understanding needed to progress.
We, as a nation, need to LEARN again, not memorize, and this book actually teaches!
Bravo!
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4: Great Math Textbook
I used this book for an accelerated Algebra/Trig class at the college level. I found this book to be one the best math books I have ever encountered. When examples are given in the text it goes step by step and for most, explanations of what is being done. Other texts that I've used have skipped steps and left you wondering how did they get from A to Z?
I wasn't always able to make it to class, but the examples and explanations did not loose me and I was able to play catch up successfully on my own with this text. I can't say that about any other math text.
I must agree with the other person who wrote a review and said it would sure be nice if Blitzer had a Calculus text (though Larson is a good Calc author). Calculus would have been a breeze with a Blitzer book instead of a stuggle (had to buy a Larson book to supplement by school's Calc book choice).
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5: Shameful execution!!!
First off Robert Blitzer is a smart man but this book is poorly written.
When going through some practice exercises i found that the difficulty kicked in right away, giving me no time to get used to the concept of the problem i was faced with. To add insult to injury some problems were hard to solve since they left blank on how to accomplish solving the task....
I also felt his tendency to use excessive amount of word problems led me to belive this was wriiten for a master level college class.
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