Essential Prealgebra Skills Practice Workbook

This is great for leaving algebra from the start. Even just regular math is on here and helped me a lot brush back up on my math.

I just finished all 1,207 (by my count) problems in this book and am putting my pencil down to write the review it deserves.First, this book is deceptive. You might think that you're purchasing a simple workbook with a bunch of problems. In reality, you're also getting a book which organizes and distills the broad collection of topics in prealgebra down into a set of 10 categories, each with subcategories (88 by my count). At the start of each main category there is a page of teaching and explanation. At the start of each subcategory there is a paragraph or two explaining the topic. If necessary, there are references to prior topics which can be used as a preparatory step if you haven't mastered them. After that there are a few examples which walk you through how to solve problems using the techniques. Finally you are given a page or so of sample problems, often increasing in difficulty.Pause for a moment and consider the value of what I wrote. Most books on the subject breeze through large sections of material, or mix and match subject matter. The student is then left with a potentially confusing jumble of topics which they have to sort out in their head (if they're ambitious), or make a mind map or outline to try to organize themselves. I know because I've got several other algebra books sitting next to me which I'm outlining to understand them better. This book, in a beautifully simple, plain text, easy to read 8x11 format, has about one subtopic per page. Therefore you can flip open to any page and immediately review a topic.This book is very well organized and clear. So many books today get lost in fancy designs, flyouts, bubbles, cartoon characters and every other kind of distraction. Whatever happened to easy-to-read text on a plain white background so you can concentrate on the matter at hand instead of having all kinds of attention-demanding design gimicks in this age of distraction?Once you get to the sample problems it's time to roll up your sleeves and grab a bunch of pencils and scrap paper because Dr. McMullen intends to put you to work. "It takes practice to learn math," he says quietly on his author page video. Indeed! By my count, 146 pages of practice. He does remind us in the Introduction however: "Practice makes permanent, but not necessarily perfect. Check the answers in the back..strive to learn from any mistakes." I sometimes hurried through some of the easier problems and was aggravated when I learned I made simple mistakes. But I always circled them and made sure I understood the nature of my error. This is a valuable lesson from the world of music. If you don't discover and correct a mistake early, you'll end up repeating it and soon the cement hardens. In brain science this is called "neurons that fire together, wire together." So be precise, double-check your work and make sure you understand the reasons for any mistakes.The Introduction also says "Think your way through math." Sadly, so many of the "idiot" types of books strive to dumb math down by giving little tricks and tips in order to simply solve problems, pass a test, and move quickly on to the next subject. This has long term consequences. I have an Algebra book sitting here which uses that style of "teaching" and, shockingly, it doesn't even use the word "reciprocal" in the entire book. It says simply, "To solve, invert the fraction." How can someone possibly come out of an algebra course and not know what a reciprocal is? That's the result of dumbing math down into a series of tips and tricks to solve problems, rather than learning how to think, and learning the definition of terms. It is clear the author of this book has a passion for teaching the right way; to lay down a solid foundation for later studies. And the volume of problems is indicative of someone who believes in effort. There are also plenty of tricky problems mixed in just to make sure you've had your coffee first.As far as accuracy, I solved every problem in the book at least once. I found 3 very minor issues, frankly more akin to typos, such as an extraneous negative sign in an example. I've already notified the author, who is very responsive. I suspect they will all be corrected by the time you purchase the book.Clearly a lot of time, thought and effort went into this book. I have a growing collection of books on the topic and this no-nonsense, get down to basics volume is at the top of the stack. I would add that I think it's important to have a variety of books so one can compare and contrast different material and presentation techniques, and to ensure things aren't missed.In closing I'll add that I don't know the author and received nothing for this review. I wrote it to help others make purchase decisions, because good books deserve to get recognition on Amazon and become more widely discovered and used to positive effect.

IM LOVE MATH. GREAT WORKBOOK.

Just what I needed!

Great teaching tool

I thought it would be good to keep my brain sharp since as most adults, I am no longer in school. I realized I’ve all but forgotten most basics so I thought I would start at the beginning as a refresher and to make it less intimidating. This book is incredibly well made. Well, the physical book is fine. The pages hold up to my highlights and scribbles and eraser marks, but also the content is wonderful. Dr. McMullen is so concise in his directions, I feel like I understand better than I did when I learned it the first time. Also there’s not much to read. It is completely shaved down to what you absolutely need to know to do the following equations which makes it more digestible. I think a child could start here. I think an adult who has never learned this could start here. I always considered myself bad at math but it turns out when I am taught this format, I get it! Sure, my dyslexia does me in on a few equations but at least I understand the content now. I feel like it’s finally penetrating my brain in a positive way. I really believe that humans should never stop learning and trying to expand their interests and knowledge. There is so much to know and learn and if you want to improve in an area- go for it! This book makes this really easy in my opinion. My goal is to work up through all of Dr. McMullen’s books and surpass the math level I was limited to in high school and college. This book is just really great. That’s just my opinion but I’d suggest them to anyone.

The media could not be loaded. I have an 8th grader that has struggled tremendously in math since 4th grade. She operates somewhere around a 6th grade level but can fall behind even that sometimes. She is absolutely capable of learning and retaining information. She’s very smart and a hard worker. She has just never been taught in ways she understands. She has extreme social anxiety that affected her ability to focus on learning in social settings. And she hasn’t been able to work at her own speed, feeling free to speak up and say she doesn’t understand something or ask for help. Most of the teachers would embarrass her by moving her out into the hallway because she was holding up the class by being so slow. :( Her spirit was mortified and broken. Public school was not working for her. She has been homeschooling for a almost 2 years now and is proudly working at an 8th grade level as she should be: even if it takes her longer to do her work, or even if we need to do “only the even numbered problems” for the day. She has Attention Deficit Disorder and I needed a resource that not only kept things short and sweet, straight to the point, but also explained it thoroughly enough that I wasn’t spending hours myself researching and doing problems before having to teach it to her. I am a little rusty, after all. Heh. She works really well in short periods of time with straight forward instructions in an organized manner. This book does it ALL. I have purchased many books and was actually pretty happy with the last book we used, but the amount of reading it required overwhelmed her. She worked through it but was totally burned out.. This book is organized so well. I won’t ramble on about it because these other reviews have said it much better than I could have, but do yourself a favor and get this for your junior high student. Or for yourself or someone you love that enjoys math. I like it so well that I am not allowing her to write directly into the book so I can use it for my (advanced) 5th grader when she’s ready. Haha, cheap skate! I will absolutely be purchasing his Algebra book as well. I feel like she will have a much more solid foundation in math if she does return to public school in the future. (Not likely because why?) And if not, then she will pass her GED and go straight into college with her head held high, knowing math won’t weigh her down anymore.. thanks, Chris! We are totally fans.

Great book for learning or relearn what you may have forgotten, I enjoy doing math problems to keep my mind busy and learn what I don't know!!