Algebra: A Complete Introduction: The Easy Way to Learn Algebra (Teach Yourself)

I’ve had a life long fear of maths, wanted desperately to improve. Stumbled across this book by chance and cannot recommend it enough. Crisp, clear explanations help calm the maths panic I picked up in school. I’ve gone from being afraid of maths to enjoying it and pursuing further study! The answers section contains no explanation, which can leave you in the dark. Would recommend complementing study with an online algebra calculator like Symbolab. Very highly recommend this book. Thanks!

I needed to brush up on my algebra and this book was pitched perfectly for me and covered everything I needed to know. I've virtually read it front to back merely skipping later topics that I don't need to cover. I recommend reading all of the 'basic' algebra sections because you pick up some great tips. I filled several notepads recreating the examples and doing as many questions as possible and this really helped to cement what I had learnt. My only complaint is that I found it very difficult to jump between the questions and answers but this could be due to me not fulling understand how to use my Kindle. I had to continually go back to the TOC. Having it in Kindle format meant I could very easily read it anywhere but my only complaint is that it is very difficult to quickly navigate to the answers or to re-read another section as with a hardcopy.

This book is really good for beginners or if you just want to fresh up you knowledge, it goes about teaching you from different views point; often I would noticed that mathematics books tend to just teach you the facts and then you have to memorize them, which is not learning in my opinion, but what I like about this book is that it won't just give you one way of doing something, even though I knew most of the things in this book, I still learned different techniques that I never knew before. This is such a blessing for mathematics and should be followed by future authors, offering different techniques not only lets you find what you prefer, but it gives you different view points on the problem and thus allows you to understand what you're learning, too often is the case that people learn mathematics, but don't understand it, and when you understand it, it becomes easy. This book does that, not all the time, there is a few times when it's gruellingly boring, but that's just mathematics, sometimes there is only one way and it isn't always interesting. However, as well laid out and as fantastic as this book is, it does have one major flaw; It doesn't show you how to arrive at answers (read on). The chapters tend to be laid out as such: Overview, initial problem and some information, examples on how to solve it and then an exercise to test your knowledge. Now, the exercises are great and the author went above and beyond with the amount of diversity he offers (from basic problems to word problems), however the answers are at the back of the book, which is great, because you can see if you did it right. However, it can become torturous if you got it wrong and don't know why, what would have been better is if the author would have show how he arrived at the answer, even if it was just for the harder questions. Because he has not, this leaves you to either 1. Abandon the questions entirely (which there is no shame in, you can always come back when you feel you have the ability) or 2. Tortuously try different techniques and ponder it to find the correct answer then review how you arrived at it. I spent nearly two hours on one question. Now, it isn't too bad, but if you're a perfectionist it can niggle at you. Overall, really good book and would recommend it to anybody wanting to learn algebra.

It s understandable

As a 'returner' to maths (took my O level decades ago) I bought this book to help myself prepare for a maths course later in the year. This book is well set out with examples and lots of practice exercises. The answers are available at the back of the book although - be warned - the workings are not provided but this only serves to make the exercises more challenging and interesting. I bought the paperback edition as I find it so much easier to study and revise with a book rather than viewing a Kindle.

Hugh Neil offers an exposition of school-level algebra which could be useful for those wishing to revisit already learned algebra, although whether it appeals more than, for instance, Algebra for Dummies is perhaps a personal matter. Seductive titles such as ‘The Easy Way to Learn …’ worry me. As Einstein put it ”Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Anyone baffled by an unpleasant school experience in mathematics - and I’d guess that would be very many of us - may like Lara Alcock’s ‘Mathematics Rebooted: A Fresh Approach to Understanding’. Lara’s book has so much to offer in terms of demystifying what with suitable teaching should have been less of a mystery than many of us found mathematics in school. Not that all mathematical difficulties can be down to prior teaching: mathematics symbolism itself is often ambiguous, e.g., 4½ means ‘four plus a half’, but 43 does not mean ‘4 + 3’, and 4m means ‘4 times m’ [variables are written italics, a here unavailable font]. That is, the meaning of two juxtaposed mathematical items alters according to context. Learners have every right to be troubled by such varied meanings. [Some write '4m' to mean '4 metres', though universal technical standards would have '4 metres' written as '4 m', a space between (non-italic) value and unit of measurement.] Alcock’s ‘Mathematics Rebooted’ is not unprecedented in its attempt to enable understanding: ‘Vision in Elementary Mathematics’ by W. W. Sawyer dates back to 1964. It is a book with appeal to the visual that may delight not a few readers who would like to draw back the mathematical curtain. I bought this book on the look-out for examples for an OU module. I'm now inclined to agree with some awarding fewer stars. The book's approach is too instrumental [Skemp's 'rules without reasons'] to offer insight.

Very good

Inderdaad 'Wiskunde'/'Algebra' bestaat uit spelregels, waar je aan MOET houden. Zoals, DE meest bekende volzin 'Meneer Van Dalen Wacht Op Antwoord' Een recencist schreef dat de uitleg niet voldoende is, wanneer er tig voorbeelden van elk onderdeel in een boek staan, hoeveel pagina's zou dit boek hebben? Ik vindt hét leren makkelijker indien de uitleg wordt gegeven door verschillende schrijvers, vandaar ook dit boek aangeschaft, maar het maakt niet uit hoeveel, of welk boek je over DE wiskunde bestudeert. Hét is net zoiets als bijvoorbeeld pianospelen, oefening baart kunst. Geef de moed niet op, want Wiskunde is logisch, zodra je de regels door hebt, wordt Algebra iets, wat jezelf heel vaak gaat toepassen.

Este libro es una de las mejores cosas que me han pasado, la eficiencia del autor para explicar el asunto sin complicaciones de álgebra es increíble, aprendo más solo de que cuando estaba en la escuela. Recomiendo.

Splendid 👍 👍 👍

One of the most informative algebra books I have read!!!

Buon testo per chi desidera rinfrescare le proprie conoscenze scolastiche, a qualsiasi scopo. Naturalmente, non si tratta di leggere un romanzo ma occorre un po' di impegno. Come al solito, gli autori anglosassoni si distinguono per l'approccio usato: Paul Abbott non vuole mostrare quanto è bravo lui ma si sforza di aiutare il lettore a trovare la sua strada "algebrica".