Essential Prealgebra Skills Practice Workbook Paperback – April 20, 2020

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.

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.

it's good for review, but because it presents one concept per page (or two) and then you do the related practice, there is no review of what you've learned at all later in the book. So, if this is just your review book, it's ok. I just put a star at the top of pages where I've found a concept I don't fully understand so I can come back to it later and a checkmark if I've mastered it. This way I can come back and review on my own. I'd recommend some sort of text as your primary book or this would be just fine if you learned this all years ago and just want to review. I wanted to be sure I've mastered everything, before working on Algebra again. What would make this perfect is if there were review sections scattered throughout and in the answers for the review have the page number where the concept was presented so we can go and review it again. This way we don't just get into a grove of doing the practice, but not actually remembering it which is so easy to do with this format. It wouldn't take that much to add this and take this from being an ok book to a great book, albeit a bit thicker. There's only about 150 pages of sections of instruction and questions, but the answers in the back give full solutions to all questions unlike many books out there.Update: I just finished this book. It was great for just a couple pages a night before bed each night. There weren't as many questions in some sections as I would have liked. At least one section only had two problems to do. So, a few more would be nice and at least some quiz sections periodically or something to be sure you didn't forget something you covered. Now that I've finished this book, I am going to go back through with a separate sheet of paper and rework all the sections I didn't quite understand before. I like the breadth of the sections in this book. It doesn't cover any geometry which would have been nice, but it covered more than I thought it might for a book that only covers the "essentials".Sometimes he only shows one way of doing things and it takes longer than another way I know, but I practiced his way since very occasionally it was quicker and gives me another tool to use--another reason to use more than one learning resource. With it's fully worked answers in the back, if you don't understand something, you can figure out where you went wrong which was wonderful. Also, I found all his explanations in each section easy to understand and do on my own.Recommended. I've already bought a couple of his other workbooks, though I might not write in the books so that reviewing sections later is easier. If there had been adequate review sections that wouldn't have been so necessary. Again, these aren't reasons not to buy, but a way the author could make it even better.I learned about these from "The Math Sorcerer" channel on YouTube

Not alot of "cool graphics" and jazzy colors. In fact, there are none. But the explanations are clear, the examples are appropriate and the answer key usually gives a brief explanation about how the answer was achieved.