dkholland Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I have been looking into Pre-Calculus for my mathy ds. He is flying through Algebra II in a co-op setting and loves algebra. The teacher is changing next year and we are considering have him do Precalc at home with a Lial's text and the thinkwell online videos. I know some of you have done this successfully. My question is which edition should I get of the precalc text and what title? I found a few different ones at Alibris books. Also, how did you choose when to go to thinkwell...was it just when your student was having trouble studying a concept or did they watch them weekly/daily? I assume that if we are on a chapter titled Logarithms and ds was having confusion, we go to thinkwell and look for that concept and watch their explanations?? Have you ever found a concept in the text that was not covered in thinkwell? Am I on the right track? Did this combo prepare your student for calculus at the cc? I know that is a lot of questions....:confused: Thanks a bunch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jann in TX Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I think it would work. The DVTs for the Lial course are only $30 just in case there is something that Thinkwell does not cover. Lial has SEVERAL different choices for Pre-Calc. Her Pre-Calc texts are almost the exact same thing as her College Algebra and Trigonometry texts combined under one cover... in some cases these share the SAME solutions manual! Lial also has a few different approaches to Pre-Calc. The text I have is: Pre-Calculus a Graphical Approach with Limits ...it is slightly more visual (as in more graphing) than the 'regular' Pre-Calculus books. The 'Limits' are optional chapters that are actually the FIRST chapter(s) of the Calculus text... like a 'preview' for the students. -- I do LOVE Dr Burger and his lectures--but his program just does not have enough practice for most students... it is a GREAT supplement though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkholland Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 I in some cases these share the SAME solutions manual! Jann, Thanks for the response! Can you tell me about solutions? Are there solutions for all problems, or just the odd numbered ones? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jann in TX Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 The student text contains answers to the odds in the homework. It also contains ALL of the test, chapter review and cumulative review answers. The student solutions manual contains the ODD homework problems worked out (most contain all of the test and review answers worked out as well). The teacher's solutions manual either contains the evens--or ALL of the worked out solutions--but I can't remember which--plus it is hard to find. The DVTs of the newer editions have an instructor working out the test questions (again check the edition for this feature). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkholland Posted March 10, 2010 Author Share Posted March 10, 2010 thank you Jann! You have been very helpful:):) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted March 10, 2010 Share Posted March 10, 2010 for my eldest. We needed a lot of help when the first choice for junior year pre-calc turned out to be a disaster, and the Thinkwell/Lial combo worked very well. He placed (departmental math test) directly into our state univ's Calc I class his senior year, but we chose to have him do their precalc 1 and precalc 2 his senior year, as he was heading into EE, and I felt that this was no place to cut corners. I believe Jan and Lori M were helpful to us in making that decision, so a very belated thanks to them both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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