Best remedial/intermediate College Math text and programs?

[distancia]

Long story short: DD is going to need some remedial COLLEGE math work at her small LAC. She will be working in the math lab, which is staffed by a tutor, but each student supplies his/her own program. What current program of instruction would you suggest?

 

DD already tried Lial's Introductory & Intermediate Algebra textbook while being homeschooled and it was not a good match for her. DD needs fewer topics and extraneous illustrations, more repetition--drill, baby, drill is our mantra. The 2 methods that worked the best for DD were Math U See and Singapore Math. What works best for DD is reading/learning how to solve math via a simple textbook AND through a simple computer program or video. Less is more. She needs lots of workbook/on paper repetition, to move concepts from short-term to long-term memory. Practice until full and complete mastery.

 

The problem we have is that DD is very good at fooling the computer, the instructor, and herself that she knows the material. She quickly grasps math concepts, quickly whips through the work at 100% accuracy, quickly moves on to the next topic, and quickly forgets what she just learned.

Edited September 17, 2011 by distancia

[Tamarind]

Saxon seems to meet your criteria.

[Janice H]

You would have 3 potential sources of DVDs: from the Saxon company, DIVE, or Art Reed. Saxon gives a test about once a week; it is cumulative, covering everything in the course to the testing point.

 

I am going through Saxon Advanced Math, doing every single problem. I was doing well in Ask Dr. Callahan Calculus I until I hit the last few weeks of the course where no new material is covered, but it has all kinds of application problems. That is where I was getting lost in the multi-step solutions, the off to the side solutions for one of the steps of the problem, making arithmetic errors, forgetting some trig, etc. There is no substitute for accuracy and what Saxon believers like to call "automaticity". (I was going to post my experience on the "I never thought I'd use curriculum XYZ.")

 

And, it has not been my experience that Saxon uses the same problems over and over, a popular Saxon complaint. They are incrementally tweaked, which is why some other users complain there aren't enough example problems.

[kiana]

Normally ... personally ... I hate Saxon.

 

But ... it really seems like it might be just perfect for your DD's situation. The mixed review and incremental learning should help stop her from forgetting what she's just learned and help cement it into long-term memory.

[distancia]

I don't think her public liberal arts college is going to give her credit for Saxon. I think they are going to want her to go with something from a major publisher such as from Pearson, or Houghton Mifflin, Holt Rhinehart, whatever...using Course Compass or MyMathLab as an online component.

 

I am hoping to find a math program that is a bit more traditional, without all the politically correct graphics, etc. which add another couple of hundred pages to the text. Frankly, a no-frills, no-distractions type of program which is currently being used at a comm coll or university math tutoring lab.

Edited September 17, 2011 by distancia

[Dana]

I don't think her public liberal arts college is going to give her credit for Saxon. I think they are going to want her to go with something from a major publisher such as from Pearson, or Houghton Mifflin, Holt Rhinehart, whatever...using Course Compass or MyMathLab as an online component.

 

I am hoping to find a math program that is a bit more traditional, without all the politically correct graphics, etc. which add another couple of hundred pages to the text. Frankly, a no-frills, no-distractions type of program which is currently being used at a comm coll or university math tutoring lab.

 

MyMathLab is a great program.

However you can just whip through homework in the same way with it - unless the instructor sets up quizzes or review homework sets that mix up the problems in a chapter. That's where you'll have some trouble.

And I've yet to see a book that isn't busy with tons of graphics. :glare:

 

She may want to see if they have a list of books or resources that they suggest or that are available. MML needs to be set up by an instructor, so that will limit what's available.

[regentrude]

And I've yet to see a book that isn't busy with tons of graphics.

 

Dana,

have you not seen AoPS? All black and white, no color, no graphics unless absolutely necessary (and then, these are black and white graphs with bare bones information).

(It would not be what the OP is looking for, though)

[Caroline]

Would she be able to use an older textbook? Older math textbooks tend to be more bare bones.

 

By the way, Saxon is used by a lot of school systems and private schools. She may want to see if it is acceptable.

[Jane in NC]

Recently you posted about your daughter's problem in her chemistry course. Her problems in math may be contributing to her difficulty in chemistry. Has she found a way to make sense of the mathematics in chemistry?

[Dana]

Dana,

have you not seen AoPS? All black and white, no color, no graphics unless absolutely necessary (and then, these are black and white graphs with bare bones information).

(It would not be what the OP is looking for, though)

 

Pre algebra arrived yesterday :D

 

All the college level books now though have all these full color pictures of absolutely NOTHING!

 

I'd love color for some illustrations, but if you have a word problem in the homework about pen prices in the bookstore, they'll have a picture full color of pens :glare:

 

I like solutions manuals that have nice formatting, but since I did undergrad (early 90s), the texts have changed so much with color and expense. I think the calculus text I used is now in 7th edition since 1990.

 

Yeah... I'm a bit bitter.

[distancia]

Recently you posted about your daughter's problem in her chemistry course. Her problems in math may be contributing to her difficulty in chemistry. Has she found a way to make sense of the mathematics in chemistry?

 

You're right--her problems in Gen Chem I are ALL math related. Conceptually, she shines.

 

She came home for the weekend (she can't study at college, it's too noisy--that's another post) and spent the last 48 hours studying Gen Chem. She's been brutally honest and finally admitted that her habit of doing one or two problems isn't enough to give her the experience of problem solving that she needs. She has developed the habit of only doing half of the problems, and assumed that because she can do it easily that first go round, she "knows it".

 

The truth is, she hasn't done enough of it to shift it into long-term memory. She needs to do ALL of the problems, which will (hopefully) be enough to "make it stick".

 

She takes her first Gen Chem exam tomorrow. She's going to see how it goes. Whatever her weak points, she's going to take those areas (concepts) over to the math lab and ask them to drill her until she know the darn stuff. Truly, some of it isn't difficult--scientific notation, measurement conversions, etc. She just never learned how to do it nor had the patience, maturity, and motivation to sit through it and learn how to do it.

 

So over time the Math Bogeyman has become bigger and badder and too frightening to deal with, and now he's even infiltrated Gen Chem. He's everywhere!

 

I think what she is needing now is a workbook? textbook? with lots of similar problems that a math tutor can go over with her. Like, worksheets that teacher's used to hand out in the old days, run off the mimiograph machine. Or a textbook from the 1950's? ??????

Edited September 18, 2011 by distancia

[kiana]

Try googling 'scientific notation practice worksheet free' or something similar -- you should be able to get a bunch. Same for any other concept.