Any reviews on Saxon Algebra 4th edition?

[smilesonly]

I just read that Cathy Duffy gives a pretty good review of this edition.

 

I would love to hear from someone who has actually used it, or is currently using it.:)

 

Thx!

[smilesonly]

Anyone?? :bigear:

[Deniseibase]

I am using it for myself, to self teach, but I haven't gotten very far, about lesson 35. I am the kind of person who needs to understand HOW something works before I can understand WHY it works.

 

Below is a review I posted about it a few months ago when I had first got it - I stand by everything I said then, with the exception that I DID find ONE problem so far that had the wrong answer in the answer book - lesson 14, problem 4 is 3-2*4+3*2 and they gave the answer as 11 when the answer is clearly -1. Other than that I have found no errors, and my big concern is, since they are teaching both how to do things with a graphing calculator and 'by hand', will there be enough 'by hand' practice for me to really grasp it? But all the graphing calculator stuff is later in the book and so I just don't know on that yet.

 

 

 

OK, here's my review - first off, my qualifications to review this book: I have looked at it and worked the first four lessons in it. That is the sum total of my qualifications, I am neither a math-y person, nor have I read the whole book. I keep HOPING someone else who is MORE qualified will write this review FOR me, LOL!!!

 

Also, you should know that our family LOVES the Saxon method and it has worked well for us for the past 6 years for math, phonics, and grammar.

 

Saxon Algebra I, 4th Edition has 120 lessons, 12 Investigations, and 23 tests. There are also 11 Labs that are meant to be done on the same day as another lesson or investigation, and 5 extra lessons and 31 skills bank lessons in the appendix that can be used if the student needs extra practice, but all in all it is meant to be 155 days worth of work. Comparing Saxon 4th with Saxon 3rd, it appears that they cover approximately the same amount of algebra - for example, 3rd covers the quadratic formula at lesson 119, and 4th covers the quadratic formula at lesson 110. 4th seems to spend more time on problems that seem to fall more into other areas of math, such as permutation problems or deductive and inductive reasoning, while 3rd has more geometry-based problems. And while several of us have spoken to Saxon reps who said the geometry is all stripped out, it's not - there's not much geometry compared to what there is in 3rd, but you are still going to need to know how to figure perimeter, area, volume, and surface areas.

 

The mixed practice 'stretches' farther back in 3rd than it does in 4th. For example, in lesson 114 in 3rd edition, there are review problems referring back to lessons 36, 20, 14, and 8. In lesson 114 in 4th edition, the earliest lesson referred to is 74. So that's a change, but I can't tell if that will be good or bad. I think some students (including me) benefit from the extended review, but others (including probably my daughter) don't seem to need as much.

 

 

WHAT I LIKE

 

- There is a wider variety of problems overall. There are many more word problems. Every problem set has problems in Error Analysis, in which students are asked to find an error in a proposed solution and explain what is wrong about it. Every problem set has problems where you have to explain why something works the way it does in words, instead of just demonstrating that you know how to do it.

 

- The problems covering the same concept show more variation. For example, in Lesson 18, which is about like terms in both books, the 3rd edition examples are all straightforward computation - 'Simplify by adding like terms.' In the 4th edition, the some of the problems are straightforward 'Simplify by adding like terms', but there are also word problems that involve measurement of a horse arena, sewing, how many pages groups of kids read, and one that reads 'Simplify 8x + x(2x +5) and explain each step.'

 

- The early lessons show a lot more variety, by incorporating problems using skills that the student is presumed to have mastered already, like multiplying decimals or adding mixed numbers.

 

- Although I haven't been through the whole book, I have not found any obvious errors in the lessons I worked - I know that was a problem for the Geometry book when it first came out.

 

 

WHAT I DON'T LIKE

 

- It's still a hot mess as far as trying to figure out what algebra IS as a coherent whole. You'll learn a lot of different stuff, but I at least have a hard time grasping it as a whole without additional materials.

 

- The wild vocabulary word problems are gone!! I will miss those, I've been a great reader all my life and I was still finding delightful new words from those problems. I'm really sorry they took those out.

 

- There's not any explanation to HOW to use the book, which led to a little confusion for me. The very first warmup problem on the very first lesson was 'A (Venn diagram / line plot) shows the relationship between sets.' I had NO idea what they meant by 'line plot', since those were not covered in Algebra 1/2. The notation next to the problem read (SB 30). There was no explanation in the front of the book as to what the notation meant, that it was so you could look up the lesson if you were having trouble with a concept, so of course there was also no explanation as to what 'SB' meant!! I finally figured it out, it refers to the Skills Bank lessons in the back of the book, but it would have been nice to have a couple pages of 'How to Use This Book' at the beginning.

 

 

So, hope that helps someone! If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask, I'll be glad to try to answer!

[smilesonly]

I am using it for myself, to self teach, but I haven't gotten very far, about lesson 35. I am the kind of person who needs to understand HOW something works before I can understand WHY it works.

 

Below is a review I posted about it a few months ago when I had first got it - I stand by everything I said then, with the exception that I DID find ONE problem so far that had the wrong answer in the answer book - lesson 14, problem 4 is 3-2*4+3*2 and they gave the answer as 11 when the answer is clearly -1. Other than that I have found no errors, and my big concern is, since they are teaching both how to do things with a graphing calculator and 'by hand', will there be enough 'by hand' practice for me to really grasp it? But all the graphing calculator stuff is later in the book and so I just don't know on that yet.

 

 

 

OK, here's my review - first off, my qualifications to review this book: I have looked at it and worked the first four lessons in it. That is the sum total of my qualifications, I am neither a math-y person, nor have I read the whole book. I keep HOPING someone else who is MORE qualified will write this review FOR me, LOL!!!

 

Also, you should know that our family LOVES the Saxon method and it has worked well for us for the past 6 years for math, phonics, and grammar.

 

Saxon Algebra I, 4th Edition has 120 lessons, 12 Investigations, and 23 tests. There are also 11 Labs that are meant to be done on the same day as another lesson or investigation, and 5 extra lessons and 31 skills bank lessons in the appendix that can be used if the student needs extra practice, but all in all it is meant to be 155 days worth of work. Comparing Saxon 4th with Saxon 3rd, it appears that they cover approximately the same amount of algebra - for example, 3rd covers the quadratic formula at lesson 119, and 4th covers the quadratic formula at lesson 110. 4th seems to spend more time on problems that seem to fall more into other areas of math, such as permutation problems or deductive and inductive reasoning, while 3rd has more geometry-based problems. And while several of us have spoken to Saxon reps who said the geometry is all stripped out, it's not - there's not much geometry compared to what there is in 3rd, but you are still going to need to know how to figure perimeter, area, volume, and surface areas.

 

The mixed practice 'stretches' farther back in 3rd than it does in 4th. For example, in lesson 114 in 3rd edition, there are review problems referring back to lessons 36, 20, 14, and 8. In lesson 114 in 4th edition, the earliest lesson referred to is 74. So that's a change, but I can't tell if that will be good or bad. I think some students (including me) benefit from the extended review, but others (including probably my daughter) don't seem to need as much.

 

 

WHAT I LIKE

 

- There is a wider variety of problems overall. There are many more word problems. Every problem set has problems in Error Analysis, in which students are asked to find an error in a proposed solution and explain what is wrong about it. Every problem set has problems where you have to explain why something works the way it does in words, instead of just demonstrating that you know how to do it.

 

- The problems covering the same concept show more variation. For example, in Lesson 18, which is about like terms in both books, the 3rd edition examples are all straightforward computation - 'Simplify by adding like terms.' In the 4th edition, the some of the problems are straightforward 'Simplify by adding like terms', but there are also word problems that involve measurement of a horse arena, sewing, how many pages groups of kids read, and one that reads 'Simplify 8x + x(2x +5) and explain each step.'

 

- The early lessons show a lot more variety, by incorporating problems using skills that the student is presumed to have mastered already, like multiplying decimals or adding mixed numbers.

 

- Although I haven't been through the whole book, I have not found any obvious errors in the lessons I worked - I know that was a problem for the Geometry book when it first came out.

 

 

WHAT I DON'T LIKE

 

- It's still a hot mess as far as trying to figure out what algebra IS as a coherent whole. You'll learn a lot of different stuff, but I at least have a hard time grasping it as a whole without additional materials.

 

- The wild vocabulary word problems are gone!! I will miss those, I've been a great reader all my life and I was still finding delightful new words from those problems. I'm really sorry they took those out.

 

- There's not any explanation to HOW to use the book, which led to a little confusion for me. The very first warmup problem on the very first lesson was 'A (Venn diagram / line plot) shows the relationship between sets.' I had NO idea what they meant by 'line plot', since those were not covered in Algebra 1/2. The notation next to the problem read (SB 30). There was no explanation in the front of the book as to what the notation meant, that it was so you could look up the lesson if you were having trouble with a concept, so of course there was also no explanation as to what 'SB' meant!! I finally figured it out, it refers to the Skills Bank lessons in the back of the book, but it would have been nice to have a couple pages of 'How to Use This Book' at the beginning.

 

 

So, hope that helps someone! If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask, I'll be glad to try to answer!

 

I read this already!:lol: It was the only post that showed up in my search.:D

 

I just got an email back from D.I.V.E. Co. and they said there are no plans to do a dvd to match the 4th edition. That leaves this choice out if the picture.:tongue_smilie:

[smilesonly]

I am using it for myself, to self teach, but I haven't gotten very far, about lesson 35. I am the kind of person who needs to understand HOW something works before I can understand WHY it works.

 

Below is a review I posted about it a few months ago when I had first got it - I stand by everything I said then, with the exception that I DID find ONE problem so far that had the wrong answer in the answer book - lesson 14, problem 4 is 3-2*4+3*2 and they gave the answer as 11 when the answer is clearly -1. Other than that I have found no errors, and my big concern is, since they are teaching both how to do things with a graphing calculator and 'by hand', will there be enough 'by hand' practice for me to really grasp it? But all the graphing calculator stuff is later in the book and so I just don't know on that yet.

 

 

 

OK, here's my review - first off, my qualifications to review this book: I have looked at it and worked the first four lessons in it. That is the sum total of my qualifications, I am neither a math-y person, nor have I read the whole book. I keep HOPING someone else who is MORE qualified will write this review FOR me, LOL!!!

 

Also, you should know that our family LOVES the Saxon method and it has worked well for us for the past 6 years for math, phonics, and grammar.

 

Saxon Algebra I, 4th Edition has 120 lessons, 12 Investigations, and 23 tests. There are also 11 Labs that are meant to be done on the same day as another lesson or investigation, and 5 extra lessons and 31 skills bank lessons in the appendix that can be used if the student needs extra practice, but all in all it is meant to be 155 days worth of work. Comparing Saxon 4th with Saxon 3rd, it appears that they cover approximately the same amount of algebra - for example, 3rd covers the quadratic formula at lesson 119, and 4th covers the quadratic formula at lesson 110. 4th seems to spend more time on problems that seem to fall more into other areas of math, such as permutation problems or deductive and inductive reasoning, while 3rd has more geometry-based problems. And while several of us have spoken to Saxon reps who said the geometry is all stripped out, it's not - there's not much geometry compared to what there is in 3rd, but you are still going to need to know how to figure perimeter, area, volume, and surface areas.

 

The mixed practice 'stretches' farther back in 3rd than it does in 4th. For example, in lesson 114 in 3rd edition, there are review problems referring back to lessons 36, 20, 14, and 8. In lesson 114 in 4th edition, the earliest lesson referred to is 74. So that's a change, but I can't tell if that will be good or bad. I think some students (including me) benefit from the extended review, but others (including probably my daughter) don't seem to need as much.

 

 

WHAT I LIKE

 

- There is a wider variety of problems overall. There are many more word problems. Every problem set has problems in Error Analysis, in which students are asked to find an error in a proposed solution and explain what is wrong about it. Every problem set has problems where you have to explain why something works the way it does in words, instead of just demonstrating that you know how to do it.

 

- The problems covering the same concept show more variation. For example, in Lesson 18, which is about like terms in both books, the 3rd edition examples are all straightforward computation - 'Simplify by adding like terms.' In the 4th edition, the some of the problems are straightforward 'Simplify by adding like terms', but there are also word problems that involve measurement of a horse arena, sewing, how many pages groups of kids read, and one that reads 'Simplify 8x + x(2x +5) and explain each step.'

 

- The early lessons show a lot more variety, by incorporating problems using skills that the student is presumed to have mastered already, like multiplying decimals or adding mixed numbers.

 

- Although I haven't been through the whole book, I have not found any obvious errors in the lessons I worked - I know that was a problem for the Geometry book when it first came out.

 

 

WHAT I DON'T LIKE

 

- It's still a hot mess as far as trying to figure out what algebra IS as a coherent whole. You'll learn a lot of different stuff, but I at least have a hard time grasping it as a whole without additional materials.

 

- The wild vocabulary word problems are gone!! I will miss those, I've been a great reader all my life and I was still finding delightful new words from those problems. I'm really sorry they took those out.

 

- There's not any explanation to HOW to use the book, which led to a little confusion for me. The very first warmup problem on the very first lesson was 'A (Venn diagram / line plot) shows the relationship between sets.' I had NO idea what they meant by 'line plot', since those were not covered in Algebra 1/2. The notation next to the problem read (SB 30). There was no explanation in the front of the book as to what the notation meant, that it was so you could look up the lesson if you were having trouble with a concept, so of course there was also no explanation as to what 'SB' meant!! I finally figured it out, it refers to the Skills Bank lessons in the back of the book, but it would have been nice to have a couple pages of 'How to Use This Book' at the beginning.

 

 

So, hope that helps someone! If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to ask, I'll be glad to try to answer!

 

I read this already!:lol: It was the only post that showed up in my search. Thank you!! :D

 

I just got an email back from D.I.V.E. Co. and they said there are no plans to do a dvd to match the 4th edition. That leaves this choice out if the picture.:tongue_smilie:

[cbhrbooth]

I read this already!:lol: It was the only post that showed up in my search.:D

 

I just got an email back from D.I.V.E. Co. and they said there are no plans to do a dvd to match the 4th edition. That leaves this choice out if the picture.:tongue_smilie:

 

I realize this is an old thread, but my daughter and I finished the 4th edition last week so I wanted to add our experience to the forum.

 

I didn't intend to buy the 4th edition but when I had the 3rd edition and 4th edition side-by-side I believed the 4th edition to be superior to 3rd for a non-math loving homeschooling mom. (That would be me.) I was dismayed when I purchased the homeschool kit and found out that I couldn't get a D.I.V.E. dvd (and was told that they had no intention of making one) and that others in my homeschool community also had no intention of making the switch. We were stuck.

 

However, after completing 120 lessons, 11 labs, and 12 investigations (we didn't do the appendix lessons), I am very happy with the 4th edition.

 

It follows the familiar format of previous Saxon books (Warm up, Lesson Plan, Lesson practice, Mixed practice) but the answers and explanations seemed fuller than the ones I remembered from other Saxon editions.

 

My 12-13 yo daughter (8th grade) would work the Warm up, and then together we discussed the lesson and the lesson examples, and then she would do the Lesson Problems. We would check those (orally) and we'd check her previous day's assignment and review the topics she had trouble with. Each evening her assignment was to complete the 30 Mixed Lesson practice problems for the next day. We did 4 lessons a week and used Friday for tests.(She asked me to change this for next year so that we complete 5 lessons a week. She wants to finish math earlier next school year. lol.)

 

I allotted 1.5-2 hours a day for our math work. It was not a hands-off class, and I was heavily involved in the daily teaching of this class. (Although there were a few weeks when I let my daughter be self-directed because my work schedule interfered with her schooling. She tested poorly during those 2 or 3 weeks.)

 

Except for the last 10 lessons, the book gave EXCELLENT explanations and tips for using the graphing calculator and common mistakes to solving problems.

 

The last 10 lessons appear to be optional (I realized this AFTER we were on lesson 118) and those last lessons hit advanced math concepts (like trig or business math) with a lick and a promise. We breezed through those just so she could have some exposure to the ideas.

 

Throughout the book there are online icons which suggest that there is online help. I tried once or twice but could not find anything other than generic information. However, I didn't look too hard because I wasn't struggling much. The organization of the book is clear and cross-referenced to highlight "skills". (There are also Skill Bank exercises which I always meant to include, but never got around to doing. Could-of, would-of, should-of, I suppose. . .) lol.

 

I'm not overjoyed at the idea of going it "alone" with 4th edition sequence (no co-op or D.I.V.E.) but feel good about the material and explanations that Saxon provides in the books. At this time, we plan to continue with 4th edition Geometry and then 4th editon Algebra 2.

Edited May 21, 2012 by cbhrbooth

[cbhrbooth]

WHAT I DON'T LIKE

 

 

- There's not any explanation to HOW to use the book, which led to a little confusion for me. The very first warmup problem on the very first lesson was 'A (Venn diagram / line plot) shows the relationship between sets.' I had NO idea what they meant by 'line plot', since those were not covered in Algebra 1/2. The notation next to the problem read (SB 30). There was no explanation in the front of the book as to what the notation meant, that it was so you could look up the lesson if you were having trouble with a concept, so of course there was also no explanation as to what 'SB' meant!! I finally figured it out, it refers to the Skills Bank lessons in the back of the book, but it would have been nice to have a couple pages of 'How to Use This Book' at the beginning.

 

 

 

 

Just wanted to add an AMEN to this one. Although once I figured out our "system" for using the book, it was a breeze, but getting to that breezy state took some effort. Saxon does not make it clear how to use the book. (The test booklet lists Test 20 as Cumulative, but that's the ONLY place I saw this type of designation.)

 

If you go with the 4th edition, plan to set aside time to get a feel for its structure.

[cbhrbooth]

Found this review at Rainbow Resource Center:

 

 

The 4th Editions of Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 are intended primarily for students who plan on taking Saxon Geometry and are wanting Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 courses with reduced geometry content. The sequence for incorporating these courses would be: Algebra 1, Geometry, then Algebra 2. The main difference between the 3rd and 4th editions is that much of the previously-integrated geometry content has been removed. You may find this a positive or a negative, depending on your student’s need to review geometry concepts, especially in Algebra 2 (or pre-ACT!). Other differences in the editions are that there are no Saxon Teacher CD-ROMs for the 4th Edition programs and no step-by-step solutions for test problems. At this point, Saxon is not recommending that most homeschoolers switch to the 4th editions. Homeschool Kits for the 4th Ed. courses include hardcover texts, homeschool test books (with answer key) and solutions manuals. 120 lessons.

 

 

**all bolding mine

 

 

I haven't considered the ramifications of the lack of geometry review prior to the ACT, nor did I know that Saxon wasn't recommending the 4th edition switch for homeschoolers. Just points to consider.

[BlessedMom]

Bumping for any updated reviews.

[MarkT]

My son used this text for Algebra 1 - it is based on the early draft Common Core material - I rate it good.  Plenty of support material for home/self-study including a full solutions manual. Personally I'm not a big fan of Saxon lesson sequencing - too much jumping around between topics but their spiral problems method is great.