Reasons NOT to use Lial's BCM / pre-alg?

[Pen]

:bigear:

 

Also does anyone have a link to where I could see what Lial's pages look like inside?

[SilverMoon]

*I* have no complaints from Lial's math books. The instruction is broken down into small, manageable bites, and is very clear. I've used a Lial book with two of my kids. It was a fabulous success for one and a big flop for the other.

 

Lial's BCM didn't work out for my oldest. He's hyper, easily distracted, barely tolerates math, and learns best with a plain, non-flashy, mastery style lesson presentation. Lial is very mastery, but too busy for him. To complete a lesson you read in the middle of the page, then do sample problems in the margins, several times in a row. After a few of those you get to a couple/few pages of practice exercises. It's hard enough for him to channel his focus onto a subject he doesn't enjoy; those constant gear changes made it worse. The math books he's done best with are black and white and focus on one thing at a time.

 

Lial's prealgebra worked fabulously for my second. It has the exact same lesson style as BCM (as do both algebra books by the same author). DD thoroughly enjoyed the moving presentation and gave the book two hearty thumbs up. She has a natural affinity for math, isn't hyper in the slightest, and is a literal, black and white sort of thinker. She did best with colorful, spiral type math books over the years, but she tended to do well in any math book. There have been times (not during her Lial year) she was regularly doing work from three different math texts, just because she wanted to. This is the type of kid you're likely to see with a math book beside her cereal bowl in the morning, as if it were a crossword book.

[TarynB]

(Sorry, I saw your other thread first and posted a link there. Re-posting here as well for others who may search later.)

 

Here is a link for Lial's BCM. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the tab for "Table of Contents".

 

http://instructors.coursesmart.com/0321557123

[shanvan]

Ds and I were very pleased with Lial's BCM & Algebra. Here is one of my posts from another thread which has a link for samples.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showpost.php?p=4277644&postcount=45

[dereksurfs]

We own Lial's Pre-A along with several others Pre-A products we purchased and demo'd. Of all of them Lials was our least favorite. The 900+ page Pre-A book is wordy with smaller print and a very busy layout. With all the different colors, little pictures and junk in the margins we find it annoying to say the least. As was mentioned this style is pretty consistent for all their books (BCM, pre-a, algebra). Some like all that extra stuff in a math book. We definately do not. By contrast MUS was very straight forward and easy to follow. TabletClass and Derek Owens were also much better for our ds11. So Lials sits on the shelf and will never be used. There are just too many other better options available for our dc right now. For others it works out great similar to Saxon, Chalkdust, et al. Different strokes for different folks. I'm sure glad there are so many choices available.

Edited October 29, 2012 by dereksurfs

[Corraleno]

Our experience was very similar to SilverMoon's. I actually really like the teaching in Lial's, but I thought the format was horrible — and I'm not even ADD! For my distractible, dyslexic DS, it was totally unusable. And I don't even think I could bring myself to use it for my non-distractible DD, simply because I cant stand it. Which is too bad, since I thought the explanations were good and level of challenge in the problems was reasonable.

 

So... I would say that as long as the layout doesn't bother you or your student, it's an excellent choice.

 

Jackie

[EKS]

All of the Lial books are intended to be used by adults and it shows in the format. When I used BCM with my younger son, I didn't have him look at the book. I used it myself to teach from.

[Joani]

All of the Lial books are intended to be used by adults and it shows in the format. When I used BCM with my younger son, I didn't have him look at the book. I used it myself to teach from.

I think BCM would be overwhelming to a younger kid for this reason. My 7th grader is doing fine with Lial Pre-algebra, but I think she's the type who would do well with any textbook. I know these books would intimidate some of my kids.

[PeterPan]

If you want a copy on the cheap, email me. I've got the Lials pre-algebra, and I *think* I have the DVT video things that go with it too. Lials is fine. We just decided to go a different direction.

[Momling]

I bought a cheap used copy of Lials PA to check out as a possibility for after SM 6b, but didn't love it. I just gave it away... It was too busy and distracting for me. We'll either use Galore Park 2 or DM 1 (7) with a lot of supplementation.

[Pen]

Thanks for the links and other thoughts. I decided against BCM due to all the food references;) seems like it would cause a need to go and eat instead of being able to focus on the math. The pre-algebra probably isn't what will be a good fit for ds due to lay-out, but it might help me as a resource. So I'll watch for a used copy. OhElizabeth, I tried to PM you about your copy--don't know if it went through or not.

[razorbackmama]

I used BCM to bridge the gap (which was huge) from MUS Zeta to Saxon Algebra I. I don't know if it's because the gap was so huge or if it's because BCM didn't cover what we needed it to, but after going through the entire book of BCM and doing well, my son still had to take Saxon Algebra 1/2 prior to starting Algebra I.:glare: