Does anyone use NEM anymore?

[Elisabet1]

I had liked NEM with my olders, but never used it because I wanted to stay on an American scope and sequence. Now, I would like to try it with my son. But I see it is out of print. Is this a poor choice? Or are people just not using it because they cannot get it easily now?

[Cosmos]

We're using NEM. It is out of print, but I bought the materials already so that isn't a problem for us.

 

Singapore DM is the more current program (and is NOT out of print). I don't know how it differs from NEM, but some have said it feels "friendlier". It also is an integrated program like NEM, so you might take a look at it.

[Elisabet1]

If I ordered ahead right now, I think I can still get the NEM books, but then I would not be able to refill on the workbooks, and likely, could not resell when done.

[Crimson Wife]

I looked over NEM and frankly, it scared me. DM seems much more like an extension of the Primary Math series. My oldest is in the revised Common Core edition of 8A and I plan to take her through at least the geometry chapters in DM 3. Not sure yet about the algebra chapters of DM 3 (I may outsource algebra 2 & up).

[dirty ethel rackham]

Part of the reason why many people don't use NEM is that there aren't solutions manuals for the upper levels.  We used it with my older two, but they got bogged down in it and I was concerned about not having solutions manuals for the upper levels.  They both did AoPS.  Dd is now using Discovering Mathematics.  BTW, I have no idea how anyone would have the time to add workbooks on top of the text material.  That would have taken my very mathy boys nearly 3 hours a day to complete a book in a year. 

[Crimson Wife]

We HS year round and run the workbook 1 semester behind the textbook as reviews on Fridays. DD does not do all the problems in the workbook. She does all of the "challenging practice" and "enrichment" problems. The "basic practice" problems we skip, and whether she does some or all of the "further practice" ones depends on the specific topic.

[jennynd]

We uses NEM in summer as review. If you already done it, I don't see why not use it again. It certainly is a strong program

[Ivey]

Two of my older boys used NEM 1-3, then moved on to a more traditional textbook for pre-calculus. 

 

The "workbooks" are not really workbooks - they don't have enough space to write the answers. Ds19 only used the workbooks occasionally, but Ds15 enjoyed the challenging problems, especially in the geometry chapters.  

 

I haven't looked too closely at DM, but I'm sure it's a strong program. 

[mysterious_jedi]

I'm currently teaching from it in a classroom setting. I don't know your background, but I wouldn't reccommend it unless you and your son are both very strong in mathematics. Most of the problems are too hard for the average student---I supplement extensively from various websites to give my students more practice with the basics. The explanations and examples are not particularly clear for an American reader---they use different math terminology. That being said, however, the problems are thought-provoking and rigorous. It would be a great set of books for a kid who needs a challenge. I'd probably get Discovering Mathematics (the updated edition of NEM), though. I've only glanced through samples, but I will be teaching from it next year. It is more colorful, with clearer examples, and the problems are set up so that you have basic practice first and the more challenging questions later.

[mumto2]

NEM was hard to navigate from my perspective it always took me a couple of minutes to find the right book for what dd needed to do next. That being said dd loved NEM and after I quit trying to direct what she did next and just graded, it went beautifully. The number of problems never bored her. We did everything in the two main student books. For year 3 I switched to DM to have a teacher's guide for me. Dd did it all but did not love it and considered it a bore. Far too many repetitive problems. Asked for NEM for year four. Much of year 4 was a repeat so she breezed through it quickly but preferred it.

 

Need to add my ds does not like NEM much. Hasn't tried DM.

[stripe]

It looks like NEM 1 & 2 are available new from both Singapore Math and Rainbow Resource. Beyond that, it is OOP.

[Punks in Ontario]

We used NEM 1-3, but found that the way it's written there was just not enough review.  We've switched to something with more review written into the book since I was too lazy to set this up. 

[Candid]

Yes, I bought everything before they went out of print. My youngest is in our 3rd year with the program which means he will finish up with NEM materials and move to additonal math next year.

 

We used them in a somewhat modified order. The first two years we did one level per year so NEM 1 and NEM 2, but the final year the NEM 3 materials do not fill a year, and the NEM 4B book is review for "O" levels which we didn't need so we did 3A, 3B, and 4A in the third year. At that point NEM Additional Maths was not available so we switched and did DM Additional Maths the fourth year. 

 

Let me suggest you at least consider the DM series which I think provides more help for the teacher. If you can get the original DM series then I'd go with that. However, be cautious they are aligning the DM series with Common Core and re configuring it in some way. Those books are also sold as DM but DM7 and DM8. You don't want those for the four year program.

 

We did not find NEM hard or challenging in terms of needing anything beyond the text, and we rarely need solutions, having the answers so I could quickly check them worked fine and they are in the back of each book. As someone else has said the workbooks are extra, you don't need to do them at all, and Jenny would actually somewhat discourage folks from them when NEM was the primary program they had. 

 

And if you go to the Singapore forums, they will work out problems for you. 

 

Further we did all this a year early starting with 6th graders, although they were older 6th graders. My oldest is bright but he does not like math (doesn't have a hard time with just doesn't like it). My younger shows more natural ability with math, but he is not a traditional STEM guy, he is much more interested in life sciences. So I don't think you need to be mathy to use this program. By year 3 each of my guys was self-teaching as well. They read the text and did the exercise. Occasionally I'd go over the material with my youngest, but I never did much more than read the text and work through the example problems with him. 

 

Since we were a year ahead, I went ahead and switched my oldest to AoPS Pre-Calculus in 10th grade, and he is now doing AoPS. He does not do the online classes, just the  print materials. However, he's had no real problems with either program. 

[kbpaulie]

We were able to buy just about all the books from EBay and a curric sale.  We finished PM6B and started NEM about a month ago.  Not sure how it'll go or what the long term plan is.... but liking the little "taste" we've had so far.

[Crimson Wife]

Don't be scared about using the Common Core revised edition of DM. We used the old edition of DM 1A and the revised CC editions of 7B and 8A. The rigor is similar in both. The only difference is that the CC edition has added coverage of probability & statistics, and a few topics got switched from higher levels down to lower levels.

 

Now I wouldn't recommend switching mid-year like we did because some of the topics got switched from the old 1B into the new 7A. So we had to find other programs to cover those. But it did give me reassurance that the CC edition wasn't any "dumbed down" from the original.