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Good word problems review book?


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Word problems are ds's weakness and pretty much always have been. He's not a bad math student, but he could really use more practice. I'd like to get him a good workbook for them. He's finishing algebra I right now. He'll do geometry next year. I'd ideally like something that has a mix of easy and hard problems. The easy part is important for building his confidence a little.

Anyone have a good suggestion? I'm not averse to getting something that's test prep oriented, though that's not specifically what I'm looking for either and I'd rather not get something that's multiple choice... but I'm not really seeing exactly what I want. There's a lot more "challenging" problems options and that's definitely not going to work for this kid and things that are about very narrow topics. I'd love if it was something that reviewed a variety of topics and levels - something that ranges from upper elementary math level to algebra I level would be best. 

Basically something like Daily Word Problems from Evan-Moor, but for a 9th grader.

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My dd14 and I are working through this one right now. We finished her Algebra 1 book and started this. She is weak on word problems also. We're on Chapter 3, and so far, it's going well. The problems aren't too difficult. The explanations seem clear and the solutions are thorough. 

 

https://smile.amazon.com/Problems-Algebra-Proven-Techniques-Expert/dp/0071343075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527025844&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+solve+word+problems+in+algebra

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I've used everything suggested so far. Johnson's is good if your student needs a concise explanation with step by step strategy on the common types of algebraic word problems. It's the easiest to work through among the 3 above. It's a thin book so there's a limit to the range on problems, but the benefit is the instruction is short.

Zaccaro as mentioned above will give the student different levels of difficulty with a broader range of problems. 

If your student would like to start from the beginning I would first use Johnson's and work through to feel confident with some problems that stump even adults like those train problems. Then move on to Zaccaro which offers more variation than Johnson's on the typical word problems.

The only problem I see with Foerster is not having a solution manual.

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We have Zaccaro’s and it really didn’t mesh with him. Also, it’s not mixed review, so that’s less than ideal. I don’t have a copy of Forester’s on hand, though I do have Dolciani, but again, it’s not the right resource for this - plus, I just know us. I’d much rather toss him a workbook than have to search through problem sets for the right thing and then pick out each one... do #2 on this page and #12 on that page... I already plan math so this would be a side quickie thing. Surely a workbook exists. Or at least a linear resource so I don’t have to do that legwork.

I’ll look at the other suggestions... thanks.

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On another thread someone mentioned using Singapore Challenging Word Problems and having the students solve them with algebra. Old ACT tests are mixed and have some word problems. I know it would be good for my daughter to do more of them. She has trouble with the words sometimes and overthinks them.

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