Basic Mathematics

You couldn't ask for a better reference/teaching tool than this book. I'm teaching myself Mathematics at the moment and I find this a valuable resource

This is in a weird middle-ground for me. It's more about proofs than properly teaching the math and having you practice. I've definitely learned far more math from precalculus Stewart. It's much more thorough and has more exercises. In terms of learning math proofs and practicing, there are probably other better books that are more focused on that. I guess I might revisit this book in the future if I specifically want to learn/practice precalculus proofs for some reason.

This book covers a lot of the material needed to enter a calculus or linear algebra sequence, and approaches it by deriving important results rather than stating them without motivation. The exercises are a mixture of simple calculations and proofs of varying difficulty; however it is ostensibly possible for anyone with a basic grasp of algebra and geometry to work through this book. There are also some mediations on more comparitively abstract areas of mathematics, such as finding rational points on a circle. Having said that, the exercises in this book are frustrating. Many of the answers (odd-numbered questions only) are misprinted and INCORRECT, which can leave less confident students worrying over a problem that they may have actually solved. Furthermore, the exercises can have solutions that are not particularly "nice", and can be worrying for people who might expect that results can be simplified further or made easier to calculate. Whilst this book is a solid training session for anyone who wants to improve their mathematical abilities, it can be punishing and frustrating at times.

Don't bother buying this if you actually want to use it. The typesetting makes it unusable unless you crack the spine. They put a lot of whitespace on the outer edges of the pages, while they should have used it on the inside. Makes for a very unpleasant read.

The content is excellent and even more advanced in some topics than a usual precalculus textbook. However, the book is thick and does not lay flat. Additionally, it would be better if the book layout is square with a wide margin.

Para los que quieren una base sólida en matemáticas, empezando desde lo más básico, pero con el rigor y la notación matemática de un libro avanzado. Muy ameno y completo. La edición no es muy bonita pero para un libro técnico me parece bien. Lo recomiendo mucho.

Very much useful to all students

I didn’t pay attention from gr8-gr10. Though the methods don’t really add up to the way my school teaches math. I did learn a lot. It’s a solid read for maybe a review over the summer or if you need extra help but it shouldn’t be used as the primary teaching method.