Essential Prealgebra Skills Practice Workbook

I just finished all 1,207 (by my count) problems in this book and am putting my pencil down to write the review it deserves.

First, this book is deceptive. You might think that you're purchasing a simple workbook with a bunch of problems. In reality, you're also getting a book which organizes and distills the broad collection of topics in prealgebra down into a set of 10 categories, each with subcategories (88 by my count). At the start of each main category there is a page of teaching and explanation. At the start of each subcategory there is a paragraph or two explaining the topic. If necessary, there are references to prior topics which can be used as a preparatory step if you haven't mastered them. After that there are a few examples which walk you through how to solve problems using the techniques. Finally you are given a page or so of sample problems, often increasing in difficulty.

Pause for a moment and consider the value of what I wrote. Most books on the subject breeze through large sections of material, or mix and match subject matter. The student is then left with a potentially confusing jumble of topics which they have to sort out in their head (if they're ambitious), or make a mind map or outline to try to organize themselves. I know because I've got several other algebra books sitting next to me which I'm outlining to understand them better. This book, in a beautifully simple, plain text, easy to read 8x11 format, has about one subtopic per page. Therefore you can flip open to any page and immediately review a topic.

This book is very well organized and clear. So many books today get lost in fancy designs, flyouts, bubbles, cartoon characters and every other kind of distraction. Whatever happened to easy-to-read text on a plain white background so you can concentrate on the matter at hand instead of having all kinds of attention-demanding design gimicks in this age of distraction?

Once you get to the sample problems it's time to roll up your sleeves and grab a bunch of pencils and scrap paper because Dr. McMullen intends to put you to work. "It takes practice to learn math," he says quietly on his author page video. Indeed! By my count, 146 pages of practice. He does remind us in the Introduction however: "Practice makes permanent, but not necessarily perfect. Check the answers in the back..strive to learn from any mistakes." I sometimes hurried through some of the easier problems and was aggravated when I learned I made simple mistakes. But I always circled them and made sure I understood the nature of my error. This is a valuable lesson from the world of music. If you don't discover and correct a mistake early, you'll end up repeating it and soon the cement hardens. In brain science this is called "neurons that fire together, wire together." So be precise, double-check your work and make sure you understand the reasons for any mistakes.

The Introduction also says "Think your way through math." Sadly, so many of the "idiot" types of books strive to dumb math down by giving little tricks and tips in order to simply solve problems, pass a test, and move quickly on to the next subject. This has long term consequences. I have an Algebra book sitting here which uses that style of "teaching" and, shockingly, it doesn't even use the word "reciprocal" in the entire book. It says simply, "To solve, invert the fraction." How can someone possibly come out of an algebra course and not know what a reciprocal is? That's the result of dumbing math down into a series of tips and tricks to solve problems, rather than learning how to think, and learning the definition of terms. It is clear the author of this book has a passion for teaching the right way; to lay down a solid foundation for later studies. And the volume of problems is indicative of someone who believes in effort. There are also plenty of tricky problems mixed in just to make sure you've had your coffee first.

As far as accuracy, I solved every problem in the book at least once. I found 3 very minor issues, frankly more akin to typos, such as an extraneous negative sign in an example. I've already notified the author, who is very responsive. I suspect they will all be corrected by the time you purchase the book.

Clearly a lot of time, thought and effort went into this book. I have a growing collection of books on the topic and this no-nonsense, get down to basics volume is at the top of the stack. I would add that I think it's important to have a variety of books so one can compare and contrast different material and presentation techniques, and to ensure things aren't missed.

In closing I'll add that I don't know the author and received nothing for this review. I wrote it to help others make purchase decisions, because good books deserve to get recognition on Amazon and become more widely discovered and used to positive effect.

[[VIDEOID:380646ae0c6a0863039c3f92815562a8]] I have an 8th grader that has struggled tremendously in math since 4th grade. She operates somewhere around a 6th grade level but can fall behind even that sometimes. She is absolutely capable of learning and retaining information. She’s very smart and a hard worker. She has just never been taught in ways she understands. She has extreme social anxiety that affected her ability to focus on learning in social settings. And she hasn’t been able to work at her own speed, feeling free to speak up and say she doesn’t understand something or ask for help. Most of the teachers would embarrass her by moving her out into the hallway because she was holding up the class by being so slow. :( Her spirit was mortified and broken. Public school was not working for her. She has been homeschooling for a almost 2 years now and is proudly working at an 8th grade level as she should be: even if it takes her longer to do her work, or even if we need to do “only the even numbered problems” for the day. She has Attention Deficit Disorder and I needed a resource that not only kept things short and sweet, straight to the point, but also explained it thoroughly enough that I wasn’t spending hours myself researching and doing problems before having to teach it to her. I am a little rusty, after all. Heh. She works really well in short periods of time with straight forward instructions in an organized manner. This book does it ALL. I have purchased many books and was actually pretty happy with the last book we used, but the amount of reading it required overwhelmed her. She worked through it but was totally burned out.. This book is organized so well. I won’t ramble on about it because these other reviews have said it much better than I could have, but do yourself a favor and get this for your junior high student. Or for yourself or someone you love that enjoys math. I like it so well that I am not allowing her to write directly into the book so I can use it for my (advanced) 5th grader when she’s ready. Haha, cheap skate! I will absolutely be purchasing his Algebra book as well. I feel like she will have a much more solid foundation in math if she does return to public school in the future. (Not likely because why?) And if not, then she will pass her GED and go straight into college with her head held high, knowing math won’t weigh her down anymore.. thanks, Chris! We are totally fans.

I can honestly say I hated algebra back in my sophomore days. I understand why we have to learn algebra it's a everyday life also it go along with geometry, an linear graphing, all it takes some practice to fully understand it.

Homeschooling treasure!! It simple for both my 7th grader and myself (haven't looked at this kind of stuff since high school)

If you are looking for a book that works step by step with a good amount of explanation, rather than just throw questions to your kids, this book is for you.

I love now this book gives you a lesson with explanations and examples before you begin. Far better than Kumon books which lack that. Lessons are broken down in manageable segments and the answer key not only gives you the answer, but shows the work. What a great way to teach your kid, but also have them to be able to independently check their answers and contrast to theirs and troubleshoot if need be. I will be ordering more of the authors books because it makes life and learning sooooo much easier.

I really thought I could not understand math at all. Had put off going to finish my degree due to being afraid of math but this book explains it to me in such detail that At 53 y/o I am finally able to understand and it's builds my confidence. This is a awesome resource for anyone that struggles.

I’ve been teaching from AOPS (Rusczyk), and my students struggle with the scarcity of problems that teach basics. AOPS problems add depth to understanding once a student is AT mastery level, but more performance level problems are needed to attain that. McMullen’s book provides that. It’s wonderful and can stand on its own as an excellent textbook to more than adequately prepare students for Alg 1 and Alg 2. What a great find.

As a public middle school teacher who has suffered through some of the worst educational "reforms" to curricula during the last few decades, I have been seriously frustrated by the latest Common Core "improvements" which are anything but. The textbooks I am given are an embarrassment with anorexic explanations, little practice for the students and insulting, overly scripted extra pages in the teaching editions that make them three times the size of the OED! In an effort to find a basic compendium of good, road tested problems to use to beef up the sad resources I was given, I came across these. They are not flashy, but I have so appreciated being able to use the exercises quickly and easily without having to come up with my own or carry around another mammoth textbook The content is also distilled down to the most important concepts necessary for success in Algebra, leaving statistics, probability, and transformational geometry for another life. I only hope that the next iteration of curricula decides to get back to the basics of arithmetic as the foundation for everything else!!

My son is working through this book along with his distance learning and he likes it.