Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't want to use the word outdated to explain what this book is like. I'd rather use the word old fashioned because it's the same math we had when we were kids, and I think my math skills turned out okay. I am a math teacher after all. I've used this as our main text book in the classroom for the first time this year. Our students loved this book because they felt it was easier to understand than the common core book we were using. Case in point, they were able to do their homework on their own with this book, as opposed to needing extra help when we did the common core stuff. In some cases tho, I'll admit that this book was below grade level. The explanations and examples are a lot gentler than the ones I've seen in those common core books. When you're first learning a concept, you shouldn't start out with incredibly hard examples, and teach them ten different ways to solve a problem because that confuses students and causes them to hate math. Like in this book, examples should start out gently until you've mastered the concepts. What I would like to see though are more practice problems. The extra problems also should be a little more "meaty" than the ones that are found in the book. This can be done very easily on the Mastering Essentials website (hint hint Mr. Fisher). I believe you will find that this book is pretty good, but only if you want to take the express train to algebra. Like an express train bypasses many stations and gets you to the same destination much faster, this is an essentials book. It does not cover many of the obscure topics and tricky word problems that are found on the common core state exams. The bulk of which are not needed in order to learn higher math. For that reason, if your intent is to get your child ready for the common core exam, you will need to supplement this book with a common core aligned math book. On the other hand, if your intent is for your child to actually learn the fundamentals and like math, and not just study to the test, then you should buy this book. Finally, I like the fact that this book has videos that go along with each lesson. And I also love the price! Oh, and one last thing. Although this book says middle and high school, IMHO this book is more for 6th and 7th graders. Once they finish this one, they should be ready for the No Nonsense Algebra book. The only way I'd recommend this be used in high school is as a remedial review for those students who took common core math and didn't learn the basics.