Reddit mentions: The best intermediate algebra books

Oh boy…

Q1: I have a similar experience in that I did not do well in high school. In fact, I flunked/dropped out of high school and joined the military in an attempt to learn a skill because I was stuck working in a doughnut shop. I ended up in aviation, which is the industry I still work in today as an engineering technician for a major manufacturer.

Toward the end of my military career I was an aircrew member for medevac helicopters. This meant that I had a lot of down time while waiting on medevac request. I was on an alert status which was similar to a living at a firehouse and waiting on calls. To pass the time I started reading pop-science physics books like Neil DeGrass Tyson and Brian Cox on a personal quest to understand how the universe works. One can only get so far in these books before the author says something like "but if you really want to understand how things work you need to know math". I thought that this was something that I was not capable of this so I gave up.

After I was out of the military, I found Khan Academy and started from the lowest level math and worked on all of the exercises. I worked my way up through algebra and started to look at calculus. At this point I went to my local community college and enrolled in precalc just to see if I could do it. I felt like I was kind of writing a wrong I made where I failed so miserably as a teenager. I am now a math major at a state university where I am in my final semester before graduating and I have recently decided to stick around for a masters.

Q2: I can't help you here. Sorry.

Q3: These walls exists for absolutely everybody in different places. The good news is that you can get to the other side of every one of them, and doing so is rewarding enough to make it worth it every single time. You've likely already experienced this at some level and it only gets better. What you need now is an introduction to mathematical proofs, especially if your interested in math for the sake of math. This is the thing that lies between computational topics like calculus and higher math. I will elaborate more on proofs further down.

Q4: I haven’t had experience with the probability book in question, but I worked with A First Course in Probability by Ross. I think this is a pretty standard textbook but my only other exposure to probability was in a statics course for business majors that I hated. I used this book in class for linear algebra and I watched Gilbert Strang’s videos for fun. There are probably better approaches out there but this worked for me.

Q’s 5 and 6: Back to proofs. This book absolutely bridged the gap for me when I made the leap from calculus to higher math which seems to be about where you are now. At the bottom of the page, in the comments, are links to some bite sized videos that go along with the book. These are fantastic as well. Understanding the structures of formal proofs is really what you need in knowing how to read and write mathematics. Dive right into this before something like abstract algebra or real analysis.

Here’s some more good news, your programing experience will likely help you in your next step when trying to understand proofs. The logic parts will sound familiar when learning about things like ‘if-then’ statements.

Here’s the best link I’ve found since becoming a math major. You’re welcome!

Two of my all time favorite math subjects: Linear Algebra and Number Theory.

My Number Theory professor actually wrote a textbook that I think you’d find is, generally speaking, pretty easy to follow and has some neat applications. Bear in mind though that he wrote it specifically to teach Number Theory at a University level so sometimes reading through some proofs may not be exactly clear. here is the libgen link, if you’d rather another source this is the amazon link to purchase or rent the book.

You will learn some cool techniques and patterns and things you (possibly) never even knew about numbers if you start studying Number Theory.

Now my linear algebra textbook I never actually used because my professor never required it but from what I hear it’s a good foundation but doesn’t expound much upon certain topics - idk if that’s true but I heard the author is a chill dude so here ya go

You can libgen that too.

I don’t exactly think studying calculus on your own will be too exciting, but if you do study calculus, you can then carry it over to other fields - like physics, which has a foundation in calculus from Isaac Newton. I don’t have a good reading source for introductory calculus.

I've helped lots of people with Calc and the stumbling block is always their algebra. Calc itself is easy, but it requires a good deal of manipulating equations and that is all algebra. Linear algebra has less algebra but will still require you to have a good handle on algebra. The basic ideas should be easy to learn but make sure you can do them easily. This means lots of practice problems.

To be clear, you MUST practice, practice, practice. There are no short cuts. The calc problems get big and to solve them in a reasonable amount of time you'll need to be very fast with your algebra. Don't be discouraged, Algebra is not that hard. The problem is there are many rules and you need to be able to know them and see how they interact as a second nature. That will only come with practice.

Anything by Schaums is good for you here. You may not want to read their books but they are filled with problems that are solved in the back. I'm not sure what ones are best for your needs. There are lots of them and some are on complex topics. I would recommend you start to read another book people recommend here and then find the best one for your needs and use it as practice. I would guess you should take a look at their Trigonometry (you'll need this for Sin and Cos in Calc) and eitherElementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, or College Algebra

Cool.

Linear Algebra Don't waste your time with anything other than Lay, pretty much. Sounds like you're 100% new to LinAlg (it's not about polynomial equations) so it may be a bit tough to get off the ground working by yourself, but not impossible. It'd be worth finding a MOOC on the subject, there should be plenty. Otherwise, it's a pretty standard freshman maths course and a lot of people struggle with it (not because it's hard, just because it's different to HS maths), so there's a ton of resources on the internet.

Calculus Kinda just gotta slog away with where you're at tbh. I had Stewart as a freshman, didn't think it was overly great though. Still, that's the kind of level you need, so search for "alternatives to Stewart calculus" and anything that comes up should be appropriate. I wouldn't be able to tell you which to pick though.

Stats Basically, completing both of the above is pretty much a prerequisite for being able to understand linear regression properly, so don't expect to gain much by diving straight into stats. You could probably find a "business analytics" style textbook that would let you do more stats without understanding what's really going on under the hood, but if you want to stick with it in the long term you'll benefit more from getting stuff right at the beginning.

It's not ecology-centric but David Lay's "Linear Algebra" is a great text at an intro level that's great for developing intuition. I remember one example that uses demography of owl populations as a way to use matrix projection models. Overall a great book to teach yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Its-Applications-5th/dp/032198238X

For an adult reviewing algebra, you might want to try Algebra the Easy Way. It's published by Barron's and looks like a study outline, but its looks and title are quite deceiving. In fact, it's actually a highly conceptual approach to algebra and does a very good job at explaining what the subject is really about. It even includes a lot of level-appropriate proof-based reasoning. (For example, it includes the famous proof of the irrationality of square root 2.) I read through the first few chapters, and I thought it was quite excellent. The caveat is that I read it from the perspective of a mathematician, not as someone trying to learn anything from the book.

One important thing to remember when you encounter trouble on your highly admirable mission: Mathematical competence comes from a huge amount of practice and repetition. Because of this, hitting the fast-forward button on your mathematical education is bound to have certain limitations. So don't get discouraged. If you hit a brick wall, it's not because you aren't smart enough. You just need more practice!

That really depends on you, but my high school taught them as a single one-year course (if you were on the accelerated track), so doing it in a year should be possible with enough motivation on your part. It will of course be easier if you take a lighter courseload. Maybe take a study hall period and use it to work on math. (In my experience, though, study hall was a hard place to get anything done because other students just went there to screw around.)

A lot of people studying at that level use Khan Academy. It's supposed to be pretty good. Other people can probably suggest other online resources.

As for books, Algebra 2 and Precalculus are often taught out of the same book. Books that are titled "precalculus" usually include a section on limits that you might not need to cover (ask about this) because it's part of Calculus I.

You can get free textbooks here:

• https://openstax.org/details/algebra-and-trigonometry
  
• http://www.stitz-zeager.com/
  
  These are some suggested dead tree books:
  
  
• Axler, Precalculus (sorry, this used to be cheaper but it looks like the fall semester started and the students bought up all the cheap copies)
  
• Foerster, Algebra and Trigonometry
  
  Or just see if your school will let you borrow a copy of the textbook that they use.
  
  Whatever you choose to use, I suggest that you use multiple resources to get some different points of view and a wider variety of problems to work on. This is especially important since you won't be going to class.
  

I've definitely read book that used their convention, even if they've backed off from it.

arcsin(x) was a multi-valued function defined on [-1, 1] and Arcsin(x) was the restriction of that to a specific range. IIRC [-pi/2, pi/2], just like they say.

I think this was my highschool trig book. Which is holy, and whose conventions you shall not disparage. Amazon. I think I'm remembering the convention being associated with the right book.

This is pretty analogous to the (afaik quite common) convention in complex analysis for the logarithm, log being multivalued and Log being the standard branch.

Man that was a good text book. I should see if I can't find that and double check; it'd be fun to reread parts of it.

These are listed in the order I'd recommend reading them. Also, I've purposely recommended older editions since they're much cheaper and still as good as newer ones. If you want the latest edition of some book, you can search for that and get it.

The Humongous Book of Basic Math and Pre-Algebra Problems https://www.amazon.com/dp/1615640835/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pHZdzbHARBT0A


Intermediate Algebra https://www.amazon.com/dp/0072934735/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_UIZdzbVD73KC9


College Algebra https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618643109/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_hKZdzb3TPRPH9


Trigonometry (2nd Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/032135690X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_eLZdzbXGVGY6P


Reading this whole book from beginning to end will cover calculus 1, 2, and 3.
Calculus: Early Transcendental Functions https://www.amazon.com/dp/0073229733/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_PLZdzbW28XVBW

You can do LinAlg concurrently with calculus.
Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction (Available 2011 Titles Enhanced Web Assign) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0538735457/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_dNZdzb7TPVBJJ

You can do this after calculus. Or you can also get a book that's specific to statistics (be sure to get the one requiring calc, as some are made for non-science/eng students and are pretty basic) and then another book specific to probability. This one combines the two.
Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences https://www.amazon.com/dp/1305251806/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QXZdzb1J095Y1


Differential Equations with Boundary-Value Problems, 8th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1111827060/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sSZdzbDKD0TQ9



After doing all of the above, you'd have the equivalent most engineering majors have to take. You can go further by exploring partial diff EQs, real analysis (which is usually required by math majors for more advanced topics), and an intro to higher math which usually includes logic, set theory, and abstract algebra.

If you want to get into higher math topics you can use this fantastic book on the topic:

This book is also available for free online, but since you won't have internet here's the hard copy.
Book of Proof https://www.amazon.com/dp/0989472108/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MUZdzbP64AWEW

From there you can go on to number theory, combinatorics, graph theory, numerical analysis, higher geometries, algorithms, more in depth in modern algebra, topology and so on. Good luck!

Maple was key for me. For about $100 bucks this software package completely change my view of mathematics. If I had discovered this software earlier my academic and career path would have much more lucrative and much easier.

http://www.maplesoft.com

If you are looking for a fluffy bunnies guide to "unified field theory". The you can't beat 'Algebra the easy way' and 'Calculus the easy way'

http://www.amazon.com/Algebra-Easy-Way-Douglas-Downing/dp/0764119729

Start with Algebra I: Expressions, Equations, and Applications


I do a bit of tutoring on the side, and quite often I get a parent who wants me to rehash Algebra 1 with their child over the summer. They ask me to suggest a book, and this is the one I use. Specifically, I suggest it because it is written in a way that is highly suited to self study.

It has a real sense of authorship that you will not get from these committee-written, spiral learning monstrosities that get put out today. The progression of material in this book is also very logical. It has a nice sequel that I highly recommend as well.

Another book of number puzzles I loved when I was a girl about her age were the Sideways Arithmetic books. They add and subtract words to get another word, and so you have to apply logic to figure out which number each letter represents for it to add up correctly. I learned algebra mostly from the book Algebra the Easy Way. It introduces principles of algebra by having characters in a fantasy story face problems that require them to develop the algebra techniques to solve, and it comes with exercises to practice. There are other books in the series, including one for trigonometry and one for calculus.

Instead of doing 25+ problems a day just to prevent rusting, I suggest you spend your time in a more productive manner. Don't be afraid to learn some new skills! For example, Khan Academy is a wonderful resource: maybe you should check out their videos and activities on (pre)calculus. Learning new stuff is far more interesting than rehearsing old material; besides it will also exercise and deepen your existing algebra knowledge.

However, if you'd rather stick to your original plan, then you should buy this book and work through it. The AoPS series is specifically designed for high-performing math students, so it's a great resource if you're already familiar with the subject.

Be wary when looking for books on algebra. They can often be confused as abstract algebra/modern algebra and just be titled algebra. At your level, you do not want abstract algebra (group, field, ring theory, etc)

I recommend, by nothing more than looking at their table of contents:
Algebra:
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamental-Concepts-Algebra-Dover-Mathematics/dp/0486614700/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1418411228&sr=8-4&keywords=Intermediate+algebra+dover

Trig:
http://www.amazon.com/Trigonometry-Refresher-Dover-Books-Mathematics/dp/0486442276/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418411383&sr=8-2&keywords=Trigonometry+dover

Geometry: This book may go a bit too advanced, but it is cheap and seems decent
http://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Comprehensive-Course-Dover-Mathematics/dp/0486658120/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418404358&sr=8-1&keywords=geometry+dover

Calculus: This is by no means comprehensive(it seems to lack p tests for divergence among some other topics in cal 3), but it is enough to get you ready for advanced topics in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Calculus-Applications-Dover-Mathematics/dp/0486660974/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418404423&sr=8-1&keywords=Calculus+dover

If you are interested in linear algebra, check out Shilov's linear algebra textbook. Don't bother with abstract, it really isn't that useful in engineering(computer science... yes)

Go to piratebay and get The Teaching Company's course on High School Chemistry. It will explain the math that you're having trouble with in Chemistry.

Also, try the Foerster Algebra books (Prentice hall Classics Editions) from Amazon. You won't get anywhere without Algebra, and the Foerster books are very clear and good.

Algebra I

Algebra II

Get a College Algebra book and start there. If all is well, find a calculus book and go through it. Larson/Hostetler is usually good, and the paperback here is cheap..

Used books are inexpensive and will cover the material you need. Then, to supplement the book and refresh on what is rusty, go to the videos by PatrickJMT or KhanAcademy and watch what you need.

Sure, I can recommend Fundamental concepts of algebra. I picked it up from abebooks for $1.5. It's aim is to introduce the concepts of analysis through algebra.

https://www.amazon.com/Prealgebra-Richard-Rusczyk/dp/1934124214 | 978-1934124215

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Geometry-2nd-Problem-Solving/dp/1934124087 | 978-1934124086

https://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Algebra-Art-Problem-Solving/dp/1934124044 | 978-1934124048

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Problem-Solving-Vol-Beyond/dp/0977304582 | 978-0977304585

https://www.amazon.com/Precalculus-Problem-Solving-Richard-Rusczyk/dp/1934124265 | 978-1934124260

https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Problem-Solving-David-Patrick/dp/1934124249 | 978-1934124246

https://www.amazon.com/Competition-Math-Middle-School-Batterson/dp/1441488871 | 978-1441488879

$7.50 per book, $10 if you find the solution manuals too please pm me and comment pm'ed if you have any

I really liked Linear Algebra and it's Applications. I thought it was a good textbook with plenty of problem sets.

Im usually really good at finding text books, but no luck. However its going for pretty dirt cheap, no reason not to buy it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0534417957/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

https://www.valorebooks.com/textbooks/understanding-intermediate-algebra-a-course-for-college-students-6th-edition/9780534417956?utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Froogle&date=09/09/16

amazon.com/Introduction-Geometry-2nd-Problem-Solving/dp/1934124087
Do you have the book? I would appreciate it.

Where I teach they use Linear Algebra by Lay for the introductory class. I'm not sure what level you need but Linear Algebra Done Right is also commonly recommended; could be more abstract than what you need?

Álgebra.
https://www.amazon.com.mx/%C3%81lgebra-Baldor/dp/607744572X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542514283&sr=8-1

Es vital en ese negocio.

I found an alien text for sale on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Applications-MyMathLab-Pearson/dp/0321989929

Doesn't your campus library have a copy you can borrow?


edit: Here, it's $18. I think you can swing that.

My undergrad class used David Lay’s Linear Algebra and it’s Applications. The most recent version isn’t too difficult to illicitly stumble upon.

https://www.amazon.com/Linear-Algebra-Its-Applications-5th/dp/032198238X/ref=nodl_