» Algebra 2: An Incremental Development (Saxon Algebra)

Algebra 2: An Incremental Development (Saxon Algebra) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Best math book.....EVER!
Comment: Let me be perfectly honest; I used to loathe mathematics with my entire being, that was before I began using the Saxon texts. Now I am confident in my study of algebra II and I really wish that each student would use this book!!! The examples are informative, precise, yet altogether interesting! Mr. Saxon leaves nothing to befuddle the student, and his approach reinforces the students confidence and their ability to do more advanced types of problems.

God bless Mr. Saxon, -his knowledge has brought joy and understanding to so many students- may he rest in heavenly peace! :)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: very disorganized book jumping from concept to concept
Comment: My son had this book for his algebra class, all of Saxon's books. Teachers are frustrted, student were lost. There is no organization to the book. I finally gave up and got Prentice Hall algebra for some sanity to prevail.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Saxon math is REAL math
Comment: What else can I say but WOW---Saxon is incredible math---without the fluff, without with bright colors, without the extraneous topics thrown in to "new" math books today! Back to basics is what Saxon is all about. I can see why Saxon would not appeal to some----it is very, very traditional in that it focuses on gradual mastery through continual review of current and previous topics until you "get" it---but you work for it! 30 problems a day! There are plenty of "new" math books out there, plenty that have dumbed down for the NCTM standards, plenty that are easier, more colorful with more "tricks"---but it just depends on what you want---to really LEARN math---or just PASS it!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Learning to TEST or Learning to UNDERSTAND?
Comment: My mother is a Ph.D. in mathematics and taught Jr. and Sr. High math for several years before moving up to teach college math. She has been pretty vocal that the only math text that will result in imparting a poor understanding of mathematical concepts--a false sense of mastery while using it, but poor retention after--is Saxon. She says that every time she has a home schooled student who is really struggling at the college level and they say "But I did so well in math before!" and they are traumatized at the level of tutoring help they need to make it in college, they all have in common the fact that they learned math using Saxon texts in high school.

After she impressed this on me, I was really leery about choosing jr. & sr. high school curriculum a couple years ago and asked her to go to me with convention to help me pick something out. She said, "You are good at math and a good teacher. Just pick something you like that is NOT SAXON!" I'm not exaggerating. It's the spiral learning method that they use. It doesn't give enough thorough practice of all the variations of a particular concept before moving on and too heavily relies on review throughout. That seems to impedes long-term retention. She thinks the fact that it is so dull and methodical is also ridiculous in this day and age of fabulous graphics and the trend to make math more interesting and multi-modal for the average student who doesn't love math.

I find it interesting that on their website, of the 6 research studies of their curriculum, only one includes high school; the other five utilized k-8 or 6-8 curriculum. Maybe all that dry rote learning makes a student test better. But the sad part is when it comes to taking that learning and building on it, they don't really understand the concepts behind it and can't apply future learning to what they simply practiced over and over but don't really know. Kind of like cramming for a test by going over everything you've learned right beforehand and blocking everything else out until you take the test and then POOF! everything you repeated over and over in your head beforehand just seems "gone" once you go back to normal habits of thinking/doing and you stop all that repetition.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: An Easy Choice
Comment: Our children used Saxon from 54 to 87, then moved on to advanced math, calculus and physics and they have excelled with this method. Although my background doesn't include an emphasis in math, my husband's education and professional life is steeped in mathematics. He's enthusiastic about Saxon because it creates a strong foundation in the subject.

Admittedly, solving 30+ problems a lesson can be a challenge, however, this process increases one's speed and accuracy over time and as my daughter said, it helped her "to make peace with math." I wholeheartedly agree with the previous reviewer who says math is like learning how to play a musical instrument: it takes practice and self-discipline, but it's well worth the effort. Understanding math, like being proficient at reading and writing, is one of those practical skills that make life so much easier.

Using this incremental method of learning made homeschooling through high school a breeze and our college-age children sailed through their college math courses as well. In hindsight, it would be easy to choose it again.

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