» Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 3rd Updated Edition (Book & CD-ROM)

Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 3rd Updated Edition (Book & CD-ROM) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Ver little help on tough concepts
Comment: This book is an overview of Linear Algebra rather than a comprehensive study. The problems that really dwell deep into the concepts are left unanswered even when the problem is odd. You go to the back of the book and the answer isn't there; instead, it tells you to go to the STUDY GUIDE for the answer. Here's the clincher. You buy a $30 study guide, and then you flip to the correct section and the ANSWER ISN'T THERE. This is a BAD SALES SCHEME. The author claims that giving students answers inhibits critical thinking, but it's clear that he really intends for unwary students to buy his study guide so he can get money without exerting minimum mental effort. I strongly discourage people from buying this book. You'd be better off asking for help on the internet blogs.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very easy book to understand
Comment: This book is very readable and has plenty of examples that make sense. The book is definitely organized in an order that makes sense to follow it straight through, and not jump ahead since many of the concepts build upon themselves and others.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Comment: I bought it used for half the price of the same book used at my college textbook, and yet when I received it the book was practically brand new. Excellent Service.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Confusion and Misdirection
Comment: This is a very confusing book. Most students will have experienced simple operations with matrices at some point in their algebra education. But that's not linear algebra. Linear algebra is about vector spaces and linear transformations.

This book takes the approach of introducing a wide range of topics in the first chapter and then in subsequent chapters presenting topics that build on the preliminaries from the first chapter, but never going back and ties things together.

The organization can be VERY confusing. The ideas are never brought together in a meaningful way. This book is full of digrams and definition boxes that obscure the flow of the text, what little there is. In addition, I had an instructor who was not a native english speaker so my linear algebra class was very challenging.

If you have this book for a class, be prepared to spend a lot of time flipping pages, attempting to connect the dots. There are much better linear algebra books out there.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Covers all material, terrible terrible exercises, often brief explainations
Comment: I've used this book for two university classes. The book covers the material conceptually well, but the exercises are written as though you've masted the material before doing any exercises: basic theorems introduced in the book are not covered in simple exercises, and a high understanding is required to answer even some of the early exercises.

The study guide/answers solution guide is not terribly helpful, often giving answers without showing the needed work to get there (often the only reason you're reaching for the study guide in the first place).

If you have a choice between two classes, one which uses this book and another which doesn't, take the other class: avoid this book. If you just want to learn linear algebra, there's much better books out there. Avoid this book. Go with another book that doesn't have majorly negative reviews.

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