College Algebra is the perfect book for students who need to satisfy the mathematics requirement for their degree, and for those students that will be taking an applied calculus course, or a statistics course. The book emphasizes both skill building and modeling, and includes study skills and success skills that will help them throughout their college careers. Students will leave the class having confidence in the skills they have developed, and a good idea of how the mathematics they have learned can be used to model a variety of situations in the world around them.

Tickets to Success

These features are built into the text in order to give students the greatest chance for success in the course.

Getting Ready for Class

Because we want to encourage students to read the book, we place four questions at the end of every section, under the heading Getting Ready for Class, that students can answer from the reading. Even a minimal attempt to answer these questions enhances the students' in-class experience. A number of people using our books use these questions as a student's ticket to class. They collect the student answers as students come in the door.

Paying Attention to Instructions

We try to anticipate problems students have and build features into the text that address these problems. For example, we know students don't always pay attention to instructions when they are doing their homework, and it gets them into trouble on tests and quizzes. So, we build problems into the text, under the heading Paying Attention to Instructions, that require that they read instructions.

Getting Ready for the Next Section

These problems appear at the end of every problem set. They are the exact problems that students will see when they read through the next section of the text. Students who consistently work these problems will be much better prepared for class than students who don't work these problems.

Getting Ready for Calculus

Scattered throughout a number of problems set are problems students will see if they take a one-semester applied calculus course. They are not calculus problems. They are the algebra problems that occur in the process of solving calculus problems. These problems are taken from Applied Calculus written by Denny Burzynski, and published by XYZ Textbooks.

Emphasis on Modeling

Modeling Examples and Problems are labeled with a puzzle icon and are found throughout the text. Click on each cover for a larger view.

Staying Current with Technology

Graphing Calculators, Wolfram|Alpha, QR codes, are all integrated throughout the text. Click on each cover to see a larger view.

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