APEX PreCalculus

Reviewed by Cynthia Huffman, University Professor, Pittsburg State University on 9/26/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

As mentioned in the preface, the text is “designed to review mathematical concepts that are often stumbling blocks in the Calculus sequence.” There are three chapters – Numbers & Functions, Basic Skills for Calculus, and Solving & Trigonometric Functions. The authors do a good job of covering all the common precalculus areas with which students struggle in calculus. (Factoring doesn’t include the cases where the leading coefficient is not equal to 1.) There is no index or glossary, however, solutions to the exercises are included.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The content is unbiased, however it is not error-free. While reading the text, I noticed more typographical, grammatical, and mathematical errors than I expected. (I plan on sending a copy of the errors that I found to the authors.)

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The text is current and relevant for its intended audience. The authors do a good job connecting the topics to the real world to explain to the students why each topic is important.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is well-written and at a level that makes it very readable for students. It is clearly written with students as the intended audience. The explanations and solutions of examples are very clear and easy to follow.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is very consistent with content and worked examples and exercises. The consistency of the exercise sets especially stood out with questions about “Terms & Concepts” followed by problems of varying difficulty

Modularity rating: 5

There are a few places where the text refers to something done previously, but for the most part, an instructor could assign individual sections as needed.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

For the most part the text is very well-organized and the topics are presented in a logical clear fashion. I did find the title of Chapter 3 (Solving and Trigonometric Functions) confusing. Since “Solving” and “Trigonometric Functions” are separate topics, I would suggest they be split into separate chapters.

Interface rating: 5

The text is a pdf. There are no navigation problems. The graphics are clear and very helpful for the reader.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

There are some grammatical errors. For example, in the first section there are several times when the singular “parenthesis” is used, when it should be the plural form “parentheses”. The word “term” is used at times, when it should be “factor” or “expression”. Of more concern are the mathematical errors scattered throughout the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I did not notice any places of concern for being culturally insensitive or offensive.

Comments

With a bit more editing, this will be a great text for students needing support with the common precalculus areas in which calculus students struggle. There are excellent examples throughout the text to illustrate the concepts. It is obviously intentionally written for students, with clear explanations, the inclusion of alternate wording students might run across, and motivation for learning the techniques and concepts. A wonderful resource!