Solving word problems has never been easier than with Schaum's How to Solve Word Problems in Algebra!

This popular study guide shows students easy ways to solve what they struggle with most in algebra: word problems. How to Solve Word Problems in Algebra, Second Edition, is ideal for anyone who wants to master these skills. Completely updated, with contemporary language and examples, features solution methods that are easy to learn and remember, plus a self-test.

In my opinion, the best way to develop the skills necessary for solving word problems is to treat it as a separate lesson and drill. This book does exactly that and does it better than any book I've seen in my life! For the first time in my life I actually enjoyed doing word problems. This book makes solving algebra word problems as fun and addicting as solving a jigsaw puzzle, and you develop great reasoning skills along the way without even realizing it.

This is a great book and I hope the authors continue to expand on it adding more problems, colors, diagrams, detailed explanations, etc.

I recommend this book HIGHLY to anyone who has to deal with solving algebra word problems.

56 of 58 found the following review helpful:


Very logical! Very Easy!  Jul 07, 2002
I have taught Algebra and Algebra II to high school and middle school students now for five years. Many teachers I know have simply skipped many of the word problems because they are too difficult to teach. That practice has never set well with me, yet I have not been able to do better at teaching this difficult subject. My own difficulty in explaining the procedure stems from the fact that Algebra comes so easily to me. I sometimes unknowingly skip steps, or I will solve a similar problem in a different manner because I see a shortcut.

I bought this book last year, hoping that I can find a systematic way of explaining how to solve common algebraic word problems. What this book has enabled me to do is put a consistent, algorithmic, logical structure to common problems in Algebra. Many, many more of my students have been able to tackle word problems successfully.

I was so impressed with this book that I shared it with colleagues who have now embraced it with enthusiasm.

55 of 57 found the following review helpful:


Excellent book with structure and sense  Sep 07, 2002 By Charan "clwrites"
I bought this book (and about ten others) this summer to help my children improve their algebra word problem skills. The book does a great job of providing a structure by offering mini-algorithms for solving common algebra problems such as mixtures, time and distance, coin mixes. Each problem is superbly explained with a system that child can at first use to solve the problem even though he/she is not actually "getting" it. However, they do get it soon enough. I did each chapter with my children and then had them do the test problems. The exercise problems are a bit tough and could have been simpler. In fact I ended up making supplementry problems to help them ease into the concepts. But no matter, I still consider this book heads above others. This book is a must even if your child is doing well in math.

Charan Langton, Author of The Reading Lesson - Teach your child to read in 20 Easy Lessons.

23 of 24 found the following review helpful:


Finally! A Visual Approach that Works!  May 08, 2000 By Charlie Chung
Wow, I wish I had this in high school. Word problems are so challenging because you are trying to represent the numbers and their relationships, and then set them up in such a way to be able to solve for an unknown. Each problem is designed with a solution in mind, you just have to set up the appropriate equations.

Well, this is not necessarily easy, and that's why word problems can be difficult--if you tend to have trouble with rate/time/distance, mixture, or work problems, you tend to have problems with most problems of that type. Just knowing r x t = d hasn't helped me master these problems!

This book shows a table approach for r/t/d problems which makes things very clear, and a circle approach for mixture problems. This makes solving all of the easy and intermediate problems very clear. A very simple diagramming concept that makes all the difference in the world!

18 of 19 found the following review helpful:


Good, until the last problems  Sep 14, 2004 By M. J Rocco "mjrocco"
If you are looking for help in understanding algebra problems then I definitely recommend this book. Inside you will find helpful hints and practice that will help you tackle a wide range of problems from distance, coins, finance, quadratics, work, numbers, etc. The Supplementary problems after each chapter are helpful, and are well explained. So if you make any mistakes in doing them you will be able to go through step by step and see where the mistake was.

I do have one complaint. While the book does a great job with explaining the answers throughout the the text, the authors unfortunately decided that no explanations were needed in the last (Miscellaneous) section. While some of the problems shouldn't be too hard, others are, and without explanation you will learn little. This wouldn't be much of a problem, except people who buy this book are most likely not very good or comfortable with word problems to begin with. Therefore, the most explanation possible should be included, and in this section it is not.

Still, if you want a good introduction, I would reccomend this book.

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