Math Refresher for Adults covers general math skills including Whole Numbers, Fractions, Decimals, Percents, Geometry, Integers, Charts and Graphs, and Word Problems. Then it moves into Pre-Algebra and Algebra skills including equations, word problems and even some probability and statistics. At the end of each sub-section there is a review built in and at the end of both the general math section and Algebra section have Final Review sections. The book also includes a Solutions section, a Glossary, and Important Symbols and Tables. There are also online video tutorials that you have access to if you need a little extra explanation for the math concepts you are working.
As you can see this book covers elementary math concepts all the way through Algebra which is typically your first year of high school. My husband who teaches at a local technical school says that this book would cover 4 of their 'developmental math' classes. So if you are thinking about going back to school I'd HIGHLY recommend going through this book BEFORE you take the placement test, that way you at least would place into College Algebra. This would also be great if you need to take any kind of math tests to further advance at your job, entering a medical or technical field, even for preparing to take the SAT or PSAT among many other reasons.
Each lesson, as I mentioned, has a video that corresponds with the lesson subject taught by the author Richard W. Fisher. All you have to do is go to Math Essentials and look for the online videos. You also have access for the more advanced tutorials available for Algebra! At the front of the book is a detailed Table of Contents so you can quickly see the sections that you might want to jump to and start working. You can also work the book in order if you are wanting a more full 'refresher'. The solutions are in the back of the book and they suggest that you receive an 80% to consider yourself as passing that section. And if you are using the book as a refresher for you - the parent - to help your student, watching the video together might be very helpful.
So why and how did I use the book? Well, my eldest has just completed Algebra 1 and will be moving into Geometry. Thankfully right now my grandmother-in-law (a prior head of high school math department at 2 different public schools and has been a math teacher for over 50 years) has asked if she could continue teaching her. BUT, as some of you may have read we may be moving (VERY SOON) to Indiana and wherever she is we will want to continue. Now, my husband could absolutely take over teaching her and probably will be the main teacher of all math after 'General Math', but I don't want to be not able to answer questions AND when we first move we don't know how busy he will be.
So, I decided to jump straight into the Geometry section. There are 15 lessons and have covered topics that include points, lines, planes, measuring angles, circles, area, and a few others. After reviewing these concepts I feel confident I won't be totally LOST when Arianna has a question and I'm the only adult available. I also will take advantage of the video teachings just in case I'm not clear enough with any instruction. ;)
Each lesson took me about 20 to 30 minutes and honestly I did a couple each day. I did have a few issues with the answer key because I was working on the Geometry section there were multiple answers to each question ... too many to print all in the book so they had the answer as answers may vary. The only problem with this is that if you are an adult who hasn't seen or touched math in 20, 30 or even 40 years you might need a little more then 'answers may vary'. So my suggestion would be that online they have a Solutions section for this book and put all possible answers there. It won't take up more space and allows one not to have to guess. It also allows the adult to feel that they weren't totally wrong if the back of the book had only a few of the possible answers such as 'answers may vary such as ...".
My other con for this book is the online video tutorials. Right now you have to hunt and peck for them based on which section you are working on. So if I need Geometry help I need to click on that video from that book. But if I need help with Square Roots from pre-Algebra I'd have to find that book and click on the link for square roots. For the other books you can click on the book and then click on the section you want to watch the video from. I'm hoping that in the future they put a picture of this book and then list the sections covered and link the videos (that are already on their website) to the section. It would just make it a little less confusing to find the section you are needing help on if they were all concise like the rest of the other books.
These lessons like I sad were short. Some review exercises followed by a few helpful hints for the lessons, two sample questions and about 10 questions, then 1 word problem. The setup is exactly the same as other of Mr. Fisher's books which is great for consistency. There is a small side columb where you will write your answer, but there is not room for you to do the problems and show your work. He HIGHLY RECOMMENDS (and I and my husband concur) that you should rewrite the problem in a notebook and then SHOW your work. If you are going back to school showing your work can mean the difference between a C and a B on a test, literally. It also allows you to spot where you may have gone wrong when you look at the Solution or go back and rewatch the video portion of the lesson.
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