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(More customer reviews)As an educator and non-mathematician who has long been concerned about the dismal state of math education in America, I find this book is a most welcome account of how students should approach the study of math at the college level. This is a timely, serious "how to" book about a national educational disgrace by an author who has obviously spent a lifetime teaching mathematics at the university level. Dahlke's reflections represent the intellectual residue and wisdom of over thirty years of teaching. There is no other book like it on the market...period! It deserves to be in every college library, on every math teacher's bookshelf, and required reading for all math students. It could stand alone as a text for a short course on "How To Study Mathematics." (University admissions officers, are you listening?) Dahlke provides an accessible "straight talk-tough love" account of how to systematically approach the study of mathematics. He advances practical steps that students must take to develop the study habits needed for triumphing in the classroom. The study habits highlighted and encouraged are also many of the same habits that apply to the mastery of other subjects, and, frankly to life itself. In this latter sense, the book is as much about developing a good philosophy of life as it is about math education! This is most refreshing in a "How to do it" book.
Finally, what Dahlke does not address is the 800-pound gorilla in the room - how is it that America has spent more dollars on K-12 education than ever before while producing one of the weakest cohorts of math students in the western world? American students graduating from high school are amazingly self-satisfied with their low level of math skills. Where ignorance is bliss, what's to worry about? Given the aversion of so many American students and educators to the practical "tough love" needed to bring our students up to the requirements of an increasingly sophisticated high tech society, we should not be surprised to see this book picked up in rising countries like China, India, and Japan where mathematics is taken seriously. America, are you listening?
Click Here to see more reviews about: How to Succeed in College Mathematics (A Guide for the College Mathematics Student)
How to Succeed in College Mathematics (A Guide for the College Mathematics Student) is an original and valuable "resource book" for college undergraduate mathematics students in a field absolutely devoid of any comparable guide. It addresses comprehensively, authoritatively, and authentically the issues students face in college mathematics. The ideas in this guide, grounded in research and experience, could very well keep students from receiving an undesirable grade, dropping a course, changing an area of concentration, or dropping out of college. This book will help students realize fully the mathematics potential that lies within them. There are many gems of wisdom for the struggling to the strong college mathematics student. Students will find out how to: improve as problem solvers, manage assignments, determine if they have course prerequisites, write mathematics, work with symbolic form, read their textbooks, get the most out of class, make the most of their learning styles, work with classmates, select and work with instructors, whether to drop a course, retake a course, decrease procrastination and anxiety, increase confidence and motivation, prepare for and take examinations, and manage time, a job, and scheduling of courses.The primary organization of the book is this: A key topic is presented in a thorough way, and is often referenced again when related topics are presented in thorough ways. Hence, this spiraling effect reinforces knowledge of the topic. The book has an extensive table of contents and index, clearly revealing the issues that are discussed and where they can be found. Chapters may be related to each other, but they stand alone. Hence, readers can begin to read at virtually any place in the book, and move back and forth to chapters or sections of interest to them.Support for the relevance of the learning and study issues discussed includes: remarks from successful college mathematics students on what worked for them in their college mathematics courses, and from unsuccessful college mathematics students on what did not work for them; statements by college mathematic students, which came from their free responses to questions on forms used to evaluate their instructors and courses; suggestions from experienced college mathematics instructors on issues they believe need to be addressed; the formal academic training, research activities, and extensive college teaching experience of the author in mathematics and mathematics education.This resource is not only valuable for college mathematics students, but also for high students intending to take college mathematics, college and high school preservice and inservice mathematics instructors, and college and high school counselors and other academic support personnel.The book is more than an introduction to learning mathematics. It is also about learning how to learn, and becoming a successful college student in general. Success in mathematics means more than receiving a good course grade; therefore, any student can learn what his or her deficiencies are and how to overcome them. If you find a better resource book for undergraduate mathematics students (and instructors), buy it! And let us know about it. Because right now there is simply nothing else out there.
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