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Quick question about PreCalculus

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Originally posted by: Qosis
Is there any chance you can define what simple algebra would include?
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Algebra has what, at most a dozen rules? It should take no more than 5 mintues to learn all of algebra. Here are the algebra basics summarized into one page. Here is the rest of all algebra in one page. Beyond that, it is just patience and effort that is needed and you can solve anything.

Lets look at that practice exam. Question 3 is a good example of a question where all the work is algebra. Question 3a asks this:

[*]Given: 0 = (x^2-x-6) / (x^2+x-6), find x.

Question 3b asks this:

[*]Find r(x=0) = (x^2-x-6) / (x^2+x-6).

If you can do those problems, you should be fine.
 
College Algebra, maybe statisics

College Algebra is actually not a college level course anymore.

Lets see Fractions
Logarithms
Percentage Formulas
Solving for the Square
Pathagorean Theorum
Graphs
Concept of unreal numbers
 
Originally posted by: Qosis
Originally posted by: DrPizza
example:
How are you going to solve (sin(x))^4 + 3(sin(x))^2 - 4 = 0 if you can't solve x^4 + 3x^2 - 4 = 0?
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Is it possible, if I kept my high school math books around, to reference back as I needed to know particular facts? Or isit all combined in such a way that I can't ujust go back and re-learn the thing I need to know?
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If you can't already solve the second equation, you might as well give up on math now, or just start from the beginning.
 
If you're relatively smart and a quick learner, I don't think you'd have any problem quickly reviewing everything up to pre-calculus.
See if you can get a copy of an algebra text and work your way through it. If you can, I'd also work through a trig book as well. Pre-calc will review a lot of that trig, but will go further in depth.

Example: Trig: find the exact value of cos(arctan (2/3) )

Pre-Calc: find an expression for cos[arctan( (x+5)/(x+7) )]
 
Originally posted by: DrPizza
If you're relatively smart and a quick learner, I don't think you'd have any problem quickly reviewing everything up to pre-calculus.
See if you can get a copy of an algebra text and work your way through it. If you can, I'd also work through a trig book as well. Pre-calc will review a lot of that trig, but will go further in depth.

Example: Trig: find the exact value of cos(arctan (2/3) )

Pre-Calc: find an expression for cos[arctan( (x+5)/(x+7) )]
Click to expand...

I went out and purchased a few books today to re-learn algebra quickly. I found I still remembered a lot of the stuff, and anything I got wrong after briefly reviewing I could get.

Also, one book you may want to check out (iirc, you are a teacher) is the Effortless Algebra book by Maran. I've found it to be fantastic. If I don't understand something (like factoring a quadratic equation) I can go into the book and it shows it step by step, with some questions I can do after on my own to see if I know it.
 
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