Precalculus

David H. Collingwood, K. David Prince, Matthew M. Conroy

The Mathematics Department of the University of Washington designed its precalculus to concentrate on two goals: A review of the essential mathematics needed to succeed in calculus; An emphasis on problem solving, the idea being to gain both experience and confidence in working with a particular set of mathematical tools. This text was written with those goals in mind. It does not look like the widely used precalculus texts on the market. The actual text is short and there are not a lot of routine drill exercises. Instead the book emphasizes multi-part story problems in a conscious attempt to engage students at a deeper level in order to prepare them for the calculus, science, and engineering courses they will soon be taking. There are 20 problem sets, one set at the end of each chapter. The web site also has twenty years of exams (midterms and finals) and their solutions.