  In most high schools the course in Elementary Algebra is finished by the end of the second year. By the senior year, most students have forgotten many of the principles, and a thorough review is necessary in order to prepare college candidates for the entrance examinations and for effective work in the freshman year in college. Recognizing this need, many schools are devoting at least two periods a week for part of the senior year to a review of algebra. For such a review the regular textbook is inadequate. From an embarrassment of riches the teacher finds it laborious to select the proper examples, while the student wastes time in searching for scattered assignments. The object of this book is to conserve the time and effort of both teacher and student, by providing a thorough and effective review that can readily be completed, if need be, in two periods a week for a half year. Each student is expected to use his regular textbook in algebra for reference, as he would use a dictionary,—to recall a definition, a rule, or a process that he has forgotten. He should be encouraged to think his way out wherever possible, however, and to refer to the textbook only when forced to do so as a last resort. The whole scheme of the book is ordinarily to have a page of problems represent a day's work. This, of course, does not apply to the Outlines or the few pages of theory, which can be covered more rapidly. By this plan, making only a part of the omissions indicated in the next paragraph, the essentials of the algebra can be readily covered, if need be, in from thirty to thirty-two lessons, thus leaving time for tests, even if only eighteen weeks, of two periods each, are allotted to the course. If a brief course is desired, the Miscellaneous Examples (pp. 31 to 35, 50 to 52), many of the problems at the end of the book, and the College Entrance Examinations may be omitted without marring the continuity or the comprehensiveness of the review. ROMEYN H. RIVENBURG. |
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