Jake's Blog

I’m at the point now where I’m comfortable saying, “Don’t use the answer book for the second edition for the third edition.” More than 99 percent of the problems are identical, but since I’ve found at least two that are definitely different, that nagging question is always there, “Did I get it wrong or is the book different?”

I started out under the assumption (because I had read it on the internet) that Saxon Algebra 2, 2nd Edition and Algebra 2, 3rd Edition were identical as far as actual questions asked. I can confidently say now, THEY ARE NOT IDENTICAL.

That said, the differences are fairly minor. Other than “getting the problem wrong” and having to figure out why, it’s not like they’re substantive changes. In Lesson 30, question 14, a 12 was changed to 18. The rest of the problem is identical. Just makes the answer different. The actual math performed is quite similar. But still, the fact that this has happened twice makes me want to buy the correct answer key. It’s just not worth the hassle-factor.

So far, my trek through Algebra 2 has primarily made me laugh, laugh at those who say “You should skip the first 20 lessons of each successive Saxon book because it’s just review.” What utter nonsense. I *just* finished Algebra 1 and yes, it is technically review, but it’s more difficult! The problems are more complicated. There are more “gotcha” problems. You’ve got to pay attention or you’ll end up “bombing” a lesson.

Anyway, for parents out there: Don’t do it. Don’t skip “review” lessons. If they’re actually easy, GREAT! There’s is nothing wrong with an easy lesson. But Saxon wasn’t an idiot. They aren’t just review. They’re gearing up for the trek.

I already had Algebra 2, second edition, but when I started it I was miffed to find out that the little subscripts that indicate which lesson a problem comes from was missing. Apparently, this was added in the third edition. I didn’t want to buy the entire set from scratch, but that was useful enough to me that I was considering it.

While looking into it, I ran across something that indicated that the third edition is the same as the second edition with that sole difference (the lessons are indicated on each problem in a small font). After finding a good copy on Amazon for $25 shipped, I can confirm that that *is* true for each problem, at least through 5 lessons and a quick perusal through the book. But during the fifth problem set I did notice another small difference: The third edition doesn’t have formulas on the back inside cover of the book! There’s a question in lesson 5 that basically requires the formula for the surface area of a sphere (4(pi)r^2). I flipped to the back and bam, a blank page. Not having it in the back was actually helpful in the instance because I actually paused and recalled how they said to remember that formula in Algebra 1 (a picture of the area of 4 circles). But yeah, it was surprising!

Checking the second edition just now, though, they actually don’t have that particular formula! Ha! But I’m right, there is a selection of geometric formulas there in Algebra 2 second edition and it’s not there in Algebra 2 Third Edition.

Now you know.
Edited to add: I can definitely confirm that they are NOT identical. Problem set 12, question 24 is almost the same except that an ‘a^2’ is replaced with ‘2^2’ in the problem. This makes the answer completely different, so at least for one problem you cannot trust the 2nd edition answer key for the 3rd edition book. Bummer.

I should say “done again.” I did complete this book before. Probably the first math book I *ever* completed, back in 2010 or so. But yeah, it’d been a while.

But it’s done as of 10 minutes ago or so.

On to Algebra 2!

Finished Lesson 41 of Saxon’s Algebra 1 today yesterday (this didn’t post last night for some reason). Easily the furthest I’ve gotten in a math book in 5 years.

After a mighty struggle to figure out which math book I ought to start with, I decided to take the high road by going for the lower-level math book first: Saxon Algebra 1. I’m pretty sure I completed this entire book at some point, but that was probably at least 7 years ago.

I started…last week some time (Thursday?). I don’t know the exact date. And then this week was really weird because I had the week off to do some work around the house. But I’ve still managed to continue to do math each day. I think I’ve done at least one lesson per day (Sunday excluded).

I completed 3 today because I was feeling slightly ill and took the day off from house projects. I think I tend to miss 2-4 problems per lesson; almost always due to stupid errors. I’m not sure how to cut those out except practice. I missed two in one lesson today solely because I transcribed the original problem from the math book incorrectly. That’s really infuriating. But at least I’m getting practice in it and presumably will get better over time.

Anyway, I’m trying to keep my nose to the grindstone. If I keep up this rate, I should get through this one shortly and be on to Algebra 2. My honest goal is to complete Advanced Mathematics by the end of this year and be ready to kill it in Calculus at the beginning of next year!

I temporarily had an actual dedicated URL of my full name.com, but I decided not to renew it.

So I’m posting here again. I may try to get my old posts all consolidated here. We’ll see.