Essentials of College Algebra, 11th edition

Support for all classroom types: a complete suite of instructional materials includes updates to MyMathLab^® and MathXL^®, making it easier for instructors to prepare for the course and leads to greater student success, regardless of setting.

• NEW! Ready-to-Go MyMathLab courses are pre-built MyMathLab courses that make the start-up time building your course quick and easy.  These include author-designated assignments, cumulative review tests, and more.
• NEW! Cumulative Review Tests in the Ready to Go course test students on synthesizing and maintaining concepts. Cumulative Review assignments follow each chapter test in the homework and test manager, allowing students to synthesize previous material throughout the course. These assignments consist of 30 problems each.
• NEW! MyNotes and MyClassroomExamples from co-author Callie Daniels provide structure for student note-taking. These note-taking guides are available within MyMathLab or can be packaged with the text and MyMathLab access code.
• NEW! Getting Ready skill review quizzes are assignable throughout the course, testing students on prerequisite knowledge. From these quizzes, each student receives a personalized homework assignment to refresh forgotten concepts.
• NEW! Adaptive Study Plan makes studying more efficient and effective for every student.  Performance and activity are assessed continually in real time. Data and analytics are used to provide personalized content-- reinforcing concepts that target each student's strengths and weaknesses. 
• NEW! Skills for Success Modules support students toward continued success in college. This module provides tutorials and guidance on topics such as online learning, time management and more. Additionally, there is content to help students develop professional skills such as resume development and interview preparation.
• NEW! Graphing Functionality allows students to graph 3 point cubic, 4 point quadratic and transformation graphs within MyMathLab exercises.
• Interactive chapter summaries allow students to quiz themselves with interactive examples on key vocabulary, symbols, and concepts.
• The video program is designed to help students study any time, anywhere.
• Quick Reviews cover key definitions and procedures from each section.
• Example Solutions walk students through the detailed solution process for every example in the textbook.
• NEW! Video Assessment  exercises are available with key Example/Solution videos to check student’s conceptual understanding of important math concepts.
• Additional MathXL coverage of all exercises include Summary Exercises, Relating Concepts Exercises, and Chapter Review assignments.
• Additional MathXL quizzes are assignable as homework. These are based on the text’s mid-chapter quizzes.

Support for learning concepts: a systematic approach is used to present each topic, and is designed to actively engage students in the learning process. As a result, students develop both the conceptual understanding and the analytical skills necessary for success.  The variety of exercise types promotes understanding of the concepts and reduces the opportunity for rote memorization.

• Pointers in the examples provide on-the-spot reminders and warnings about common pitfalls. Examples now offer additional side comments where appropriate in the step-by-step solutions, and there are more section references to previously covered material.
• Now Try exercises conclude every example with a reference to one or more parallel, odd-numbered exercises from the corresponding exercise set. Students are able to immediately apply and reinforce the concepts and skills presented in the examples, while actively engaged in the learning process.

• Functions are introduced in Chapter 2 and are a unifying theme throughout the text.
• Function boxes offer a comprehensive, visual introduction to each class of function and also serve as an excellent resource for student reference and review throughout the course. Each function box includes a table of values alongside traditional and calculator graphs, as well as the domain, range, and other specific information about the function.
• NEW! Animations are available within MyMathLab.
• Graphing calculator coverage is optional and may be omitted without loss of continuity. The authors stress that these devices can be useful as an aid to understanding, but that students must master the underlying mathematical concepts first.
• Graphing calculator solutions are included for selected examples as appropriate.
• Graphing calculator notes and exercises are marked with an icon for easy identification and flexibility.
• Looking Ahead to Calculus offers glimpses of how the algebraic topics currently being studied are used in calculus. These notes can be found in the margins of the text in key places.
• Connections boxes provide connections to the real world or to other mathematical concepts, historical backgrounds, and thought-provoking questions for writing, class discussion, or group work.

Support for review and test preparation: ample opportunities for review are interspersed within chapters and found at the end of chapters.

• NEW! Cumulative Review Tests in the Ready to Go course test students on synthesizing and maintaining concepts. Cumulative Review assignments follow each chapter test in the homework and test manager, allowing students to synthesize previous material throughout the course. These assignments consist of 30 problems each.
• Quizzes appear periodically throughout the chapter for students to check their progress. Answers appear in the student answer section at the back of the text. NEW! These are now assignable in MyMathLab.
• Summary Exercises offer mixed review, requiring students to decide which methods covered in the chapter should apply to a particular problem. NEW! These are now assignable in MyMathLab.
• Chapter Reviews and Test Prep conclude every chapter with the following features:
• An extensive Summary, featuring a section-by-section list of Key Terms and New Symbols
• A Quick Review of important concepts, presented alongside corresponding Examples
• A comprehensive set of Review Exercises
• A Chapter Test covering all skills and concepts from the chapter
• A glossary of key terms from throughout the text is provided at the back of the book as an additional student study aid.

Updates to the MyMathLab^® Course

• Ready-to-Go MyMathLab courses are pre-built MyMathLab courses that make the start-up time building your course quick and easy.  These include author-designated assignments, Cumulative Review Tests, and more.
• Cumulative Review Tests in the Ready to Go course test students on synthesizing and maintaining concepts. Cumulative Review assignments follow each chapter test in the homework and test manager, allowing students to synthesize previous material throughout the course. These assignments consist of 30 problems each.
• MyNotes and MyClassroomExamples from co-author Callie Daniels provide structure for student note-taking. These note-taking guides are available within MyMathLab or can be packaged with the text and MyMathLab access code.
• Getting Ready skill review quizzes are assignable throughout the course, testing students on prerequisite knowledge. From these quizzes, each student receives a personalized homework assignment to refresh forgotten concepts.
• Adaptive Study Plan makes studying more efficient and effective for every student.  Performance and activity are assessed continually in real time. The data and analytics are used to provide personalized content-- reinforcing concepts that target each student's strengths and weaknesses. 
• The video program is designed to help students study any time, anywhere.
• Quick Reviews cover key definitions and procedures from each section.
• Example/Solution videos walk students through the detailed solution process for every example in the textbook.
• Video Assessment exercises are available with key Example/Solution videos to check student’s conceptual understanding of important math concepts.
• Skills for Success Modules support students toward continued success in college. This module provides tutorials and guidance on topics such as transitioning to college, online learning, time management and more. Additionally, there is content to help students develop professional skills such as resume development and interview preparation.
• Graphing Functionality allows students to graph 3 point cubic, 4 point quadratic and transformation graphs within MyMathLab exercises.
• Interactive chapter summaries allow students to quiz themselves with interactive examples on key vocabulary, symbols, and concepts.
• Interactive Animations are now tied to Function Boxes.
• Additional MathXL coverage of all exercises include Summary Exercises, Relating Concepts Exercises, and Chapter Review exercises.
• Additional MathXL quizzes are assignable as homework. These are based on the text’s mid-chapter quizzes.

New and Updated Features 

• Nearly 1,000 of the exercises are new or modified in this edition:
• Quizzes allow students to periodically check their understanding of the material covered. At least one quiz now appears in each chapter, where appropriate.
• Connecting Graphs with Equations problems, by request, provide students with opportunities to write equations for given graphs.
• Concept Check exercises focus on mathematical thinking and conceptual understanding.
• Relating Concepts Exercises help students tie together topics and develop problem-solving skills as they compare and contrast ideas, identify and describe patterns, and extend concepts to new situations. These exercises make great collaborative activities for pairs or small groups of students and are available in selected exercise sets.
• Full solutions to selected exercises are included at the back of the text for exercise numbers that are marked with a green square. There are three to five exercises per section and are chosen because they extend the skills and concepts presented in the examples.
• Summary Exercises are mixed review problems that challenge students to reconcile recent topics learned, synthesize concepts and select appropriate solution methods.
• Standard exercise types include writing exercises, optional graphing calculator exercises, multiple-choice, matching, true/false, and completion problems.

Content Updates

• In Chapter 1, the authors have re-written the introduction to the set of complex numbers and have included a new diagram illustrating the relationships among its subsets. They have also expanded the discussion of solving absolute value equations and inequalities.
• In Chapter 2, the authors have prepared new art for shrinking and stretching graphs, added new exercises on translations, and expanded the exercises involving the difference quotient to include additional greater degree functions.
• Chapter 3 has received a particularly extensive revision. The opening discussion of polynomial functions has been updated by providing a table of examples of polynomial functions (constant, linear, quadratic, cubic, quartic) and have identified the degree and leading coefficient. There is an increased emphasis on including all possibilities for positive, negative, and non-real complex zeros in a table format, with graphical representations used to illustrate them. There is now a new summary exercise set on solving both equations and inequalities (linear, quadratic, polynomial, rational, and miscellaneous).
• Chapter 4 includes more work with translations of exponential and logarithmic functions, and has additional examples and exercises on solving equations involving these functions.
• Chapter 5 includes the determinant theorems within the exposition, and contains new examples and exercises showing how they are used..