I recently began tutoring high school students in math and needed to sharpen my own skills quickly in core subjects like algebra, geometry, trig, and pre-calc. I checked out several books from my local library including this one. For the topic of algebra, I found this book exceptionally "to the point" and easy to understand with clear examples. I'm not sure why some other algebra guides feel the need to pad the books with so much rhetoric. Algebra is a language best expressed with definition and example. I decided to acquire a copy of this book for my own use at home as a handy reference guide - very happy to find it on ebay so nicely priced.