Are You Looking for an All-in-One Math Refresher? {A Review}

If you or your older children need to brush up on your Math skills, I recommend that you take a look at Math Refresher for Adults from Math Essentials. 

Math Refresher for Adults is a clear, concise, and helpful resource that takes you grade four math topics all the way through Algebra in a mere 270 pages with helpful lesson videos accessible online if you need them.

As the cover of the book indicates, Math Refresher for Adults is written with a number of people in mind, including those who:

• have a math phobia and want to overcome it.
• want to be able to help children with homework or homeschool work.
• are re-entering the workforce and need to brush up on math skills.
• are preparing for math placement tests for college.
• are applying for jobs that require math competency tests.
• are entering a medical or tech field.

In other words, the book is helpful for any teen or adult that struggles with foundational math or wants a refresher course in order to improve problem-solving skills and data analysis.  

Why Math Refresher for Adults Works

Like many skills, Math skills tend to be ones that you either use or lose.  Thus, many of us get rusty on math skills that we don't use often and, then, find ourselves needing to refresh them in order to complete a work task, help our children, or solve a problem that has come up in life.  Math Refresher for Adults can help with all of that, as it is an easy-to-use tool that covers all the practical math you'll need through Algebra.

Lessons in Math Refresher for Adults start with a review of basic addition of whole numbers through the hundreths place and then move on through subtraction, multiplication, and division, before getting into fractions, decimals, percents, geometry, integers, charts and graphs, and word problems.  Finally, you review Pre-Algebra and Algebra.

Each lesson is printed clearly and concisely on a consumable page that begins with a small box for notes, which you may wish to use for notes as you watch free video lessons accessible online.

Next to the note box are typically 3-6 review exercises, which can help you discover "holes" in your math skills that you might want to flip back in the book to practice and "fill".

Then, there is a Helpful Hints box to jog your memory with tips about how to do the target problems which follow.

After the Helpful Hints are typically two sample problems and 10 exercises that target a specific topic of math.  You can work these out in the consumable book or you can use notebook paper if you prefer or think you may need extra space.  (Do note, however, you may not photocopy the pages.)

There are spaces next to the exercises in which you can record your answers, and answers, in turn, can be checked with the Solutions in the back of the book.

Finally,  at the bottom of each lesson page is a word problem, so you can apply your Problem Solving skills.

The book also contains a Glossary, a list of Important Symbols, Tables for multiplication, commonly used prime numbers, squares and square roots, and fraction/decimal equivalents at the back. 

At the front are tip pages which are helpful and tell you how to access lesson videos taught by Richard W. Fisher, Winner of Intel Innovations in teaching Award and a man who truly seems to love math and want to make it accessible to others in the easiest and most expedient way possible.

Using the Book

When we decided to review Math Refresher for Adults, my husband was wanting to brush up on his math skills. So, we got the book with him in mind. 

Then, he ended up getting a new job and, thus, has been focused on that and has only used the book a bit, liking what he has tackled in it so far.

I have also been using the book just to test my own math skills - doing random pages when I have a few minutes here and there and realizing I have a better understanding of math than I sometimes give myself credit for (because I am more a dramatic arts and English type).  However, I have also recognized I make some careless mistakes - which gives me empathy for my children when they do the same!

I keep the book on our math shelf so that if my oldest, who is the only one of my children doing math beyond a 4th grade level at the moment, needs help with anything I am unable to help him with, I can easily grab Math Refresher for Adults, look up the skill, and refresh my own knowledge of it before helping my son.

Math Refresher for Adults has not failed us yet and I cannot see it doing so.  I recommend the book and accompanying videos present an easy-to-understand,  no frills, no-fluff way to get your math up to speed through Algebra! 

If you want a full refresher in math, you can progress through the book in order in, I'd say, in 15' or more a day.  Or, if you need to brush up on a specific skill, you can use the detailed Table of Contents to find the targeted skill, then, turn to the appropriate lesson page, try it out, watch the video if need to (which is typically under 10 minutes long), and refresh your skills.

The end result is that your math skills will be strengthened whether you just want to get batter at math or whether you need to in order to help your child, take a test, or complete work tasks.

I appreciate the simplicity and effective, direct style of the Math Refresher for Adults and believe it can be an important go-to resource for anyone who needs to strengthen or review math from a fourth grade level through Algebra!

Learn More

Get social with Math Essentials on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/math.essentials/

Read the reviews.

Seventy-five Homeschool Review Crew families tried out 
Math Refresher for Adults, so you can get lots of opinions on the effectiveness of the book.

Another Effective Resource

Our family previously reviewed No-Nonsense Algebra, which is also by Math Essentials and uses the same easy and effective style as this book.  So, if you're looking for an Algebra book, check that out.