Resources



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STANDARDIZED TEST TEXTS

 
In general, it is best to use the books put out by the actual test publishers to find the most realistic examples of questions. See the links on the side for associated websites.

  • The Official SAT Study Guide by The College Board
  • The Official SAT Subject Tests in Mathematics Levels 1&2 Study Guide
  • The Official Guide for GMAT Review
  • The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review 

    • With any test prep guide, even by well-known publishers, be aware that there are very often glaring mistakes - typographical and mathematical!

    MATH RESOURCES FOR THE HOME


    Algebra to Go and Geometry to Go, both by the Great Source Education Group, are great at-home guides to the topics. They contain succinct and well-indexed explanations for most key topics, including warnings about most commonly made mistakes.

    ADHD, LEARNING DISABILITIES, & LEARNING STYLES


    Answers to Distraction, by Edward Hallowell has written quite a few books about ADD, but this one, entirely in question and answer format, is the best.
     
    Hitchhiking Through Asperger Syndrome, by Lise Pyles, is a very down-to-earth account of what her family has found to work. The way she deals with schools systems may be useful to parents of any child with learning disabilities or ADHD as well.

    Learning Outside the Lines: Two Ivy League Students with Learning Disabilities and AHDH Give You the Tools for Academic Success and Educational Revolution, by Jonathan Mooney and David Cole, is about how to get the most out of college when you have learning disabilities. An 8th grader I know really enjoyed it but the humor is targeted for older students.
     
    The Secret Life of a Dyslexic Child, by Robert Frank (who himself is also dyslexic), has suggestions for ways to organize and the need for a "team".

    Understanding Learning Disabilities: How Difficult Can This Be? is a wonderful video about what it feels like to be learning disabled. (The F.A.T. City Workshop. Presented by Richard D. Lavoie.)

    MATH ANXIETY


    Conquering Math Anxiety,     by Cynthia Arem, is the book I most often share with my students with test or math anxiety. Some students want to keep it, some find chapters they like and then return it, and others find it too self-helpy. It has a nice range of suggestions.

    FOR FUN AND INTEREST


    Cogwheels of the Mind: The Story of Venn Diagrams, by A.W.F. Edwards, is an extremely readable book about Venn Diagrams and some of the cool extensions discovered by the author and others.

    Diatoms to DInosaurs: The Size and Scale of Living Things, by Christopher McGowan, is a book about scale in the biological world, showing real uses of mathematical reasoning.
     
    Fantasia Mathematica and The Mathematical MagPi, both edited by Clifton Fadiman, are excellent collections of short stories and poems - many of them classics - about math.

    Flatland, by Edwin A. Abott, has now been “broadened” by the semi-sequals Sphereland (Dionys Burger) and Flatterland (Ian Stewart). All explore imagined worlds with different dimensions.

    The Mathematical Universe, by William Dunham is an alphabetical set of a bit of everything mathematical. A great tour.
     
    The Number Devil, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, is a great book to share with kids interested in math.
     
    Symmetry: A Unifying Concept, by Istvan and Magdolna Hargittai, is a collection of examples of symmetry in math, art, architecture, logos, crafts, science, and even literature.
     

    MATHEMATICIANS AND THEIR FRIENDS
    Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945, by Leo Marks, is the riveting memoir of a British Cartographer during WWII.

    Drawbridge Up,     by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, is a wonderful little book about why we need to make math available to more people.

    In Code, A Mathematical Journey, by Sarah Flannery, is about a teenager who investigates theories of coding.

    Letters to a Young Mathematician, by Ian Stewart, describes what it means to be a mathematician in the academic world.

    The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, by Paul Hoffman is the biography of Paul Erdos, a brilliant but odd mathematician.

    Uncle Tungsten, by Oliver Sacks (neurologist), is an autobiography of Sacks’ early life, when he originally wanted to be a chemist.

    QUANTITATIVE LITERACY AND STATISTICS


    How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff, is a simple, although older, book about common ways to trick people with numbers.
     
    How to Solve It, by George Polya, has a challenging format but is an excellent book on the problem solving process.
     
    Innumeracy, by John Allen Paulos, discusses and explains key math concepts, especially large numbers, probability and statistics, and logic, with a view to their importance for all members of society. It also discusses common misconceptions.
     
    Mathsemantics: Making Numbers Talk Sense, by Edward MacNeal, shows how what we say about math affects how we do and are able to do math.
     
    More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues, by Joel Best, is a continuation of his Damned Lies and Statistics, but I like this one better. 
     
    Teaching for Critical Thinking, by C. Burleigh & Jean Wellington, is a pretty slow read, but a very good book about critical thinking.
     
    The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward R. Tufte, is a classic about ways to make clear, uncluttered, data-complex graphs. Some wonderful examples are included.

    Why Numbers Count, by Lynn Arthur Steen, is a collection of essays - mostly from beyond academia - about what quantitative literacy is.