Textbook

Our primary goal in adapting University Success from the US-based, University of Minnesota Libraries Publication, College Success textbook is to help you succeed in university.

University Success has a student-friendly format arranged to help you develop the essential skills and provide the information you need to succeed in university. This is not a textbook full of theory and extensive detail that merely discusses student success; rather, this is a how-to manual for your first year of study. The book provides realistic, practical guidance ranging from study skills to personal health, from test taking to managing time and money. Furthermore, University Success is accessible—information is presented concisely and as simply as possible.

University Success has the following features to help you achieve your goals: Each chapter asks you to evaluate yourself because success starts with recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes and desires, and your own personal, individual realities. You’ll develop your own goals based on these self-assessments, determining what success in college really means for you as an individual. Throughout the book, you will find numerous interactive activities created to help you improve your skills. To assist you with this, the material is presented in easily digestible “chunks” of information so you can begin applying it immediately in your own life—and get the most out of your university education.

This book, Writing for Success 2023, has been adapted by Jamie Campbell Martin in spring of 2023 from 2015's Writing for Success

This OpenStax book was imported into Pressbooks on October 3, 2019, to make it easier for instructors to edit, build upon, and remix the content. Intermediate Algebra is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of a one-semester intermediate algebra course. The book’s organization makes it easy to adapt to a variety of course syllabi. The text expands on the fundamental concepts of algebra while addressing the needs of students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles. The material is presented as a sequence of clear steps, building on concepts presented in prealgebra and elementary algebra courses.

Intermediate Algebra is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of a one-semester Intermediate algebra course. The book’s organization makes it easy to adapt to a variety of course syllabi. The text expands on the fundamental concepts of algebra while addressing the needs of students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles. Each topic builds upon previously developed material to demonstrate the cohesiveness and structure of mathematics.

Intermediate Algebra 2e is designed to meet the scope and sequence requirements of a one-semester intermediate algebra course. The book’s organization makes it easy to adapt to a variety of course syllabi. The text expands on the fundamental concepts of algebra while addressing the needs of students with diverse backgrounds and learning styles. The material is presented as a sequence of clear steps, building on concepts presented in prealgebra and elementary algebra courses.

The second edition contains detailed updates and accuracy revisions to address comments and suggestions from users. Dozens of faculty experts worked through the text, exercises and problems, graphics, and solutions to identify areas needing improvement. Though the authors made significant changes and enhancements, exercise and problem numbers remain nearly the same in order to ensure a smooth transition for faculty.

Intermediate Algebra is a textbook for students who have some acquaintance with the basic notions of variables and equations, negative numbers, and graphs, although we provide a "Toolkit" to help the reader refresh any skills that may have gotten a little rusty. In this book we journey farther into the subject, to explore a greater variety of topics including graphs and modeling, curve-fitting, variation, exponentials and logarithms, and the conic sections. We use technology to handle data and give some instructions for using a graphing calculator, but these can easily be adapted to any other graphing utility.

All of the mathematics required beyond basic calculus is developed “from scratch.” Moreover, the book generally alternates between “theory” and “applications”: one or two chapters on a particular set of purely mathematical concepts are followed by one or two chapters on algorithms and applications; the mathematics provides the theoretical underpinnings for the applications, while the applications both motivate and illustrate the mathematics. Of course, this dichotomy between theory and applications is not perfectly maintained: the chapters that focus mainly on applications include the development of some of the mathematics that is specific to a particular application, and very occasionally, some of the chapters that focus mainly on mathematics include a discussion of related algorithmic ideas as well.
The mathematical material covered includes the basics of number theory (including unique factorization, congruences, the distribution of primes, and quadratic reciprocity) and of abstract algebra (including groups, rings, fields, and vector spaces). It also includes an introduction to discrete probability theory—this material is needed to properly treat the topics of probabilistic algorithms and cryptographic applications. The treatment of all these topics is more or less standard, except that the text only deals with commutative structures (i.e., abelian groups and commutative rings with unity) — this is all that is really needed for the purposes of this text, and the theory of these structures is much simpler and more transparent than that of more general, non-commutative structures.
• There are a few sections that are marked with a “(∗),” indicating that the material covered in that section is a bit technical, and is not needed else- where.
• There are many examples in the text, which form an integral part of the book, and should not be skipped.
• There are a number of exercises in the text that serve to reinforce, as well as to develop important applications and generalizations of, the material presented in the text.
• Some exercises are underlined. These develop important (but usually simple) facts, and should be viewed as an integral part of the book. It is highly recommended that the reader work these exercises, or at the very least, read and understand their statements.
• In solving exercises, the reader is free to use any previously stated results in the text, including those in previous exercises. However, except where otherwise noted, any result in a section marked with a “(∗),” or in §5.5, need not and should not be used outside the section in which it appears.
• There is a very brief “Preliminaries” chapter, which fixes a bit of notation and recalls a few standard facts. This should be skimmed over by the reader.
• There is an appendix that contains a few useful facts; where such a fact is used in the text, there is a reference such as “see §An,” which refers to the item labeled “An” in the appendix.

Algebra and Trigonometry 2e provides a comprehensive exploration of mathematical principles and meets scope and sequence requirements for a typical introductory algebra and trigonometry course. The modular approach and the richness of content ensure that the book addresses the needs of a variety of courses. Algebra and Trigonometry 2e offers a wealth of examples with detailed, conceptual explanations, building a strong foundation in the material before asking students to apply what they’ve learned.

The Algebra and Trigonometry 2e revision focused on improving relevance and representation as well as mathematical clarity and accuracy. Introductory narratives, examples, and problems were reviewed and revised using a diversity, equity, and inclusion framework. Many contexts, scenarios, and images have been changed to become even more relevant to students’ lives and interests. To maintain our commitment to accuracy and precision, examples, exercises, and solutions were reviewed by multiple faculty experts. All improvement suggestions and errata updates from the first edition were considered and unified across the different formats of the text. The first edition of Algebra and Trigonometry by OpenStax is available in web view here.

This textbook concerns the wonderful world of macroeconomics, or economics on a very large scale, concerning national and international systems. It serves as an introduction to macroeconomics, and is primarily aimed at students in their final few years of secondary education, though it could also be used by interested students younger or older than that. See Intermediate Macroeconomic Theory for learning more advanced macroeconomics.;
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Knowledge of microeconomics would be useful and preferred, but grasping overall concepts does not require an in depth previous knowledge. See Principles of Economics for a brief introduction to both microeconomics and macroeconomics and Principles of Microeconomics for learning introductory microeconomics.;
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It is worth remembering that this textbook can be edited at any time, with the link at the top of this page. This is both good and bad - you yourself, having spotted a mistake or having noticed a poor definition, can correct it and should feel free to do so. The bad side is that anyone can edit it, so content may be inaccurate while the wikibook is in its infancy!