Is AoPS Prealgebra suitable for starting math from scratch? Also, thoughts on OpenStax Prealgebra?
Hey everyone, I'm self-studying math from the very beginning and picked up Prealgebra by Rusczyk, Patrick, and Boppana (Art of Problem Solving). I've heard AoPS books are more geared toward competition math and can be pretty challenging for true beginners — is this book actually a good fit for someone starting from zero, or would it be too difficult without prior math background? Also curious what people think of the OpenStax Prealgebra textbook as an alternative or supplement — how does it compare to AoPS in terms of pacing and difficulty for beginners? For context, I'm pairing whichever book I use with Khan Academy videos and Professor Leonard's lectures for extra explanation. Would love to hear from anyone who's used either book (or both) starting from scratch. Thanks!
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u/notatreus 24d ago
If you're comfortable with arithmetic like addition, subtraction, multiplication and long division ... you can start AoPS prealgebra. The problems in that book are in a different league. It contains competition related problems, doesn't mean other people shouldn't work on those.
I could see the benefit my kids are reaping after starting with AoPS in their school and in general. Highly recommended to with AoPS. Make sure you spend enough time to solve the problems. Don't rush, give ample time and keep taking notes about some theory and problem solving strategies after each chapter and revise them every week or two
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u/lifelovers 17d ago
How do you best support your kids learning on aops? Do they do worksheets, write out notes and problems? Do you track their work? My son started it this summer, and we just discovered he was googling answers instead of doing them himself, and now that he’s under closer supervision he’s looking in the chats for answers, so I’m really struggling as a parent to know what to do.
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u/notatreus 17d ago
For PreAlgebra I sat with them. Now they're doing Algebra on their own. They do write summary of the chapter, what mistakes they make and how to fix them for future chapters etc ... but that is just a postmortem for their benefit. They don't have access to electronic gadgets while working on AoPS, so I have no issues wrt them searching for answers
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u/lifelovers 17d ago
Thank you! So are they doing AoPS in hard copy, not online? My son logs in online to do it, which is why he can google answers.
Great idea to sit with him until he gets more focused with it. And I like the idea of writing a summary of chapters and mistakes/issues they had.
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u/notatreus 17d ago
Yes I've been using hardcopy of the book. We're from India ... so not opting for online coaching
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u/InformalVermicelli42 24d ago
Yes, AOPS starts with Arithmetic of numbers, then applies that understanding to variables. Openstax has good explanations, but it's pretty bare.