Perhaps too fast-moving for beginners but an astute, well-paced review for anyone looking to conquer the logistical and...
Thatte’s first study guide provides not just a systematic approach to solving math problems on the Graduate Record Examinations and Graduate Management Admission Test, but also the strategies to help readers do so as quickly and easily as possible.
Thatte’s greatest accomplishment here may be breaking down word problems—often a bane for math test takers—and clearly explaining the intuitive, comprehension-heavy process that goes into solving them. But before he teaches readers how to translate words into mathematical equations and vice versa, Thatte lays a solid groundwork of mathematical concepts. Starting from scratch and working his way up to geometry, he provides a fast, thorough review of the types of math found on the GRE and GMAT. His experience in prepping students for competitive exams shines through with spare, to-the-point explanations and collected tips and tricks for streamlining calculations, spotting trends, and tackling problems to reach the answers efficiently and accurately. He even breezes painlessly through an explanation of absolute value equations, a topic that often flummoxes algebra learners. Thatte creates a handful of practice problems to help reinforce each new concept and problem-solving strategy. “The more you practice, the faster you will get. On the GRE/GMAT speed is as important as accuracy,” he writes, warning that test takers have two minutes or less to solve each problem. The number of practice problems and space given for computations might be a bit skimpy, particularly for readers new to the mathematical concepts, but for a streamlined, skill- and strategy-intensive review, it’s still workable. The inconsistently formatted fractions can look a bit odd, but that’s only briefly distracting and barely reduces the quality and ease of Thatte’s teaching style.
Perhaps too fast-moving for beginners but an astute, well-paced review for anyone looking to conquer the logistical and mathematical challenges of the GRE and GMAT.Pub Date: June 24, 2010
ISBN: 978-1453633984
Page Count: 326
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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