College Algebra is an introductory text for a college algebra survey course. The material is presented at a level intended to prepare students for Calculus while also giving them relevant mathematical skills that can be used in other classes. The authors describe their approach as "Functions First," believing introducing functions first will help students understand new concepts more completely. Each section includes homework exercises, and the answers to most computational questions are included in the text (discussion questions are open-ended).

There are key differences between the way teaching and learning takes place in high schools and universities. Our goal is much more than just getting you to reproduce what was done in the classroom. Here are some key points to keep in mind:
• The pace of this course will be faster than a high school class in precalculus. Above that, we aim for greater command of the material, especially the ability to extend what we have learned to new situations.
• This course aims to help you build the stamina required to solve challenging and lengthy multi-step problems.
• As a rule of thumb, this course should on average take 15 hours of effort per week. That means that in addition to the 5 classroom hours per week, you would spend 10 hours extra on the class. This is only an average and my experience has shown that 12–15 hours of study per week (outside class) is a more typical estimate. In other words, for many students, this course is the equivalent of a halftime job!
• Because the course material is developed in a highly cumulative manner, we recommend that your study time be spread out evenly over the week, rather than in huge isolated blocks. An analogy with athletics is useful: If you are preparing to run a marathon, you must train daily; if you want to improve your time, you must continually push your comfort zone.

This is a focused collection of notes for a course in precalculus math taught at San Jacinto College (Houston, Texas). In less than 260 pages, the course offers a compact delivery of the core concepts that students ought to understand prior to taking calculus. In addition to learning algebraic and computational skills, the course is designed for learning how to think mathematically. The chapters on mathematical language and problem-solving highlight this latter objective.