Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell by George Finlay Simmons is one I go back to from time to time to make sure I have mastery of basic math. Someone gave it to me in high school.
It’s a tiny book but powerful. It helped me a prepare for college. There’s something very inspiring about understanding geometry, trig, and algebra well enough that you can flip through a few pages, follow along, and basically cover the whole of those subjects as taught in high schools.
I later used it to study for the GMAT and GRE and got a 99 percentile math score both times. I’m reasonably intelligent but not a math whiz. The book definitely helped. It is brief but densely-packed with everything you really need to know.
Hmm I'm looking for an algebra/trig book, curious, that looks more like a book for memorizing stuff than for understanding things? 128 pages seem to little for those three subjects.
There are better explanations out there, but don't judge it on page count alone. It's a compact, to the point, and no-fluff exposition. That's definitely a quality by itself. I've used it with success to teach a young man who for reasons could not attend high school.
EDIT: Exercise problems are good and with answers to all, and full solutions to some.
It’s a tiny book but powerful. It helped me a prepare for college. There’s something very inspiring about understanding geometry, trig, and algebra well enough that you can flip through a few pages, follow along, and basically cover the whole of those subjects as taught in high schools.
I later used it to study for the GMAT and GRE and got a 99 percentile math score both times. I’m reasonably intelligent but not a math whiz. The book definitely helped. It is brief but densely-packed with everything you really need to know.