About this website

Dr. Robert J. Rapalje, Semi-Retired

Seminole State College of Florida

Sanford, FL  32773

Before my retirement in June, 2007, I was a professor of mathematics at Seminole Community College (Seminole State) for 36 years and before that at Lake-Sumter Community College in Leesburg, FL for 2.5 years.  In fact, I myself am a community college graduate, the first alumni from Lake-Sumter to return to the teaching faculty in 1968.  I love teaching math, especially helping students discover that math is not nearly as "bad" or as "hard" as they once thought it was.  Good teaching and learning in this discipline, as in any discipline, are hard work, but students were extremely supportive of my efforts.  It has been a most gratifying career!

During my years at Seminole State since completing my doctorate in 1987, I wrote and taught from several books:

Basic Algebra: One Step at a Time

Intermediate Algebra: One Step at a Time

College Algebra: One Step at a Time

Achieving Success in Math

According to my students, these algebra books are easier to understand than traditional algebra books.  The explanations, examples, and exercises are integrated in a user-friendly workbook format that permits students to learn the concepts "one step at a time."  Answers to all exercises are provided.  The text Achieving Success in Math is a study skills book in frequently asked questions format with my best suggestions for getting the most out of your study time.

During the last two years before my retirement, as I was teaching my own Basic, Intermediate, and College Algebra classes from these  "One Step" books, I asked my students to send me Email when they had questions on the homework.  Then I posted the solutions to their questions in color on pages called Math in Living C O L O R .  In this way, the hardest problems in the algebra books, the most "Frequently Asked Questions" from these books, became living color examples for all three levels of algebra that remain on this website for your easy access at this link. 

Currently, all of Basic Algebra: One Step at a Time is posted for your convenience on this website.  All of Chapter 1 and some other very important topics (such as Factoring!) from Intermediate Algebra: One Step at a Time are posted.  From College Algebra: One Step at a Time, the chapter on Logarithms is now available on this website.  Additional chapters and topics will be posted as needs are presented to me.

My textbooks, especially the pages posted on this website, are excellent resources for faculty and students across the country and around the world, no matter what curriculum or textbooks they may be using.  My explanations were written to students, not to mathematicians and publishers of textbooks.  With these materials, some time, and hard work, many students who did not "get math" the first time it was presented to them have enjoyed great success.  Perhaps this website will be helpful to you as well. 

     If you need detailed explanations, examples, and exercises to work on, then please see my One Step pages.

     If you need to see some examples solved in living color, then please see my Math in Living C O L O R  pages.

     If you want to see videos of me teaching a few important topics (mostly around 1993-1995!), then see my Videos -- in Living C O L O R page.

     If you need some practice exams for math at ANY level, with detailed solutions sheets, then please see Practice Tests.

     If you need help with a particular topic in Basic or Intermediate Algebra, click here.  For College Algebra, click here.

     If you have a problem with math anxiety, click here.  For test taking skills, click here.

     If you have a geometry problem, click here.

     If you want to see math in everyday life, then please see Math in N A T U R E !

     If you are just plain tired of math, then please see my joke page!

If you find this website helpful, or if you need some help with a math problem, send me an Email (Email address is at the bottom of each page of this website!) telling me where you are from and how you found the website.  Now that I am retired, I should have time to answer a few questions!!

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