Precalculus, by Stitz and Zeager, is an open source text offering a "functions first" approach to Precalculus and is freely available online. The authors developed the Exercises for this text at a level appropriate for Precalculus students with a goal of broad conceptual understanding and skills needed for success in Calculus. Many questions are multi-part to demonstrate individual mathematical concepts needed to solve the problems. As a result, the problems in the Exercises appear fewer in number than competitors, but upon examination, the problems are well developed for mastery.

Available Questions in WebAssign are from the end of section Exercises. Many of these items contain multiple parts and are uniquely presented in WebAssign as Capstone questions. These multi-part exercises are offered as single Capstone items or assignable as individual items. This unique feature allows instructors the flexibility to adapt their assignments to best help their students learn.

A series of videos, some created by Carl Stitz and some by the Brightstorm organization, can be accessed via the Watching link for additional instruction within some of the questions.

Click here for a list of all of the questions coded in WebAssign.

Question 1 is an application question that requires the student to write a linear function that models the situation. The second part of the question then requires the student to apply critical thinking and application skills to solve the question.

Question 2 is a calculus-related "revenue-cost-profit" application of the quadratic function that is solved using algebraic skills presented in the text.

Question 3 applies the distance formula in a unique way to encourage students to use their critical thinking skills with respect to a point and a line in the Cartesian Coordinate System.

Question 4 requires the student to apply the concept of average rate of change to a given function.

Question 5 is a multi-part Capstone problem featuring an absolute value function. This section of Chapter 2 first teaches graphing equations using transformation techniques. Then, graphing is further enhanced by presenting definitions and theorems for finding the zeros, x- and y-intercepts, domain and range, intervals of increasing, decreasing or constant, and for identifying any relative and absolute extrema.

Questions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 are the respective sub-parts of Question 5 offering instructor options for assigning specific concepts as needed for their students' mastery.

Question 12 is a multi-part Capstone problem featuring a quadratic function. There is a similar question in Chapter 1 that teaches graphing equations in two variables in the Cartesian Coordinate Plane by identifying any intercepts, testing for symmetry, and plotting points. The text masterfully bridges the quadratic general form and the quadratic standard form to enhance students' understanding of the benefits of each form. Note that the authors intentionally use the same quadratics in both Chapter 1 Exercises and Chapter 2 Exercises to further enrich students' learning experiences.

Question 13 is an end-of-section question, referred to as Check Your Mastery, that require the student to demonstrate mastery of the subject by encompassing multiple skills and techniques presented in the section. Additionally, the Author, Carl Stitz, authored explanatory videos for each Check Your Mastery question, which can be accessed via the Watching link. This demo assignment allows many submissions and allows you to try another version of the same question for practice wherever the problem has randomized values.

The videos will ask you to create a login to the free resource, Brightstorm, part way through the video. The Brightstorm videos have been specifically chosen to support the concepts being presented in each linked question.