High school mathematics learning recommendations

This page lists recommendations for learning high school mathematics.

Subject-specific recommendations

See detailed recommendations for each subject:

• Algebra learning recommendations
• Precalculus learning recommendations (pending)
• Single-variable calculus learning recommendations

General recommendations

Textbooks

We recommend

• Introduction to Algebra
• Introduction to Geometry
• Intermediate Algebra
• Precalculus
• Calculus

from the series of textbooks produced by Art of Problem Solving. The series has been reviewed very favorably, for example, on Quora. The books in the series teach elements of mathematical thinking and problem solving, as opposed to rote drill.

Online resources

See our online mathematics learning resources for a comprehensive list of resources, most of them including content specific to high school mathematics.

If you're looking for more

Contest mathematics

See our contest mathematics learning recommendations. For more on the benefits of learning contest mathematics, see contest mathematics learning benefits.

Sneak peek of higher mathematics

If you're a high school student interested in math for its own sake, you should consider learning some higher math while in high school.

Some books that we recommend for learning higher math that you can learn from without knowing calculus are:

• Groups and Symmetry: A Guide to Discovering Mathematics and Knots and Surfaces: A Guide to Discovering Mathematics by David Farmer and Theodore Stanford.
• The Knot Book by Colin Adams.
• The Shape of Space by Jeffrey Weeks.
• Yearning for the Impossible: The Surprising Truths of Mathematics by John Stillwell.
• Elementary Number Theory by Jones and Jones.
• Galois' Theory Of Algebraic Equations by Jean-Pierre Tignol.

We also recommend the following books, that assume calculus as a prerequsite:

• A Primer of Analytic Number Theory: From Pythagoras to Riemann by Jeffrey Stopple.
• Excursions in Calculus: An Interplay of the Continuous and the Discrete by Robert Young.

Proper study of undergraduate-level mathematics

See these recommendations pages:

• Lower division undergraduate mathematics learning recommendations: Specifically, multivariable calculus learning recommendations and linear algebra learning recommendations.
• Upper division undergraduate mathematics learning recommendations: Specifically, undergraduate analysis learning recommendations, abstract algebra learning recommendations, and topology learning recommendations.

General mathematical enrichment

See:

• Mathematics reading recommendations: This lists books about mathematics that are meant for wide audiences and can be read without paper and pencil. Most of them do not require knowledge of mathematics beyond high school.
• Books about mathematical history provides a more detailed list of books specifically about the history of mathematics.