Schaum's Outlines are a series of supplementary texts for American high school, AP

Advanced Placement Program

The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...

, and college-level courses. The full name of each outline is Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of the outline's subject, but this is almost always shortened to Schaum's Outlines. The outlines cover a wide variety of academic subjects. The series originally featured titles in mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and the physical sciences, but has branched out into computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, grammar

Grammar

In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

, and other fields.

Background

The series was originally developed in the 1950s by Daniel Schaum, son of eastern European immigrants, and has continued as an aid to students to this day. Titles are continually revised to reflect current educational standards in their fields, including updates with new information, additional samples, the use of calculators and computers, etc. New titles are introduced in emerging fields (e.g. abstract algebra

Abstract algebra

Abstract algebra is the subject area of mathematics that studies algebraic structures, such as groups, rings, fields, modules, vector spaces, and algebras...

, genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

).

Despite being marketed as a supplement, several Schaum's Outlines have become widely used as primary textbooks (the Discrete Math and Statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

titles are examples) for courses. This is particularly true in settings where an important factor in the selection of a text is the price, such as in community colleges

Community college

A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...

.

Schaum's Outlines are a staple in the educational sections of retail bookstores, where books on topics such as chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

 and calculus

Calculus

Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...

 may be found. Many titles on advanced topics are also available, such as complex variables

Complex variables

In mathematics, the term complex variables may be taken to mean one of* Complex analysis* Several complex variables* Quaternion variable* Motor variable* Multicomplex numbers* Hypercomplex numbers* Tricomplex numbers...

 and topology

Topology

Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...

, but these are typically not found in retail stores.

Schaum's Outlines are noted for their high quality and low price. The titles feature noted authors in their respective fields, such as Murray R. Spiegel and Seymour Lipschutz. Originally, the series was designed for college-level students as a supplement to a course textbook. As a supplement, each title typically has introductory explanations of topics, plus many fully worked examples, and further exercises for the student.

Easy outlines

Condensed versions of the full Schaum's Outlines called "Easy Outlines" have appeared in recent years, aimed at high-school students and AP courses. These feature the same material in their full-size counterparts, but edited for length and suitability. They also cost about half the price of the full outline. The smaller size of the Easy Outlines makes them more portable.

Differential with other supplements

Schaum's Outlines are part of the educational supplements niche. They are frequently seen alongside the Barron's "Easy Way" series and McGraw-Hil's own "Demystified" series. The "Demystified" series is introductory in nature, for middle and high school students, favoring more in-depth coverage of introductory material at the expense of fewer topics. The "Easy Way" series is a middle ground: more rigorous and detailed than the "Demystified" books, but not as rigorous and terse as the Schaum's series. Schaum's originally occupied the niche of college supplements, and the titles tend to be more advanced and rigorous. With the expansion of AP classes in high schools, Schaum's Outlines are positioned as AP supplements. The outline format makes explanations more terse than any other supplement. Schaum's has a much wider range of titles than any other series, even for some graduate level courses, but these are typically not found at retail outlets.

External links

• Official website