FOIL. How could I forget. I just recently finished what you are trying to do. I needed to take QBA, but I hadn't done real algebra in around 15 years. the problem I see with most of the posts, is that you said you struggled, yet they are directing you to university texts. And like the math teacher says, they do things for different reasons at the high school level. So it depends on what you need. Another thing is that if you have been out of school for a while, the curriculum at the K-12 is nothing like you remember. Intro to algebra is done at the 5th and 6th level sometimes. If you know any middle/high school kids, ask them to for copies of some of their worksheets. The math tutor is also a good idea, because they will be able to customize to your needs.

But here's what I really did: I went to a book store and picked up the kind of thin workbooks you pick up for kids. They have the grade levels right on them. I actually started with grades 4, 5 and 6. Yes, you should breeze through these. I did have to practice on some areas with grades 9-12. There are dozens to choose from so pick the ones that look like they are leaning toward what you need.

The focus I think is making sure the foundation is solid before going on. There are so many 'teach yourself math' books it is crazy. One little one I really like was called 'No Fear Algebra'. It's just a tiny thing with straightforward exercises. I wish they had them for other areas. There are a couple of typos in it though that drove me crazy! Good luck! I think I will brush up at least once a year now, so that never happens again.

I'm talking about the complexity of the *rules*. That is also what Sid was talking about. Go has simple rules. Chess has more complicated rules. Civ has even more complicated rules.

By the way, I know a civ-like that's a very good AI that doesn't need to cheat at all to compete with a human (except in the most difficult levels). That's Galactic Civilizations, www.galciv.com. The trick is that the AI thinks while you're playing, so it gets lots of CPU time.