There’s a specific kind of panic every math student knows: it’s the night before the exam, you understand the concept fine, but you cannot for the life of you remember whether it’s πr² or 2πr for this particular thing. This book exists entirely to solve that one problem, and honestly, that’s about all it’s trying to do.
Ramanand Thakur’s Mathematics Formulae & Definitions is part of Ramesh Publishing House’s pocket-handbook series — and “pocket” isn’t marketing fluff here. It’s genuinely small enough to shove in a bag pocket or between textbook pages, which is exactly the point. This isn’t something you sit down and read cover to cover. It’s something you flick through the night before a test, or keep on your desk during homework, to save yourself the ten minutes of hunting through a full textbook for one formula.
What’s Actually In It
Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, basic statistics — the standard spread you’d expect from a school and competitive-exam formula compilation. No worked examples, no step-by-step problem solving, no explanations of why a formula works. Just the formula, the definition, laid out plainly. If you already know how to use a formula and just need the reminder, this does the job. If you’re trying to learn a concept for the first time from scratch, this is the wrong book — it was never built for that.
Where Real Readers Split on This
I looked at how people who’ve actually bought this rate it, and the split tells you something useful: some call it a genuinely handy companion they’ve kept around for years, useful well past whatever exam they originally bought it for. Others rate it lower and note it’s exactly what it says — a bare formula list, nothing more — which becomes a complaint only if you expected explanations that were never promised in the first place. Read the title literally: it’s formulae and definitions, not formulae with teaching.
The price — around ₹70 — matches what it is. This isn’t a premium reference text, and it doesn’t pretend to be. It’s the kind of book you buy alongside your actual textbook, not instead of it.
Who Actually Gets Value From This
- Students revising for board exams or competitive tests who already know the material and just need fast recall.
- Anyone who wants a lighter alternative to lugging a full NCERT textbook around for last-minute checks.
- Teachers or tutors who want a quick reference on hand during a lesson, rather than flipping through a full book.
If you’re prepping for something more specialized — JEE physics specifically, for instance — our review of GKP Physics Galaxy covers a book built for that exact purpose, with actual worked problems rather than just formulas.
Who Should Skip It
If you’re learning a topic for the first time and need explanations of why a formula exists or how to apply it to a problem, this won’t help you — pair it with an actual textbook or skip it entirely in favor of something with worked examples.
Bottom Line: 4/5
This does one narrow job — fast formula lookup — and does it cleanly, without padding. Don’t expect more than that and you won’t be disappointed. For ₹70, it’s a reasonable thing to keep in your bag during exam season, not a book you’ll remember for its writing.
Buy Mathematics Formulae & Definitions here: GET DEAL — ₹70 (was ₹80)
