Not happy with Sicher German textbooks

I am relieved that the latest German class ended as I was running out of steam with it. We used a book that is, in my opinion, very poorly organized and difficult to follow; I was also very displeased with the same company's B2 book, both of which are in the Sicher! series. One learns the grammar that's spread out in tiny, nonsensical bits and bobs throughout the chapter then it's repeated all over the place in the back of the book in no particular order. At the end of the chapter, there's a short description of the grammar but it wasn't that clear.

It's the kind of grammar learning where the grammar is presented in use and the learner is just supposed to "get it"on one's own, to an extent. Yes, I realize that we were using the upper intermediate and advanced books and have higher skills at this point, but still...with some of these nebulous constructions, one needs much more.

I was so frustrated with the book and didn't feel that I learned the material well that I bought Erkundungen, the C1 book from the previous series we'd used before we were stuck with Sicher. With those books from Schubert Verlag, I felt that I learned the content well; chapters are laid out in a manner that makes sense and there are clear reviews at the end of the chapter that explain the grammar clearly. The book has a good flow and it's easy to thumb through it and find the particular thing one learned. Plus it includes an answer key, which Sicher doesn't. I don't like putting all the work into exercises without being able to check immediately if I completed them correctly in order to avoid burning the wrong answer into my brain.

I am either going to go over the Erkundungen chapters myself or see if I can find a teacher on my own before the Uni offers the next level of class in the fall. It's my goal to take/pass the C1 exam sometime next year or so and I doubt that'll happen if we keep using the Sicher books. It seems really difficult to retain any information from those books, and I'm certainly not the only student in the class who felt that way. It's ironic that we felt insecure after using Sicher.

The bane of my German-learning experience

Have you used the Sicher books? What is your opinion of them?

Preparing for the telc B2 Deutsch als Fremdsprache test: describing a book

I've been preparing for about two months to take the telc test for the B2 level of German as a Foreign Language. While that sounds like a long time to study, keep in mind that it involved much procrastinating, gnashing of teeth, and metaphorically lying on my side in vocabulary defeat. The actual time spent studying is thereby diminished.

This is a little ditty that I wrote. On the telc test, one must describe something. I prepared a book description in case that came up. My friends kindly edited it for me because I still make errors and it drives me up the wall. Any remaining errors are my own.

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Ich werde das Buch “The Math Myth” von Andrew Hacker beschreiben. In diesem Buch geht es um das Thema Mathematik im Amerikanischen Bildungssytem. Der Autor meint, dass nicht alle Schueler und Studenten in Amerika fortgeschrittene Mathematik brauchen.

Er fragt sich z. B., warum zukuenftige Englisch Lehrer Trigonometrie lernen sollen. Sie wuerden sie nicht unterrichten. Es faellt vielen Amerikanische Studenten schwer, die obligatorischen Mathematikkurse an der Uni zu bestehen. Deshalb fallen viele von ihnen im ersten Jahr an der Uni durch.

Statt unnoetige Mathematik zu lernen, schlaegt Herr Hacker vor, dass Studenten passende Mathematik lernen. Manchmal ist solche Mathematik nur Arithmetik und Logik. 

Meiner Meinung nach ist diese Idee perfekt. Ich hasse Mathematik und es ist mir schwer gefallen, gute Noten in diesen Kursen zu bekommen. Ausser in diesen Kursen bin ich eine gute Studentin.
Als [insert name of my profession here] benutze ich wenig Mathematik. Haette ich Buchfuehrung gelernt, haette das genuegt.

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If you can understand German and/or just stuck this in Google Translate and want to read my...rant (?) about math:

When I describe this book, most of the people to whom I describe it become incensed and argue with me about its validity. Part of the reason for that stems from my lack of ability/desire to debate and effectively present this material to people who are touchy about the subject because they love math. The other part is that I'm mostly surrounded with scientists, engineers, computer scientists, linguists who are heavily involved with computers, etc. This pitiful English major won't find a common outlook in this group because math is their lifeblood. For me, it's painful and useless Kryptonite.

I very much agree with the author of this book and I think that the US's practice of forcing advanced mathematics on most, if not all, students is keeping those who have interests/abilities/and future studies that have nothing to do with math from reaching their full potential. Oh, and please don't just say that all it takes is the right teacher. I had an amazing teacher in high school for the two of three years of math that I took. I very much liked her and appreciated the effort she put into teaching and the enthusiasm that she showed. Despite that, I only received middling grades (in my other classes, I earned As) and instantly forgot everything after the test. My brain is not a math brain and frankly, there is no good reason for it to be as such anyway. I've had a good life and decent career without math.

Don't even give me the line that learning math teaches one how to think critically, either. I am good at problem solving and I am absolutely horrible with/absolutely hate/and find no use in my own life for math. I learned problem solving through other means, many of which include much introspection. For problem solving that deals with other people (whether they help solve the problem or they unfortunately contribute to it), I've turned to my studies in Sociology, Psychology, and Management. Figuring out how a bunch of numbers fits together doesn't prepare a person to work through an issue with a living, breathing person, for example. For many problems, using a style of reasoning gained from math study is just too cold and calculating.