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| Customer Review: |
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1: Spark Notes for Calculus with exercises
This is the book used for Math 115 and 116 (calculus I, II regular) here at the University of Michigan. And having used it, I would say it is only good as a spark notes version of the real thing. It is a book for engineers. No proofs and very little explanation of where the theorems came from. Thus, if you are an engineer and wants to use calculus mainly as a tool, then this might be the book for you. It certainly explains the concepts and its applications in the most succinct form.
However, if you plan to take upper level theoretical math classes later, DO NOT LEARN FROM THIS BOOK. You will only realize that you learned nothing later on. If you really want a thorough, rigorous training in calculus, buy the book by Apostol instead. That's the one used by the students at Caltech and MIT. Otherwise, you can always stick with Stewart.
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2: Only useful if you've had Calculus before
I bought this book for my Calculus I class this semester - and I hate it! The author doesn't break concepts apart; the assumption inherent in that is the reader has had Calculus before. Also, there's a lot of verbiage in place of examples, which makes it confusing to read.
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3: How I Learned Calculus
This calculus textbook provides challenging sample problems and clear proofs for calculus students. It highlights the main points well, surrounding each must-know point with an extremely helpful blue box (actually you could probably learn calculus by just reading the blue boxes). Exercises range from easy to very challenging and from random to practical. While most of the problems can be done by hand, a graphing calculator is necessary to get the most out of this book. For those taking AP Calculus, this book covers both AB and BC.
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4: Great Book
I've taught out of this book for several years. Students learn to understand the concepts through some very useful and interesting problems. Extremely well-written.
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5: These other ratings are too low
I should start out by saying that I haven't seen this newest edition, but if it's similar to the older ones which also got unfair reviews, I can safely say that this book deserves at least a 3. It is certainly not a one star book, and I suspect that those reviewers are just taking their frustrations out on the easiest target (because as we all know, doing poorly in calculus is NEVER the student's fault).
I don't think this is the book to use if you're a math major, but other than that it's good. I taught myself calculus with an older edition when I was in 11th grade and I felt that I had an intuitive understanding of the subject even if I couldn't do a proof. I think that intuitive understanding should be the goal of a calculus book that isn't necessarily designed for math majors (this book seems more suited for biology majors or something similar).
Probably my biggest complaint is that the book, like so many others, isn't clear about what is an acceptable proof and what is just a convincing(hopefully) argument. Students may believe that such arguments are valid proofs, and I think the authors should make it clear what the case may be. This is the main reason I wouldn't recommend the book to math majors, but just about anyone else should gain a good understanding of calculus from this book.
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