Customer Reviews

Calculus: Early Transcendentals 5th Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I attend UNLV and when I took Calc I, II and III a few years ago, this is the book we used. Its coverage for 1st semester calc up to the beginning of integrals is decent. However, they needlessly complicate some of the more advanced integration techniques for 2nd semester calc. I found it difficult material to get through without falling asleep, and I love math.

Its biggest weakness is in vector calculus. The coverage is sparse and lacking at times, and overly detailed in others. For instance, surface and volume integration were very important to me as an engineering student, but there just weren't enough examples and no "weird" geometries at all. Then, their coverage of planes, which for me is not all that important, was tremendously detailed.

You probably don't have much of a choice if you're using this book for a course, but if you're planning on taking courses like electromagnetics, I'd recommend supplementing the vector calc portion with an E&M book.

I am using the book for my multivariable calculus class. Five examples -- vaguely related to the exercises -- are not enough to learn the material. This book is good as a reference, once you have already learned the material. However, attempting to independently learn topics is very difficult. While the solutions to the examples are thorough, they do not explain the reasoning in choosing a particular approach. It leaves the reader thinking... "I know how to do the example, but I surely don't know how to approach this exercise." More thorough explanations of technique rather than pure examples would be very helpful.

I have taken two semesters of calculus using this book, and am most disappointed and frustrated. It may be a good volume if you are coming into the class fresh from AP Calculus in high school (I was not), but if you have taken algebra and pre-calculus in college, and then proceed to this, as I did, the learning curve is very steep.

The exposition in Stewart's volume is of irregular quality. Sometimes clear, it is, at others, obtuse, and in some sections utterly fails to illuminate the topic.

The exercise sets seem well-designed for someone majoring in math, and whose experience includes high school algebra. For those students, this will be more review than new learning. In each set of exercises, the problems seem to be trying to force new epiphanies, with each new problem. For my part, a less steep curve would work far better, and I have found it necessary to acquire an alternate volume as a backup. My instructor has also observed that the exercises are overly complex, and that they rarely contain any problems suited for inclusion on an exam.

The software included is rather poor in quality, and will fail to work at all unless you accept the default installation path.

Finally, the binding is not up to the task of holding together a 1,200+ page book, and mine is falling apart, despite my having always carried it in a padded bag. At the price, that is unforgiveable.

As you will almost certainly be buying this for a college class, you have no choice -- the school will have selected for you. But be advised, you may need a second book to explain this one. Also note, the solutions guide often fails to enlighten, as too often they leave out steps that are the focus of the topic in the section to which the exercises relate. Further, the solutions guide covers only the first 11 chapters, so you will need to consider the multi-variable solutions guide as well, and that brings the solutions guide cost to over half the price of the book.

All in all, this is not a bargain, and not even a very good value.

I used this textbook for a three term, year-long Calculus sequence at the University of Oregon, and I must say, it's a terrific text.

Many examples are given in each section about the new concepts explored. Plenty of challenging exercises allows the student to get an ample amount of practice.

The layout and design of the book is nearly flawless. Important formulas are outlined in red, main ideas are in bold, and graphs and pictorial figures are well colored. Don't overlook this as superfluous! Layout and Design can really help the student remember the concepts and digest the information easier.

Finally, the text includes worked out problems lead by visual and auditory explanations on CD. While this is not entirely necessary, it is a nice bonus.

Overall, I highly recommend Stewart's Calculus series of texts, and hope my school continues to use his Multivariable version in my "Several Variable Calculus" class in the fall.

I had this Calculus book for my CalculusI & CalculusII courses. The class lectures were great in explaining the basic concepts (for people with no previous knowledge of calculus). But Stewart's Calculus had just the opposite effect. In fact, when it came time to reading the textbook and doing the assigned homework exercises at the back of each chapter, the book compicated life more than it did explain anything. Often, I had to reread whole paragraphs and chapters 3-4 times to try to understand what Stewart was trying to tell before doing the problems. This textbook did not do its job properly (especially for the price it is sold). Although it does present all the theories, it does not explain them clearly. The author uses a kind of abstract language, obviously not suited for very busy science students struggling to pass a course. The language is not straightforward and way too specialised. It seems that the author tries to impress people by using such sophisticated language. Also, our teacher suggested us to buy the previous edition because the difference between the previous and the current editions are small. Mainly the problems are switched places.Instead of being #1 the same prob is #16! And contrary to some reviews mentioning that this textbook is the best on the market, at the end of semester I actually found a Calculus book at college's library that actually explained the topics well (by Ron Larson, Robert P. Hostetler,and Bruce H. Edwards). Do not hesitate to find something better,you'll save time, money, and sleep.

This book is excellent.It is immediately obvious that the author understands his subject well AND can communicate his understanding clearly.It takes a traditionally feared subject and makes it clear and easy to understand.


I strongly recommend this book. I am currently using it to teach my grade 11 son calculus. He finds it far clearer and easier to understand than his school calculus textbook.

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This review is strictly for the 5th Edition of Calculus: Early Transcendentals (with Tools for Enriching Calculus Video CD-ROM, iLrn Homework, and vMentor)
by James Stewart.

I own a copy of this book and really enjoyed it. I felt that I should write a review for those who might be interested in purchasing a copy.
People learn in different ways. There is no one size fits all when it comes to teaching. I found this book to be excellent. I like the numerous exercises provided, the applicability of various examples where calculus can be used for solutions and analysis of data. The CD Rom gave a wealth of additional information, to help further ones imagination and understanding. It's a great companion to the book. I gave these books 5 full stars, because I found it to be excellent for students doing self-study, or those taking classroom instruction. Either way, it is an excellent book.

ALP

Overall, this is one of the rather average math books that are out there today. This is well organized into different sections that are easy to follow along and seamlessly flow towards the more complicated and advanced theories of calculus. What I liked the best about this book is the abundance of practice exercises and the well derived proofs that give us a chance to understand how certain equations and theorems originated. This book is very comprehensive and an economical investment because it can be used for all four semesters in a calculus course. However, for all its content, this book is also very complex and sometimes hard to follow around if your instructors decide to skip several chapters. Although the explanations and examples are well done, every section seems to introduce three or four different methods to solve the same equation, which is needlessly confusing. The sections in each chapter, particularly at the end of the book can also get muddled together. For example, the sections in the beginning of the book are easy to follow, introduces one or two subjects and then moves to the next section. Towards the end, an individual section might introduce half a dozen concepts and theorems along with their proofs (which are often superfluous). The sections can also branch off into subjects that were learned in the previous part of the book or go into detail or go into things that are brought out only at the end. If you plan on using the practice problems in this book, I would recommend you also get the student solution manual, it is the only way to do the more challenging word problems in the exercises.

I've long since moved on to more advanced calculus since first cracking this book open, and I'll admit at first I didn't like it very much. But after using it for a couple of years, I have to say that it's the single most useful textbook I own. When you're first learning the concepts, it can be tough, but I blame that on calculus, not Stewart. As a refresher for different techniques, this book is a dream come true; examples are diverse and to the point, and the book covers many different techniques. For learning calc this book is good, and for someone who is already familiar it's wonderful.

This book is very well written and illustrated, and is definitely one of the best textbooks I've ever had. Presents material in a clear way that's easy to follow, and provides lots of examples. The format is well laid-out, which makes it easy to use for test prep, or for quickly looking something up. There are lots of practice questions of varying difficulty, and many application problems to show the real-world usefulness of math. The solution manual that comes with the book is very thorough and provides excellent descriptions of the solutions. This is one of the few textbooks that I didn't sell after completing the course.