Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As far as this book is concerned, there's little I can add in its praise that hasn't already been said. For a very thorough yet accessible intro (or refreshers course) to calculus, this book is unbeatable.

But given that you are even reading this page, and are thus quite likely in the same predicament as I was -- that of finding a book on the subject that is indeed an "idiot's" guide -- I will compare this book with the major other competing title: "Calculus For Dummies."

I spent a couple of days deciding between the two. In general, I trust the "Dummies" line more, having had a good experience with their computer oriented books. However, their calculus offering does not have the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon.com.

So, being my usually onerous self, I went to a physical bookstore to look for the two books. Although the dummies book is ALSO laid out in a similarly coherent fashion, I think this Idiots Guide does a better job of keeping the unnecessary jokes at a minimum, and focusing on the matter succintly yet lucidly. Didn't take that much of a time to decide really after I looked inside the books.

My very subjective but educated opinion? Get this one. Brilliant and to-the-point.

From the title you can guess that I highly recommend this book. "CIG to Calculus" covers all of the topics from the first year of a university calculus course. The vast majority of the topics are explained in plain, clear and concise english, which is the strength of the book. This book is not meant to be a replacement to a textbook, but as a supplement. The shame is that there is a need for books such as these because the "so called experts" cannot clearly communicate the subject matter in lecture or written form.

If you are planning to take calculus for the first time, use this book to help your understanding of your textbook and lecture notes. If this is for self-study, read this book and use a book with a lot of solved problems to cement your understanding.

Again, this, in my opinion, is the best book to date on beginning calculus.

First of all, I and my high school students love the book; we all find it funny yet helpful. It needs to be read while taking a rigorous Calculus course-such as an AP course or a college course. This book is not for those who want to learn Calculus on their own, after not having had math for years. This book is a supplement, not a substitute for a textbook. It gives the topics taught a more global perspective, filling in the nooks and crannies, making the students go "aaah, now I get it", tying together concepts that possibly seem separate from one another. The book succeeds in putting Calculus in layman's terms - it does not claim to be a textbook so don't look for rigor, details or practice examples. It simply gives an accurate overlook of what Calculus is comprised of - but you will only appreciate it if you are concurrently taking a Calculus course!

This is a very pleasant book to read, and in general quite well written. The author knows how to balance fun and seriousness, so it doesn't feel like he's trying hard to be _too_ funny, which is my general gripe which these kind of "for dummies" and "idiot's guide" books.

As someone who finished college more than 10 years ago, and had a lot of trouble with Calculus, I recommend this book.

My problem with this book (and the reason why I have to take 1 or 2 stars out of the 5) is the frequent errors found in the graphs and equations, sometimes it can be quite confusing: for instance, the very first example given after the most important derivative rule is wrong (page 105), which might leave the reader scratching his head and trying to understand the rule time and again until he/she figures out that the problem is in the example.

Similarly, some graphs are misleading, for example the asymptotic curves in the tangent and cotangent graphs (pages 41 and 42) look periodic, not asymptotic...it seems that the person who created them for publishing did not really know what they meant and how they should look like!

Since the author went in great lengths acknowledging the work of the revisor in the preface, I was surprised to find these frequent errors.

Trouble is, all these errors reduce the trust in the book, and leaves me double-guessing, which is quite bad in a subject that is complicated by itself. So everytime I find a "5" where I expected an "8", I have to try to figure out if the problem is with me or the book.

At least they should put errata available in the publisher's website (that would give one star back in my rating), but I couldn't find any.

Still, despite these problems, I am having fun with this book, which is quite a compliment considering the subject it covers. The author is extremely didatic and knows how to conduct the learning process, giving all the right information at the right time and amount.

I have two calculus review books by m. kelley, and this one - while the lesser of the two - is still an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of Calculus. I am currently enrolled in Calculus AB (essentially, Calc I, a bit of Calc II, and Differential Equation slope fields). This book was purchased with the intention of introducing myself to topics before they were covered in class, and to clarify those topics in class which I did not understand. To these two purposes, the book was very good.

Firstly, the title: You're not an idiot if you're studying calculus. Most people have trouble using the quadratic formula, let alone finding the volume of y = x ^ 6 + 3x rotated around the x-axis. Thus, of course, the name is misleading. There are, of course, assumptions made about the reader's mathematical background. Mainly, that there is one: Strong algebraic concepts are important, as is a fundamental understanding of the cartesian plane system and basic function graphs -- both of which, leading up to the study of calc, one should be well-versed in.

Kelley covers (though not in the order of my class) about forty topics in Calculus, ranging from basic derivatives to diff eq slope fields to application of integrals. He writes clearly and concisely, often reiterating what he says in different ways to really drive the theorems and applications home.

Additionally, while straying from the topic order of my class, Kelley links together the units in a logical progression: His explanations are excellent, and really have to be -- Every unit in calculus compounds upon the one before it. Probably the strongest part of this book is that Kelley manages to consistantly re-visit past topics and demonstrate how they relate to newly-introduced topics.

The biggest drawback to this book is the lack of review problems. This can easily be remedied, however, by purchasing an additional book (IE, 3000 solved problems in Calculus) or going online to do research.

This book is not a stand-alone, either: It can't and won't teach one everything about calculus, nor should one expect it to. Rather, it should be used as an introduction - and in conjunction with other resources - to the ideas behind the main concepts of calc. It is an excellent reference for explanations of formulas and applications of formulas.

Overall, an excellent study guide and additional resource to anyone made squeamish by the idea of riemann sums and l'hopitals rule.

Kelley makes good use of a method I wish the calculus textbooks used: He actually explains the subject. Too often, a calculus textbook will offer a few simple examples of a subject--say, related rates or linear approximation-and follow this up by throwing homework problems at the student which are an order of magnitude beyond the examples. Another particularly annoying habit of textbook writers is to assume more in a single line of equations than the average student is capable of following.... and, let's face it, most of us are "average" students.

I read Kelley's book thoroughly the week before starting Differential Calculus I - the first course I've taken in 15 years - and I'm pleased to say his approach has helped me tremendously. Without it, I believe I would have withdrawn from the course in the first week. Highly recommended!

Recently I was at the book store searching for a calculus book such as this one to purchase. The store had many study guides and the like, and after reading a few pages of each book I grabbed, I found Kelley's book to be the most comprehensive.

What made this book special was that every page of information is accompanied by an illustration and/or a side note, and these items help to further make the caluclus concepts and methods more understandable. Other calculus books did not utilize illustrations, graphs, and side notes as this one did. For example, u-substitution for integrals was well explained and I understood it in Kelley's book, whereas in a few other calculus books, I had difficulty understanding.

This book covers all the necessary calculus material for a first-year calculus class: limit and continuity, differentiation, and integration. However, particularly good about this book is that there are chapters on such things as parametric equations, differential equations, and infinite series - things that other calculus books, such as "How to Ace Caluclus: The Streetwise Guide," didn't even mention. This book also contains heavy algebra and trigonometry review in the early chapters, in case you need a reference to brush up.

Even more, Kelley's manner of explaining the calculus concepts and methods are clear and simple, described with liveliness and humor. Each chapter, and the calculus concept it contained, was well delineated.

Perhaps my only criticism is that there are not enough practice problems for the reader. Each section contains one or two "You've Got Problems" boxes, which then only contain one or two problems. Some other books on the subject contained far more pages and examples for your to practice your new knowledge of calculus. A full practice calculus test at the end, containing problems from every chapter, would have made this book perfect.

Still, the comprehensive and clear-cut value of Kelley's lessons make this book very worthwhile for anyone about to take a calculus class for the first time, such as myself - or anyone who is simply curious on the subject and wants to impress their friends with this knowledge.

Due to such comprehensive lessons, and because this book covers material that some other books on the subject do not, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus" is perhaps one of the top study guides on calculus. I strongly recommend it.

It has been over 30 years since I last used Calculus. I learned Calculus in College, thought I was pretty good using Calculus, but never used it in my profession. Now that I am retired and have a son in high school, I thought why not relearn Calculus and see if I can apply these skills in some way. So I bought this book. It is well written and recommend it as a text book for any Calculus course - it takes the pain out of understanding this subject. In fact, there are concepts presented here that I don't think I really understood when I was in College and that is the "why's" and "what can I do with this" type stuff. I've highlighted, marked in, and made a separate notebook of notes from my copy of this book.

The CONS: I found only a few minor math errors in the text, and the description on how to use the Integration U-Substitution should be better explained. But, these should in no way detract from the overall quality of the book.

Again, its a well written, concise book that I highly recommend. I think this book can be used in a high-school or college course on Calculus would make life easier for the student. If you are new to Calculus, another Calc book with further explanation might speed you along. Sometimes, another author can express words in a way that helps you quickly understand. I had to reach for another book to understand U-Substitution.

This book is great at explaining Calculus.

I wish I had discovered this book during my first semester of calculus. Unfortunately I bought it during the last weeks of my second semester calculus class, but if I hadn't gotten it, I wouldn't have been able to ace the class. We were learning some new concepts and I couldn't understand it. Finals were coming up real soon. I needed something to help me through these methods and LO AND BEHOLD!! Idiot's Guide to Calculus! Of course! I'm an idiot when it comes to calculus! This book helped me understand areas that were left oblivious to me while trying to learn in class. The book has some humor to it, making learning calculus KINDA fun!! (I know, WHAT?) So if you're studying calculus I and II, buy this book!! It's worth it if you want a good grade.

I knew this was the book for me when I thumbed through the pages and found, lo-and-behold, TEXT! Yes, instead of page after page of uninterrupted symbols, there appears a large amount of descriptive text. That is the strength of this book. It actually takes time to explain things in plain old english.

All the calculus you'll ever need, unless you're planning on a degree in math or physics, can be found in this book. This is a book for those of us who simply want to understand enough calculus to use it in our limited domain of interest, and don't give a fig about theory, proofs, and derivations.

In my case, this limited domain is electronics engineering. This book has been a godsend. Though most people might think that electronics engineering would require a rigorous background in calculus, this simply isn't true. The calculus involved in most undergraduate ciriculums for electrical engineering is pretty basic and hasn't changed in years. However, most colleges make you sweat through at least two semesters of calculus as if you were preparing for a career in theoretical physics. On top of that they make you buy a text heavy enough to serve as a doorstop with a price (new) that usually starts at [$$$]. This book can be had for less than [$$$].

Mr. Kelley teaches calculus to high school students, and this gives him great insight into the problems encountered by students in trying to understand calculus. It also has given him great insight into the way to explain these otherwise difficult concepts to those of us who ordinarily labor trying to understand math. He has taken advantage of his experience in the writing of this book.

Buy this book, either for self-study, or to supplement that doorstop your college has forced you to buy. You won't be disappointed. As my article title says, this is "Just What the Doctor Ordered."