The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus
by W. Michael Kelley

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Book Reviews of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus

Book Review: Very comprehensive and thourough.
Summary: 5 Stars

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.

Summary of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus

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