How to Ace Calculus

by Colin Conrad Adams, Abigail Thompson, Joel Hass, et al.

Book Overview

Written by three gifted--and funny--teachers, How to Ace Calculus provides humorous and readable explanations of the key topics of calculus without the technical details and fine print that would be... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0716731606
• ISBN13: 9780716731603
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

THANK YOU!

I am heading back to school to finish up a Mathematics degree. Been away from school for a while, and even though I've completed Calc I, II and III (over 8 years ago), Calc is the prereq for my remaining advanced math courses. What to do?!?Found this little gem three weeks ago, ordered it, and finished it tonight (an hour or two each night, and still living my life)! Given the textbook racket that seems to have become more costly than courses - not to mention filled with sometimes _too_ much information - I'm happy to say that this book is cleverly written, to the point, yet thorough with the principles and explanations of the general principles of Calculus.I recommend this book to anyone who is:a) about to take a beginning Calulus courseb) in need of an excellent refresher on the topicc) would like to learn Calculus for fun, in a fun way!Thanks goes out to the previous reviewers, and to the authors for taking the time to care about the student by setting the egos aside (next week it's on to How to Ace: the Rest of Calculus)!

How is this possible?

Unless you're a mathematician, it is probably a rare thing when you find a math book that you would enjoy reading in your free time. It is utterly inconceivable that you would find a CALCULUS book that you wouldn't mind for some light night reading. Believe it or not, inconceivable does not imply impossible, and here is the proof in hard copy. I HATE calculus and I found this book both easy to understand and actually amusing! It was an excellent refresher for my 2nd (and surprisingly successful) attempt to pass calculus II. I really wish I'd had this thing earlier, when I was slaving away through first-quarter calculus. For anyone who is taking calculus or wants to review, I give this book my highest recommendation. Now, if only these folks would write a full-length textbook!

Really helped to take the pressure off.

I am horrible at math. I used this book in my Calculus I class last semester (Fall 2000) and part of Calculus II and it really helped me out. With this book and a lot of determination I was able to get an 'A' in Cal I and, depending on how my final exam turns out, it looks like I might get an 'A' in Cal II. I am completely convinced I would not have done as well with just my text book alone. I was impressed that all though the book was 1/5 the size of my Calculus text, everytime I stumbled in class I was able to flip right to the section I was having problems with and it explained almost everything in a clear and relevent manner. Some of the humor in the book is a bit of stretch and there were a few topics on which I wish the book contained a bit more information. Particularly the chapter "Fancy Pants Techniques of Integration." I really could have used a little more help on Trigonometric Substitutions, Misc Substitutions, and Partial Fractions. Other than that, this book is easily one of the best educational supplements I've ever purchased. I have "How to Ace the Rest of Calculus" on order now. I hope it gets to me before the end of the semester.

Scared of math? This book is for you

My dad bought me this book the summer before my senior year in high school (this year) - I looked at it and thought, "yeah, right." I'm a humanities person, I got a C in my last term of Pre-calculus, and I didn't think some book was going to help. However, once my AP Calc class started, I thought "hey, might as well give it a try." That was the best idea I've had in a long time. Mr. Adams and friends explain the concepts so clearly that I have to wonder what the authors of standard calculus texts were thinking when they wrote their books. Not only do I have an A- in the class, I have a much better understanding of what we're actually learning than the students who used to do better than me by just following all the formulas. In short, I am acing calculus, and (this is very hard for me to admit) enjoying it as well. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who panics at the thought of calculus.

A threat to Calculus as it is currently taught

I am a math professor at a large state university. Like math departments everywhere, we depend on calculus students for our very existence. Students who fail Calculus, or repeat customers as we like to call them, are of course the most highly appreciated of all.An otherwise good student, given the right combination of obscure lectures and unreadable texts, may pay for the same Calculus course 2, 3 or even 4 times. The Streetwise Guide is too thin and too cheap. Moreover, the writing style gives ordinary students what they need to master Calculus the first time they take it. In other words, this book is a threat to mathematics departments everywhere.