self-study calculus I

Test Preparation
1

<p>For those of you who have studied calculus I on their own, what book(s) did you find most helpful?</p>

2

<p>bump bump bump</p>

3

<p>I used the book by Gilbert Strang (MIT Professor). It was really good. I also used the Barron's AP Calculus AB/BC book to test myself even though I never took the exam (I had college credit already). I would highly recommend Strang's book, but have also heard that the one by James Stewart is excellent.</p>

<p>Whatever you do, don't get Hughes-Hallet.</p>

4

<p>I heard that Hughes-Hallet was an excellent textbook...not knowing anything else about it, why not?</p>

5

<p>Thanks a lot. I looked up the one by Strang on Amazon. Maybe I'll give it a go.</p>

6

<p>Ahh, well I was supposed to use it for my course, but didn't. When I first bought it, I realized that it presented topics in a very informal way. It is shorter than most Calc. textbooks, thus has to be very breif. In my opinion, the first part was alright, but the second part, with taylor and fourier series and differential equations, was crammed in and not explained enough. I found everything I was missing in the Strang book (which btw has a very good intro. to multivariable calc.).</p>

<p>I would recommend the following websites to supplement your studies as well:</p>

<p><a href="http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://archives.math.utk.edu/visual.calculus/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.mathnerds.com/mathnerds/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mathnerds.com/mathnerds/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I hope CC doesn't block these, but if they do send me a PM and I will help you out.</p>

7

<p>much appreciated Alessandro</p>

8

<p>I second the Strang recommendation. Its also available online for free. Check out OCW.</p>

9

<p>For a more theoretical approach, try the book by Michael Spivak.</p>

10

<p>indeed, michael spivak's calculus is a classic. Also check out Differential and Integral Calculus by Richard Courant, or Apostol's (2 volumes) calculus. These 3 books (Spivak,Courant,Apostol) are regarded as the best in the field.</p>

11

<p>Is Kaplan's AB/BC Calculus good? I have that book and I'm still deciding between taking AP AB or BC this year.</p>