Customer Rating: 
Summary: Too Simple
Comment: This book spends the first 8 chapters reviewing basic algebra and geometry. Then it starts with limits, which is a good chapter. After that, the book is out of control. The derivative part makes it more confusing than a textbook and it has minimal examples. It also did not cover many important calculus concepts. Dont buy the Calculus Workbook because those problems are too easy. The only helpful thing was the yellow review card in the front. I would absolutly not recommend this for a college student. It only helps you through 2/3 of the first semester. Just stick with your ol'textbook.
Customer Rating:
Summary: it doesn't work
Comment: for me there has to be a "calculus for pre-dummies", because "calculus for dummies" is not adequate. i had all the basic math courses in high school and college but could not grasp the concepts as presented in these books. for one thing, symbols are not adequately explicated, and if you don't understand symbols in the various types of math, you are hopelessly lost - or at least i am. the one redeeming feature is the humor injected into the explanations.
Customer Rating:
Summary: calc for dummies
Comment: it helped me alot to understand what is going on or why im doing something for calc. when you understand you can you dont get as confused so you can learn more efficiently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book for High Schoolers - College Maybe
Comment: Currently enrolled in college Calculus (not liberal arts version) and though this book reads very well and is very informative, it's not nearly as indepth or complex as the content I have in my textbook and am encountering in class.
Would highly recommend the book for high school, as a primer/review, but keep in mind it's not going to provide the direct keys to mastering college mathematics department level Calculus.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Calculus for Dummies by mark ryan. having fun learning calculus
Comment: I am sure that you will be able to tell from reading this that I do not write book reviews for a living. Nevertheless, I am going to give this one a try. My reason for buying Calculus for Dummies is that I went through high school and college without ever taking a calculus course. In graduate school, I decided that I needed to understand this thing called Calculus. I found myself in a classroom filled with freshmen undergrads memorizing the definition of a "limit". This definition apparently needed to memorized verbatim. I tended to fail quizzes by not putting a comma in the correct place. I dropped the course. I wanted to know what Calculus does and how it does it, and I was stymied by definitions before I ever knew what Calculus is about.
I have now read and thoroughly enjoyed Mark Ryan's book, Calculus for Dummies. He does exactly what I wanted. Quoting from the page facing Chapter 1, "In this part... I answer the oft-asked questions, "What is calculus?," "What is it good for?," and "How does it work?" I was hooked. This book approaches the subject the way that my brain was ready to receive it. I went through the entire book, and, as I did, I kept coming across examples in my own experience which I knew were analyzed with calculus.
I bought another copy of the book for my teenage neice who will be taking calculus in her sophomore year of college this fall. I hope she finds the time to read at least the first chapter. For me this first chapter de-mystified this branch of mathematics and allowed me to study it through practical applications and totally in the abstract. Had I had this book when taking the course that I mentioned above. I might have memorized the definition for the purpose of passing the test, because with Mark Ryan's book, I would already have known where we were going with that definition.
Summary: Too Simple
Comment: This book spends the first 8 chapters reviewing basic algebra and geometry. Then it starts with limits, which is a good chapter. After that, the book is out of control. The derivative part makes it more confusing than a textbook and it has minimal examples. It also did not cover many important calculus concepts. Dont buy the Calculus Workbook because those problems are too easy. The only helpful thing was the yellow review card in the front. I would absolutly not recommend this for a college student. It only helps you through 2/3 of the first semester. Just stick with your ol'textbook.
Customer Rating:
Summary: it doesn't work
Comment: for me there has to be a "calculus for pre-dummies", because "calculus for dummies" is not adequate. i had all the basic math courses in high school and college but could not grasp the concepts as presented in these books. for one thing, symbols are not adequately explicated, and if you don't understand symbols in the various types of math, you are hopelessly lost - or at least i am. the one redeeming feature is the humor injected into the explanations.
Customer Rating:
Summary: calc for dummies
Comment: it helped me alot to understand what is going on or why im doing something for calc. when you understand you can you dont get as confused so you can learn more efficiently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book for High Schoolers - College Maybe
Comment: Currently enrolled in college Calculus (not liberal arts version) and though this book reads very well and is very informative, it's not nearly as indepth or complex as the content I have in my textbook and am encountering in class.
Would highly recommend the book for high school, as a primer/review, but keep in mind it's not going to provide the direct keys to mastering college mathematics department level Calculus.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Calculus for Dummies by mark ryan. having fun learning calculus
Comment: I am sure that you will be able to tell from reading this that I do not write book reviews for a living. Nevertheless, I am going to give this one a try. My reason for buying Calculus for Dummies is that I went through high school and college without ever taking a calculus course. In graduate school, I decided that I needed to understand this thing called Calculus. I found myself in a classroom filled with freshmen undergrads memorizing the definition of a "limit". This definition apparently needed to memorized verbatim. I tended to fail quizzes by not putting a comma in the correct place. I dropped the course. I wanted to know what Calculus does and how it does it, and I was stymied by definitions before I ever knew what Calculus is about.
I have now read and thoroughly enjoyed Mark Ryan's book, Calculus for Dummies. He does exactly what I wanted. Quoting from the page facing Chapter 1, "In this part... I answer the oft-asked questions, "What is calculus?," "What is it good for?," and "How does it work?" I was hooked. This book approaches the subject the way that my brain was ready to receive it. I went through the entire book, and, as I did, I kept coming across examples in my own experience which I knew were analyzed with calculus.
I bought another copy of the book for my teenage neice who will be taking calculus in her sophomore year of college this fall. I hope she finds the time to read at least the first chapter. For me this first chapter de-mystified this branch of mathematics and allowed me to study it through practical applications and totally in the abstract. Had I had this book when taking the course that I mentioned above. I might have memorized the definition for the purpose of passing the test, because with Mark Ryan's book, I would already have known where we were going with that definition.