Reddit reviews Schaum's 3,000 Solved Problems in Calculus (Schaum's Outlines)

There are resources such as large problem books (for instance: https://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Solved-Problems-Calculus-Outlines/dp/0071635343) where you can practice through different topics and figure out areas of weakness. Ultimately, it comes down to practice a lot for these foundational skills.

If what you are looking for is a more theoretical understanding, have a look into an introductory real analysis textbook. Hopefully this helps.

Schaum's 3000 Solved Calculus Problems saved my butt so many times throughout Calc 1-3 and now Differential Equations. You can find a PDF online if you're savvy enough.

Can't go wrong with Schaum's

http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-000-Solved-Problems-Calculus/dp/0071635343/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335431258&sr=8-3

I need either this or this. I'm taking Calculus II this semester for the second time. I'm aiming to be a math major, but I had difficulty last time. I'm already off to a better start this semester, but I want as much practice as possible. I'm aiming for a Masters in Math. I'm lucky that I have high grades and the F from last semester only dropped me down to a 3.2 GPA. I can't afford to have it drop any lower. I can't afford to spend any more time at this level. I have a Calculus workbook that my mom bought me, but it only covers Calc I and about two chapters of Calc II.

Actually.. Anything from my School Stuff WL is stuff I feel I need in order to do well at school. I really need to get organized with my school work and papers.. ._.

I'm going to go with a slightly different approach than starting from the very beginning.

How much do you know about calculus? If you know the basics of limits and derivatives, I would suggest to start learning at calculus. Go along with what you're being taught in class.

You can use Khanacademy/PatrickJMT to help you understand the concepts being taught in class. At the same time, as you're going through each concept, look up every term you're not familiar with. Don't take anything for granted. For instance, if you come across inverse functions in the explanation of something else, can you explain what inverse functions are? What's the difference between inverse and reciprocal? Or for the unit circle, do you know how the values came about? Question your understanding on every one of those concepts, and Google every single one of them. As you're going through the concept, make sure you commit it to memory. Try to build on your understanding. Even if you forget a little bit, the next time you come across the same concept, you'll have solidified your understanding a little more. The important thing is to be conscious of what you've just learned.

With this approach, it's going to take much more time and effort than your peers to get through some concepts, because you're using the opportunities in between to touch on previous concepts as well. So you really have to budget your time properly, but it'll be worth it in the end. If you don't have too much time, don't spend too much time rolling off the tangent looking up every single concept, just look up the thing that comes up and commit that to your memory.

Because you're going through a course, you don't have the luxury of being able to re-learn every single thing since grade one. The approach of learning as it comes up is much better suited for this situation imo. It's scary thinking there's a lot of things you don't know, but you can tackle those concepts as they come along. Don't panic.

Then at every available opportunity (winter break for example), practise what you've learned and drill yourself on the concepts.

I had a very similar problem of feeling like there are holes in my understanding and this was the approach I took. I'm in the middle of Calc 2 right now. As we're heading into winter break, I'm going to be reviewing everything that was taught this semester in Calc 2 and to review integration to prep for the second half of the course. I'll also be drilling myself with Shaum's 3000 problems book.

There are some good suggestions in this thread on Math Overflow as well.

Good luck!

I'm planning to do an engineering degree in a couple of years, and I'm sort of in the same boat. I decided to pick up a few text books to give me a head start. I'm going to pick up "Calculus made easy" to give me a bit of a primer before I take the course. It might be best if you do the same. A lot of the time I hear of people having trouble with things like this, it is because they don't understand what they are doing. They know how to jump through the hoop and get the right answer, but they don't know how or why they got it, know what I mean? Try and pick this book up (or something similar) and read it over the summer. If you can start your class with an understanding (even a very basic one) of calculus you should have a much easier time.

Also, Squid_Basher suggested lots of practice. "Schaum's 3,000 Solved Problems in Calculus" was suggested to me as well, so I might pick it up too. If you are still struggling with things like advanced algebra, something similar can probably found for that too.

If you don't want to spend a lot of cash (many of the books I plan on buying are reasonably priced, but they add up fast), something like khan academy is a very useful resource. I've found iTunesU useful in the past as well.

I hope all this helps in some way.

Edit: Forgot that not everyone lives in Canada. I'll try to find the U.S links for those.

Calculus made easy

Schaum's 3,000 Solved Problems in Calculus

https://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Solved-Problems-Calculus-Outlines/dp/0071635343/ref=pd_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=T66PCEAR6QPN9FAXE452

Is your objective to build a comprehensive understanding of the underlying topics of Calculus or is your objective to master quick problem solving, tricks, etc? If it is the latter I would suggest you pick this up as an auxiliary resource; Stuart is good but mastery of the mechanics of solving the problems will come only through ardent practice. You will need to see, and solve, a wider set of examples than is typically found in Stewart.

If your objective is the former I would grab this instead. Probably look for it on a used book seller's site like abebooks.com, though.