The Calculus Lifesaver: All the Tools You Need to Excel at Calculus (Princeton Lifesaver Study Guides)

This is a fabulous resource. I recommend it highly to other calculus teachers. Reading this book made me a better calculus teacher. I appreciate it very much—and it’s pretty funny at times!

I am currently in a beginning college calculus class. It is the last class I need to graduate with my associates degree in science and tranfer to finish my education. I have always been a BC student in math classes. Conceptualizing mathematics even on a basic level takes a long time. SO...when I finally made it to this last math class ever (I hope), I was really worried I would not graduate when I started to fail the class.Since I bought this book, my class has been SO MUCH EASIER! Not only do I understand what specifically we are being taught, but also what they do, why they do it, and what are actual real world applications of calculus. The Calculus Lifesaver is 100% easier to understand than the rediculously technical writing presented in my textbook and by my professor. This book allows me to better understand the technical language,too!I bought The Calculus Lifesaver along with The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus, 2nd Edition by W. Michael Kelley off Amazon. I seriously felt like i must be an idiot after weeks of attending class, studying with classmates, attempting to do the homework, and going to the math tutoring center 4x a week.Together, these books have been the single most effective thing I have tried. I start with The Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus, 2nd Edition by W. Michael Kelley to tell me what exactly each topic (like Limits or Derivatives) is, what they do and how they relate to one another in VERY BASIC ENGLISH. it has a few problems worked out step-by-step and explains what is happening while the problems are being solved. There are also a few practice problems. This book lays out the basic concepts. Then I move to the Lifesaver.The Calculus Lifesaver is a bit more technical than the Idiot's Gude, but after reading a chapter in the Idiot's Guide, I had no problem going through the coinciding chapter in the Calculus Lifesaver. The problems in the Calculus Lifesaver are of varying difficulty and are similar to the type and difficulty of the problems I am expected to be able to solve and evaulate in my class.If you are like me and just cannot think of anymore things to do to pass your calculus class, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you buy both theThe Complete Idiot's Guide to Calculus, 2nd Edition by W. Michael Kelley as well asThe Calculus Lifesaver: All the Tools You Need to Excel at Calculus... by Adrian Banneryou will not be disappointed.

Last fall my son enrolled in Calculus 1 as a college freshman. I thought that, having taken calculus 40 years ago, it might be an interesting time for me to try a refresher -- so we agreed to put our heads together now and then. Since the textbook (Stewart) was none too friendly, we soon started assembling background materials to help us along. We bought several books, including this one; "How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide" by Adams, Thompson and Hass; and "The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems" by Kelley. In addition, we picked up a copy of "The Calculus 1 & 2 Tutor" DVD by Jason Gibson, and checked out several of the many tutorials on YouTube.Now that the semester is over, I would say that Banner's book was the most thorough yet friendly treatment of calculus. If you are motivated to learn calculus really well, and have the time to put into it, his book does a vastly better job than most textbooks in explaining the material in an accessible way. At more than 700 pages, however, it is not a quick read. If you're looking for quick help here and there on tougher topics, "How to Ace Calculus" or the YouTube videos provide a faster fix.A number of other reviews here mention that the book does not provide much in the way of practice problems, and recommend "The Humongous Book" for that. To be honest we felt we were exposed to plenty of problems in my son's course textbook, the various videos, etc., and did not end up consulting "Humongous" extensively during the semester. But this may be an area in which everyone's mileage may vary.Also, although we like Banner's book quite a lot, we found the technical quality of his online videos made them hard to watch. They were basically produced by setting up a camera in a classroom, and both the video and audio quality were problematic.Even so, as mentioned Banner's book is the most comprehensive treatment of calculus we found at a reasonably accessible level -- and if you are committed to mastering the subject, I'd recommend it highly. I wish I had something like it when I went through calculus for the first time four decades ago (in a pre-calculator era, slide rules and printed log tables in hand ...)

This book is pretty good. It is chucked full of hundreds of pages of our lovely dear friend Calculus. I didn't end up using it much. Not sure if it is because the book wasn't all that helpful...or perhaps I just didn't need the extra help :pI am still glad I bought it and would recommend it to those who need material outside of what their professor gives, or outside of what they can understand from their textbook.What I didn't like was how big the book is because it is hard to take places. It is really, really, really fat. It doesn't fit well in a bookbag, purse, etc. nor is it simple to carry in hand. That is the biggest drawback for me and why I took a star off. Single subject course supplemental material should make sense for the average student in terms of size, portability, etc. The author of the book literally put all of calculus into one single book...so...If you are in Calc I, then you are carrying around information for Calc II and Calc III. When you're already annoyed at the book's bulkiness, carrying around all that extra material is annoying and not necessary.I know these are just my opinions though, and I encourage you to still get the book if you are struggling, because in the end the material/info inside the book is what truly matters. A chunky fat book that is annoying to carrying around is worth it overall to get that A.

The best mathematics textbook I have ever read. EVERYTHING in the book is explained super clearly. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to master calculus with joy.

This is truly a great book about single variable calculus. I'm currently studying my M. Sc. on Astriphysics and I have never known such an amazing book on calculus like this one. It does no to gonna help you to proof Riemann's hypothesis, but it would definitively help to close every gap about calculus you could have!

One of te best books of calculus I've seen. After it, the next one should be "Calculus" writen by Kline. With both, a strong fundamental foundation will have been built

It's really a life saver in calculus. I am reading calculus after 20 years completing my Degree. The author has gone step by step, brushing up basics of functions, trignometry, intro to limits and then how to differentiate, etc. Really good book, worth buying.

This book is great. I find it really helpful in understanding Calculus topics.