Rating: 
Summary: Examples, Examlples, Examples
Review: A great book if you want examples of practical applications of differential equations. All that is required of the reader is copying techniques and applying them to new problems. Nevermind that nothing is explained, just copy, copy, copy. Don't buy this book if you like to understand why and how something works, you won't get any explanations that are worth much in this book. Absolutely no theory behind the methods used is presented. All you get in this book is example after example, with very little worthwhile discussion.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: A truly good book for studying differential equations, enough material to keep the course interesting, and enough rigor to keep the course comprehensive. Many Many Problems and very good applications, esspecially when it comes to introducing PDE's and fourier analysis.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Introduction to ODEs
Review: An update of a classic, this book will provide the motivated student with a solid background in ODEs, and an adequate introduction to PDEs. The pedagogical style is balanced, providing a reasonable degree of rigour without drowning the student in irrelevant proofs. Moreover the mathematical background needed to benefit from the book is moderate, making the text accessable to most engineering and physics students.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty bad
Review: As a student who is used to learning math material primarily by reading the book, I have found this textbook far below average. Each chapter begins with a brief explanation that consists mostly of formal proofs. I don't mind having formal proofs if there is also intuitive explanations, which this book lacks. For the most part, the authors of the book don't seem too eager to actually have the student understand the material. The examples are a little more helpful but usually the authors skip steps or don't even solve the problem the whole way threw almost as if the they want the reader to try to figure EVERYTHING out on his or her own. This, in my opinion, is not the best way to teach this math. I suppose if you have if you were to learn most of the math from a proffesor, this text would be a good suppliment--problems are usefull and solutions are many. Just don't try to learn straight from the text. In more than one case the authors would give formulas or definitions without even defining all variables.
Rating:
Summary: Too complicated and illogical
Review: As I was reading the negative reviews of this text, I found that my feeling were almost exactly the same as many others. The text makes the simplest concepts, which, when understood, are so simple, seem like impossible tasks. The notation is cumbersome and confusing, and while one may justify this in defense of formality, there is no excuse to sections which seem to tell nothing new. The problems in this text, while numerous, are horrendous in that they definitely require the use of computer programs such as Mathematica. The authors should realize that in order to learn new concepts (which, when viewed after the course, are actually so elementary), the problems must demostrate emphasis on the concept, and not the use of a table of integrals, and most frustrating impossible integrals. The examples in the text, while sometimes useful, seem to be the difficulty of what the problems should actually be. Actually, while those who praise the text point out that crtics of the problems are weak in Calculus or other mathematics, the fact is the text does not have difficult problems, but rather most tedious, ridiculous problems. Many hours of frustration await even the most avid mathematician in trying to get the answers to match with answers in the back of the book. Writing out pages to solve an integral using integration by parts five times hardly teaches the student a new concept; rather it intensifies their hate for mathematics to a degree where they think mathematics is actually a painful science.
Rating: 
Summary: Even better than when I used it in 1967
Review: At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute it was an esteemed text. I still use it although the later additions embrace the changes within the academic and professional environment.
For brighter students this is the right text.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Introductory Book in D.E
Review: Boyce and DiPirma's Book is an excellent book for an introductory course in D.E, the path that the authors follow in the explanation of the subject is superior leaving no unanswered questions in the readers mind, the problem sets are very well chosen with the level of difficulty raising as the reader goes on in answering them eventually ending at mentally challenging problems which will not serve except to widen the thoughts of the reader and to increase his knowledge of D.E. Computer graphs are also used in the explanation which serves also as a great tool in explaining the topic. A great peice of work by the authors and an excellent text book for a D.E course.
Rating:
Summary: Will the eighth edition get it right? Probably not...
Review: Given what this book lacks, it leaves me with a clear sense of rage. The examples don't inspire enthusiasm; nor provide deep understanding or a sense of appreciation for the power and beauty of differential equations (DE). Examples are formal, artificial, dull, boring and algorithmic; no clarifying detail; no helpful hints; or what to watch out for (i.e., results obtained by computers); no sense of fun, unless you're a Nazi; few Internet links; and little regard to the related geometry of the equations and their solutions (i.e., slope fields, graphs of solutions, vector fields, solution curves in the phase plane, etc.). There is no sense of history on DEs. It doesn't provide an intuitive feel of how to apply DEs, and I sensed the authors were stressing techniques (cookbook fashion) more than concept - that is deadly in the real world where they are going to give you some problem whose mathematical component may be difficult to identify and ask you to do your best with it. A DE book rated five stars (which this ain't) must address all the above issues, and many more, if it is to honestly champion the needs of the student and professional alike.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: I consider this an excellent book. I'm a college student in my second year. I used this book on my last semester and I had no problem using it. The book has many problem exercises and has solution that clearly solves the problem. That's why this is a great book for students to learn.
Rating: 
Summary: It was hard to milk the PARTIAL D.E.s from this book.
Review: I felt that this book was generous regarding elementary differential equations, but the boundary value part was a disappointment. It made learning partial differential equations an ordeal. This book also lacks the convienient display of important formulae usually found on the inside covers of most college-level texts.
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