Arco Everything You Need to Score High on Ap Mathematics: Calculus Ab, Calculus Bc (Arco Master the AP Calculus AB & BC Test)

Rating:
Summary: How To Score Negative Numbers On An AP Exam
Review: Do not buy this book! I bought this book in hopes of doing well on the AP test. However, when I started actually reading the book, I found out that the book was a complete waste of my money. The book is hard to understand, the explanations are not helpful, and the content of the book does not even focus on the topic outline for the AP Calculus exams. For example, the last section for Calculus BC focuses on differential equations that are not variable-separable -- an obvious indicator that the author of this book does NOT know anything about what is on the AP Calculus BC test! Another example is the inclusion of the hyperbolic functions. Rolle's theorem is stated incorrectly; the book states f(a)=0 and f(b)=0 as a condition, when in reality f(a)=f(b) is all that is needed. And is it proper calculus to write the limit of a quotient = 0/0 or infinity/infinity? I think not! Perhaps the biggest error is that the book defines critical numbers to be when f'(x) = 0, when in fact it should be when f'(x) = 0 or f'(x) DNE! In fact... where's the first derivative test? How could that be overlooked? And where is the antiderivative that yields inverse secant? Oh, it's in the lengthy table of integrals in the back of the book, something that you will never see during the AP test. Where's Euler's Method? How about slope fields? Netwon's method is tucked away in Appendix C, where nobody will find it. If you want this book just for the practice tests-- the practice tests in this book are not like the actual AP tests, and doing them will not help you at all! Follow the cgkm theorem (I'm cgkm)-- don't buy this book!

Rating:
Summary: How To Score Negative Numbers On An AP Exam
Review: Do not buy this book! I bought this book in hopes of doing well on the AP test. However, when I started actually reading the book, I found out that the book was a complete waste of my money. The book is hard to understand, the explanations are not helpful, and the content of the book does not even focus on the topic outline for the AP Calculus exams. For example, the last section for Calculus BC focuses on differential equations that are not variable-separable -- an obvious indicator that the author of this book does NOT know anything about what is on the AP Calculus BC test! Another example is the inclusion of the hyperbolic functions. Rolle's theorem is stated incorrectly; the book states f(a)=0 and f(b)=0 as a condition, when in reality f(a)=f(b) is all that is needed. And is it proper calculus to write the limit of a quotient = 0/0 or infinity/infinity? I think not! Perhaps the biggest error is that the book defines critical numbers to be when f'(x) = 0, when in fact it should be when f'(x) = 0 or f'(x) DNE! In fact... where's the first derivative test? How could that be overlooked? And where is the antiderivative that yields inverse secant? Oh, it's in the lengthy table of integrals in the back of the book, something that you will never see during the AP test. Where's Euler's Method? How about slope fields? Netwon's method is tucked away in Appendix C, where nobody will find it. If you want this book just for the practice tests-- the practice tests in this book are not like the actual AP tests, and doing them will not help you at all! Follow the cgkm theorem (I'm cgkm)-- don't buy this book!

Rating:
Summary: The best book out there
Review: I definitely disagree with the negative reviews of this book. When I was taking AP Calculus, this review book helped me extremely because it provided many examples of pitfall mistakes that all students make. It gives good excercise questions after every section. It is concise, but very very comprehensive. Furthermore, if you are keeping up with what is going on in your class this is the ONLY book I recommend. Some might feel that some sections are not explained too deeply; however, this is more than made up for by the great example questions that are clearly picked wisely. This book very much helped me in high school for class and the AP exam. It is a wonderful book to have if you are going to stop taking calculus after high school but sometimes want to look back at something for a quick review. A definite plus.

Rating:
Summary: The best book out there
Review: I definitely disagree with the negative reviews of this book. When I was taking AP Calculus, this review book helped me extremely because it provided many examples of pitfall mistakes that all students make. It gives good excercise questions after every section. It is concise, but very very comprehensive. Furthermore, if you are keeping up with what is going on in your class this is the ONLY book I recommend. Some might feel that some sections are not explained too deeply; however, this is more than made up for by the great example questions that are clearly picked wisely. This book very much helped me in high school for class and the AP exam. It is a wonderful book to have if you are going to stop taking calculus after high school but sometimes want to look back at something for a quick review. A definite plus.

Rating:
Summary: Out with the old, In with the new
Review: I was hired by ARCO to review this book in the face of mounting complaints that it was not useful as a review tool any more. I agreed that it, indeed, was not very good (see other review). So, they hired me to rewrite the book from scratch. My book is being released in January 2001: Mastering the Calculus AB and BC Tests, by W. Michael Kelley.

Not only is my book (also published by ARCO/Peterson's) comprehensive, it is also the only funny math AP prep book out there.