DVD/Study Aid Review: Calculus 1: Extra Practice With Derivatives

 

The extra practice with derivatives course is a set that is really meant to flesh out the calculus 1 curriculum. It does provide exactly what it says, more examples of the various techniques of differentiation like the chain rule and the product rule, but it also expands on what was in Jason's first calculus set with lessons on implicit differentiation, derivatives of natural logs, natural exponents, general logs, general exponents, and related rates. Related rates are, along with optimization problems, the bane of most student's first semester of calculus. Related rates problems are not hard once you learn to set them up, but learning how to do so can be a big pain.

Like in his other tutorials, Jason solves the problems step-by-step, not only explaining what he is doing as he goes but also recapping the problems after he has worked them out. His presentation is not flashy. It is just him in front of a whiteboard working through examples. He does a great job of breaking down the problems and explaining the process to solve them. Of course, since it is a recorded tutorial, you cannot interact with him and ask questions, so you do have to be aware of what your style of learning is, and if this would fit. But, if you are a visual learner and can learn on your own to some extent, this is a great resource and will help anyone trying to learn calculus, whether you are taking a class, are going to be taking a class, or just trying to learn it on your own.