This is a study aid/supplement for what is for many the hardest class in the calculus sequence, multivariable calculus (usually called Calc III). It is the class that takes all the concepts from the first year of calculus, adds an additional dimension, and makes the problems way more complex. If you end up with a teacher that is not great at explaining the concepts and/or get stuck with a crappy textbook (which was definitely the case for me), you will need to look to study aids to get through that class.
This is a pretty mixed bag as a study guide. It does cover all of the material that you will see in class, including topics that some of the other popular study aids out there do not, like parameterizations. The problem is that it uses a different notation for some of the concepts that make it very hard to follow what it is getting at, and there are mistakes that are not always easy to catch. One thing I do like about it is that I does not really give study tips or that kind of thing. The authors just pretty much assume if you are at the level of taking Calc III, you know how to study and get through class. It just jumps right into discussing multivariable functions and goes from there.
Overall, I would say that it is a book that you can use in conjunction with a textbook to flesh out the material in the book and get some additional example problems. You would not really be able to teach yourself the entirety of a multivariable calculus class, but it will give you a good base to start from. Just know that how the material is presented in the book may differ from how you see it in class.
This is a pretty mixed bag as a study guide. It does cover all of the material that you will see in class, including topics that some of the other popular study aids out there do not, like parameterizations. The problem is that it uses a different notation for some of the concepts that make it very hard to follow what it is getting at, and there are mistakes that are not always easy to catch. One thing I do like about it is that I does not really give study tips or that kind of thing. The authors just pretty much assume if you are at the level of taking Calc III, you know how to study and get through class. It just jumps right into discussing multivariable functions and goes from there.
Overall, I would say that it is a book that you can use in conjunction with a textbook to flesh out the material in the book and get some additional example problems. You would not really be able to teach yourself the entirety of a multivariable calculus class, but it will give you a good base to start from. Just know that how the material is presented in the book may differ from how you see it in class.
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