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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Calculus by The University of Sydney

4.8
stars
3,517 ratings

About the Course

The focus and themes of the Introduction to Calculus course address the most important foundations for applications of mathematics in science, engineering and commerce. The course emphasises the key ideas and historical motivation for calculus, while at the same time striking a balance between theory and application, leading to a mastery of key threshold concepts in foundational mathematics. Students taking Introduction to Calculus will: • gain familiarity with key ideas of precalculus, including the manipulation of equations and elementary functions (first two weeks), • develop fluency with the preliminary methodology of tangents and limits, and the definition of a derivative (third week), • develop and practice methods of differential calculus with applications (fourth week), • develop and practice methods of the integral calculus (fifth week)....

Top reviews

JP

Oct 9, 2023

Great course, the professor explains with excellent examples and the exercises really reinforce the material and are challenging. Thank you for offering this great courses from excellent universities.

AF

Apr 8, 2022

An excellent course, especially if like me you had done some calculus in the past and wanted a refresher. David is an excellent, clear, and attentive tutor. I can't recommend him enough. Many thanks.

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26 - 50 of 1,083 Reviews for Introduction to Calculus

By muhammad a

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Mar 29, 2019

its a very interesting course and i really want to learn this so thanks coursera community and specially the speaker for providing such a wonderful and handy knowledge and notes.

By Rojs A

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Aug 31, 2019

Builds the idea of calculus from the ground up. Explaining everything steps by step and giving great examples. Overall great course.

By Joseph V M

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Jul 4, 2019

While the material is at an introductory level, it is comprehensive. The exercises are well-structured and the lectures clear.

By ADAM G

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Nov 27, 2019

This is an excellent course guided by a passionate and responsive instructor. The course incorporates the best of online learning - explanatory videos, written lecture notes with examples, and live discussion forums where real students are asking questions and receiving replies in a timely manner. Kudos to the professor and to Coursera, hopefully you can retain this course for a very long time. A few points of improvement if I may. I took this course as a refresher for previously haven taken calculus about three years ago. There is no companion textbook, which I would have found invaluable. I also wish that there were even more examples of worked/solved problems to draw from. I believe that an inherent problem with math instruction is that through the use of symbology (by necessity), the student is expected to learn and understand all parts of written notes. Instead, I strongly believe that plain language explanations of in conjunction with traditional lectures notes are most valuable. If you do not understand a single portion of a problem, you are left (as I have been) at great length to try to find a comparable problem to digest what is occurring. Lastly, I would suggest cultivating companion videos for the lectures from open sources such as Youtube that students could view in conjunction with each module. Despite the very best of intentions and efforts, the video lectures move very fast and at times, I think there are clearer examples available elsewhere. Often times the Khan Academy style of working through a problem while explaining it would be a great adjunct to the content here. Again, I thank the Professor for his kindness and passion for math. Well done!

By Chuck M

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Aug 9, 2019

I want to thank Prof. Easdown (and SU) for an excellent course. The material was organized and timed at exactly the pace that was perfect for me. In addition, Prof. Easdown was consistently accessible and prompt responding to my questions and feedback. I don't see a next course, but I hope there will be one and look forward to progressing with the next course in the series.

Thank You Prof. Easdown!

By Al F

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Apr 9, 2022

An excellent course, especially if like me you had done some calculus in the past and wanted a refresher. David is an excellent, clear, and attentive tutor. I can't recommend him enough. Many thanks.

By Brian K

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Jun 27, 2020

Having had very discouraging experiences in previous calculus classes, this was a really great experience. Between the very straight forward video instruction, and very useful written notes, this course is very attainable with the appropriate amount of time committed. 4 stars only because the time commitments that were posted were easily half of what I actually needed to complete the course.

By Ravindra G

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Nov 30, 2020

This is an amazing course. I loved the way the instructor used classic examples to explain calculus by helping us approach problems from the perspectives of Newton, Leibniz, and the ancient greeks!

By Haran S

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Jan 25, 2021

Excellent course. Professor Easedown explains all the concepts very carefully and clearly, and the accompanying notes and regular practice quizzes are very useful. It's been 17 years since I last studied calculus (a-levels), and I wish this course was available back then. Rather than rote learning equations for differentiation and integration, Prof Easedown explains how to derive the equations in the first place, with proofs, illustrations using graphs/ limits etc. He also doesn't jump steps, which is extremely refreshing compared to other maths MOOCs. The only minor improvement would be to put explanations of correct/inocrrect answers in the practice quizzes, so we can learn from our mistakes.

By Brian U

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Aug 27, 2019

Fantastic! I hadn't taken calculus (or any other math) for over 20 years. But I will be taking Calc II for a data science degree. So I registered in this course as a refresher. It covered all the material my professor recommended that I review in preparation for Calc II. The lectures were interesting and well-timed. The exercises were great practice. And I'm saving the notes as a reference.

By Huijun J

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Apr 21, 2022

This course is in detail and very easy to follow. Instructor Dr.David Easdown is adorable. It's not hard to see that he has put a lot of effort into these lectures. His presentations are lovely and vivid and make everything understandable. I love his teaching style and wish he could bring more courses to Coursera.

By Vitaliy P C

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May 17, 2020

Hands down the best class I've taken on Coursera thus far (my 5th). Incredible instructor, superb video, amazing notes. Could not recommend it any higher. Will seek out again. Well done!

By Solmaz G D

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Apr 10, 2020

it was so informative and every things was planned intelligently all trough the course . I enjoyed and learned a lot of studying this course . Thank you for all your efforts.

By Daniel H

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Feb 28, 2019

I Loved how you could have the option to look over the notes instead of the videos to complete the course at a faster rate.

By Sarthak G

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Jan 11, 2019

The teacher is great and if you are beginner this course is really for you

By Amr F A

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Jul 27, 2019

Great course .

thanks for the efforts .

By Rafael P R

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Feb 19, 2019

Excellent and interesting course

By jackson s q

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Jan 11, 2020

Whilest I greatly apreciated the consise nature of this course, sometimes I found that ample explination on particularly difficult topics was sorely lacking. Often techniques such as partial fraction decomposition would be assumed which is a problem for people entering into this course relatively blind to mathematics.

If this course is re-vamped then I think more depth would be a great addition especially in areas that are particular complex and require detailed understanding.

By Vaibhav K

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Sep 20, 2020

Though I will acknowledge in advance that I was already familiar with pre calculus but had lost the touch due to a few years gap. Course was excellent and I guess most of the concepts are reinforced once again. The notes at the chapter end will help greatly in revision.

By Nurzat S

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Apr 13, 2020

good course, but the topics of module 1 are too basic, but they are may be helpful for people who have bad background in math, in general course was good.

But there was a few practice materials, too much theory, give some more practice materials

By Giulia B

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Apr 7, 2020

This course is great, I very much recommend anyone taking it! I took this course after almost six years since my last math course at the end of high school. At that time, I was very happy that I would not have to deal with mathematics ever again. But professor Easdown opened a new world for me. He made me appreciate that math is a fresh and alive discipline that can be understood if you find the right tools and work with persistence. His explanations are extremely clear, making students understand and appreciate mathematical concepts, and not only to mechanically apply formulas.

He provides great lecture notes and readings which cover the topics explained in the videos, sometimes with deeper explanations and proofs. In the notes, there are also examples of exercises, which are very helpful for successfully completing the quizzes accompanying each module.

The discussion forum is a great learning place. There are many interesting questions posed by peers and you can post your questions there too. The professor is very active and very kindly replies to any query in a very timely manner.

This course is amazing. I very much recommend it to everyone, especially if you think math is a dry and useless subject that can't be understood, this course will make you change your mind!

By Sesi

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Aug 17, 2019

Took this course as a refresher since it has been a few years since I bothered with calculus and pretty much forgot most things. This course really doesn’t assume too much pre-calculus knowledge and instead contains a pre-calculus refresher that lays the groundwork for the calculus in later modules.

Although a few times I needed to pause the video lectures to give myself enough time to understand the logic in later modules, overall the video lectures were presented in a straight-forward and engaging manner. David Easdown communicated concepts concisely and his way of speaking and enthusiasm for math helped keep me engaged with the video lectures. The readings are also well put together and allow you to go over video material (plus more for certain lessons) at your own pace. Practice problems were mostly easily although a few could be a bit more challenging (but not too much). As much as I would have liked a few more challenging problems, it is an introductory course, so the current question difficulty makes sense to me.

Overall, If anyone is looking for a well-put together introduction to calculus course (even as a refresher), I would highly recommend this course.

By Bob G

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Apr 19, 2021

Excellent presentation and course design by Prof. Easdown. It was apparent throughout the course that he really cared about teaching, and had put many hours into preparing it. In each subsection, there were three parts: (1) a short video of 8 - 15 minutes in which Prof. Easdown explained a concept, and worked it out on software that was the equivalent of a whiteboard, with examples and simple graphs, (2) 3 - 5 pages of excellent notes on the subject matter just covered in the video, with example problems worked out, and (3) a quiz of 10 multiple choice questions. You should work out the problems with pen and paper. You immediately see the results of your quiz. You don't see what the correct answers are for any that you got wrong, but you can retake it as many times as you want and upgrade your score. I immediately retook the quiz every time I missed any questions so I could learn what I didn't understand the first time. This was extremely helpful to me. There is a 20 question multiple choice quiz at the end of each oof the five units. The instructor was exceptional, and I am very glad I took the course. I highly recommend this course.

By Andrew M

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Apr 10, 2020

This is the best course on this platform, and perhaps the entire internet.

It's very hard to be enthusiastic and passionate over a video lecture, but instructor Professor Easdown excels in this area and learners will fine the lectures very engaging. Everything is explained from the ground up, and it is clear that the course aims to provide a thorough and fundamental understanding of the topic, rather than simply learning by rote or procedure. If something isn't explained fully, we are told why (usually due to complexity) and are told where to look if we wish to find out more.

The assessments are perfectly structured and strike the balance between challenging and accessible. If there is any trouble, Professor Easdown is very active in the Discussion Forums and provides excellent guides to any difficult problems.

This course is substantial, but not overwhelming. I found myself doing around an hour a day on average. You really do feel like you're learning something to a significant degree, but you are not forced to make sacrifices to find time to learn.

Overall, an excellent course that avoids all the usual MOOC pitfalls.