self-study resources: calculus i-ii
this post will be updated with more resources + links to detailed write-ups. resources are broken down by type & vaguely sequential.
here's a link to resource posts for every class i've taken so far.
the amount of free high-quality calculus resources is genuinely uncountable, i think. i only include resources i've seen recommended several times and that i've tried. the target audience is an adult who is not enrolled in school with high math-related anxiety/fear (i.e. my past self) so i include several resources that might be overkill for students with uninterrupted formal education.
everyone says that calculus is where you go to fail algebra and trig, so I'm including several precalculus resources first.
khan academy [link, my blog tag]: recommended from the absolute beginning (sorting images by size for pre-school counting) to the point where you get to unfamiliar/new material. for me this was eighth grade.
professor leonard [yt channnel, my notes]: has several high-quality playlists, from pre-algebra onwards. he has a playlist coincides with khan academy's early stuff [link].
robert "bob" blitzer's algebra textbooks [recommendation, find annas archive links here]: has a metric fuckton of textbooks under his name for introductory algebra. great for a bridge to less explanatory (formal) textbooks & great for grinding algebra problems.
trig without tears website [link]: walks through in more detail than some textbooks i've checked out, overall awesome & complete.
paul's online notes for algebra [website]: also noted below for calculus material.
find the current links for Anna's Archive on Wikipedia [link].
first half of Calculus: Early Transcendentals by Stewart and the accompanying solutions manual. this was my primary resource!
professor leonard [yt channnel, my notes]: noted above for precalc, has great calculus playlists that follow the common curriculum very VERY thoroughly. a p large time investment but genuinely so well done.
alternative textbook could be Thomas' Calculus: Early Transcendentals by Thomas, Hass, & Weir
here's a link for additional curated video courses [shared google doc]
noted after textbooks & video courses. I find that these resources are more useful/impactful when you've already waded into the above, kind of how you learn by trying the problem first and only then look at the solution.
Calculus Made Easy by Thompson [website, book]: I do not recommend Gardner's oft-recommended reworking of the perennial original text.
Paul's Online Notes [website]: a lot of his calculus stuff is more advanced/difficult than i covered in class, and he has wonderful example walk-throughs.
Khan Academy [website]: great for finals review!!
3Blue1Brown's Essence of calculus [playlist]: this was nothing to me but i see it recommended all the time
schaum's: kind of superfluous over the textbooks but i liked having a relatively casual and physically light resource
i highly recommend taking practice exams, as well! time yourself and work through a PDF. there are literally so many available thru a search engine.
last but not least, i want to note that these resources are probably 200% more thorough than my class' content. maybe more. like, working through all the examples and maybe a quarter of the end-of-section exercises in calculus by stewart + watching relevant prof leonard videos would've been enough to net an A, i think.
