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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Single Variable Calculus by University of Pennsylvania

4.6
stars
307 ratings

About the Course

Calculus is one of the grandest achievements of human thought, explaining everything from planetary orbits to the optimal size of a city to the periodicity of a heartbeat. This brisk course covers the core ideas of single-variable Calculus with emphases on conceptual understanding and applications. The course is ideal for students beginning in the engineering, physical, and social sciences. Distinguishing features of the course include: 1) the introduction and use of Taylor series and approximations from the beginning; 2) a novel synthesis of discrete and continuous forms of Calculus; 3) an emphasis on the conceptual over the computational; and 4) a clear, dynamic, unified approach. In this fifth part--part five of five--we cover a calculus for sequences, numerical methods, series and convergence tests, power and Taylor series, and conclude the course with a final exam. Learners in this course can earn a certificate in the series by signing up for Coursera's verified certificate program and passing the series' final exam....

Top reviews

MM

Jan 10, 2016

This course is tricky and also excellent. I am a computer science student from germany, and it took me quite some time and effort to pass it. The course is well structured, and can be done in time.

PC

Sep 14, 2019

Loved it ! I've grown attached to Prof. Ghrist's lectures, so it is with a heavy heart that I took the final exam and finished this course. I xould really love to take another !

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51 - 75 of 76 Reviews for Single Variable Calculus

By amirali s

Oct 26, 2020

It’s fascinating 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

By Pat B

Jul 11, 2017

Best calculus course ever.

By Tobias B

Jan 27, 2020

A good intro to calculus

By Lau C C C

Apr 21, 2018

thank you very much

By Julia R G A

Aug 26, 2021

A great challenge.

By 吴琦

Feb 19, 2020

Difficult course!

By MOHD. F

Aug 3, 2017

Excellent course

By Michael C

May 2, 2019

Great course.

By Nafis F

Oct 27, 2020

Awesome!!!

By EDILSON S S O J

Jul 27, 2016

Amazing!

By Tuan H

Dec 11, 2016

great!

By Subhee

Apr 5, 2020

h

By Vishal G

Feb 8, 2019

I took the discrete calculus part of the course (part 5 of 5) individually of the rest and the teaching is fine with examples for any concept introduced and links between the unfamiliar discrete calculus and ordinary single variable calculus are made all the time. However, I feel like the course isn't so well named as there is only a week of developing the calculus of sequences and then it goes to standard analysis content - I came for the new content only which was a little disappointing. I will pursue it in the future but there wasn't really any suggestions for further study which I found either. The challenge exercises were great for developing on the subject like with the product rule but there isn't much supporting material for the challenge homework like why the product rule formula is asymmetric.

I feel like the end part of the course should be the discrete calculus exam rather than the 5 part final exam because some may be taking this course individually and might not know some of the content in the final part and so, may not pass the course without using external resources to learn things they didn't learn. The final exam should either only be for people who have completed the four previous parts or a choice if you've only taken some of the five parts.

The course was good and Professor Ghrist is great at teaching; just that he takes a little too long but speeding up makes that fine. The topics never feel like they were underutilised or unimportant; every concept is given practical or theoretical justification for its introduction which is fantastic. It would have been nice to see more applications of discrete calculus as a method to evaluate sums, maybe as exercises? I did enjoy the course too, thanks Professor Ghrist and your team.

By Yangyi Z

Dec 21, 2021

It requires more than this course! You need to learn normal calculus before this to pass the final exam!

By Dhruv K

Apr 11, 2021

This provides a new outlook on calculus! I thoroughly enjoyed it

By karimdzan a

Dec 1, 2017

very cognitive!!

By mahitha p

Dec 6, 2022

Great course

By Kevin P

Mar 20, 2019

Excellent.

By Angela N

Aug 5, 2021

I've taken calculus classes online before and chose this class as a refresher for my upcoming Calc 3 study this year. First of all, this is NOT a good introductory course. It is the fifth part in a 5 part calculus sequence, and the final test, which is worth over half your grade, reflects on concepts that were not covered once during this course. Even the first few classes begin talking about Taylor Series, which I imagine would be extremely difficult for a beginner to understand.

I haven't taken the full sequence, so perhaps my experience would be better if I did so, but from the perspective of someone that saw this single class as an all-encompassing calc course, that was something I didn't like.

Prof. Ghrist isn't awful at explaining calculus, but I've learned from far, far better instructors (Sal Khan from Khan Academy), to name one. I enjoyed the exercises provided by the course, but I also strongly disliked that there was no given feedback or explanation from any homework answers.

Overall, not really a fan. And the TAs in the discussion forums weren't so helpful either.

By Alex S

Aug 25, 2021

professors voice is distracting. he sounds like hes trying to sing instead of speak or over emphasing strange parts of each sentence. it makes focusing on the course contect difficult

By Neal L

Nov 27, 2022

Absolutely horrid. Concepts are not super hard but the explanations are so bad that you most likely won't understand it if you're a beginner, and you'll end up spending hours either rewatching the same thing or googling stuff. Also there's no feedback given for the homework, which just defeats the entire concept of learning from your mistakes. If you're not after a certificate, just use khan academy.

By Meghan B

Nov 22, 2020

It starts with lesson 54 and assumes a ton of prior knowledge. I don't trust this course to lead me thoughtfully.

By Craig G

Jul 18, 2021

It starts in the middle of some other course. There is no context.He sounds like a very disturbing robot.

By Zaurez H

May 19, 2021

Really horrible course and is made unnecessarily difficult

By Kaodi O

Jul 2, 2021

Awful. Grace of God that i passed.