David B. Massey– Northeastern University
ISBN-10: 0-9842071-6-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-9842071-6-9
680 Pages
©2011 Worldwide Center of Mathematics, LLC
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"Worldwide AP Calculus" takes, what has become, a non-standard approach in the topics covered and their ordering. The textbook does not try to “teach to the test.” An Advanced Placement course is designed to provide students with the necessary background and skills for advanced placement into their respective college curricula. Too often, modern AP Calculus textbooks have one goal: to optimize students' grades on the AP Calculus exam, regardless of how well the students may end up being prepared to be placed at advanced points in college curricula.
Thus, the content in "Worldwide AP Calculus" is the same material that students would see when using a Calculus textbook in a college or university; so that, while they will be prepared for the AP exam at the end of the course, they will also have the knowledge they need to move on to higher-level math courses when they enter college. The book is a combination of Massey’s Worldwide Differential Calculus and Worldwide Integral Calculus for easier use in the AP Calculus classroom setting. This textbook can be used in both an AB and a BC course, and also allows students who are continuing on to AP Calculus BC, after completing AB, to need only one textbook for both courses.
The chatty exposition throughout "Worldwide AP Calculus" is meant to make the textbook more readable for students. However, despite the informal style in the discussions, the mathematics in "Worldwide AP Calculus" is completely rigorous. The precise, rigorous statements of definitions, theorems, and proofs are intended to eliminate the confusion caused by the ambiguity and imprecision of many current AP Calculus textbooks. While we do not expect students to be held accountable on tests for so many technicalities, we feel that it is an important aspect of any mathematics course for the students to understand that the mathematically rigorous statements and results actually exist; furthermore, "Worldwide AP Calculus" provides a resource for those students and teachers who are interested in a deeper, more careful, study of Calculus, beyond what will be tested.
Digital resources also set this book apart from the alternatives. At the beginning of each section, there is a full-length lecture video by the author, which provides additional help to students, while also allowing students to keep up with the course if they miss a class. In addition, there are 5-10 selected exercise video-solutions at the end of each section, for students to watch if they have trouble on homework problems. All of these resources are linked to in the .pdf version of the book, but are also available on our YouTube channel for fast and reliable viewing.
