This book is absolutely awful. I have tried and tried to find an answer in this book for problems regularly over the last 12 or so years. Not once has the book proved useful. It is poorly written, with obscure examples. Especially in the 'pure' maths sections, if you are looking for an example in how to perform a certain kind of operation, there is almost never a good example of how to do it.

I have bought many other maths books, and luckily passed my maths courses using a combination of Stroud, Bostock and Chandler (Modular Mathematics Series), and Anton and Rorres (Elementary Linear Algebra). Almost everything you can want is in these other books. Don't waste your money. Search for these other authors.


lack depth   May 5, 2004
 1 out of 5 found this review helpful

I was reading another book b4 reading this one and found it relatively simple and lack of information. It juz shows u HOW TO DO IT in plain simple English, without much explanation about the logics behind. It might be a good book to past your exams, and that's it. it's a very ez book to read. not good for u.


Poor   October 22, 2003
 3 out of 6 found this review helpful

Although this book is about engineering maths it is very poorly written. Unless you are an expert in the field you really will not understand anything this book talks about. It seems as if it was the writers ambition to make the book as complicated and unhelpful as possible.


assumes too much   October 5, 2003
 3 out of 7 found this review helpful

unfortunately this author has produced a text which at first glance seems to cover what you need to know, but the reasoning just doesnt follow in clear logical steps, leaving the reader to constantly re-read the text, searching for something she must surely have missed. Eminent mathematician Professor James may be, but he fails to ensure that he and his co authors actually communicate the reasoning processes vital to understanding this highly conceptual subject.