[.ca] Student Resource and Solutions Manual for Zill's a First ... (ISBN 0534418791)

decent:
It's been a long time since I had this book for a course (so take this with a grain of salt...), & I had a pretty good instructor, but this book still helped reinforce the ideas. I don't think it makes a difference whether a book has a solution manual, just plug your solution into the equation to check your answer. A solution manual for a differential equations text is a bit superfluous, IMO, since solutions don't all look the same. Another good text is the one by Rainville/Bedient.

Lacking pedagogical stimuli or skill ?:
Maybe this was an attempt to be unique in presentation of the subject ; yet , contorting paraphrased material into a potato - salad of words is an obvious sign of bad technical writing ; perhaps , poor confidence in subject, or who knows what ?!?! . The layout of this text is the worst I've seen in a mathematics text -- both , calculations and " explanations " are blobbed as run - on , rambling sentences contained into page - sized paragraphs ; unbearable amount of conceptual abstraction almost at every definition of critical importance . There lies a clue that descriptive terms were chosen by dictionary research of most subtle synonyms of such ; moreover , an overuse of unnecessary adjectives , of same descent , to increment the confusing flush . This text is obviously designed to be NOT USER FRIENDLY on purpose !! . To me , that defeats the whole goal of even attempting to write books for students . This one should , in its full definition, be banned from all pedagogical institutions -- those , where are those with a desire to learn . I personally did not encounter difficulty of solving this " book's " chapter problems ; however , due to the diffused presentation of theory , am still lacking satisfaction of conceptual clarity of such a rich subject .

Lacking pedagogical stimuli or skill ?:
Maybe this was an attempt to be unique in presentation of the subject ; yet , contorting paraphrased material into a potato - salad of words is an obvious sign of bad technical writing ; perhaps , poor confidence in subject , or who knows what ?!?! . The layout of this text is the worst I've seen in a mathematics text -- both , calculations and " explanations " are blobbed as run - on , rambling sentences contained into page - sized paragraphs ; unbearable amount of conceptual abstraction almost at every definition of critical importance . There lies a clue that descriptive terms were chosen by dictionary research of most subtle synonyms of such; moreover , an overuse of unnecessary adjectives , of same descent , to increment the confusing flush . This text is obviously designed to be NOT USER FRIENDLY on purpose !! . To me , that defeats the whole goal of even attempting to write books for students . This one should , in its full definition , be banned from all pedagogical institutions -- those , where are those with a desire to learn . I personally did not encounter difficulty of solving this " book's " chapter problems ; however, due to the diffused presentation of theory , am still lacking satisfaction of conceptual clarity of such a rich subject .

Do not recommend:
I am using this book for my D.E. class. The solutions manual \ois bad\c, solving only every third problem. I found the reading quite difficult to understand and the pages are boring and bland!!!

An Enjoyable Book Overall:
I enjoyed using this book in my DiffEq class. It gives lots of examples and a variety of homework problems. It proved to be very useful for me.