How Can I Best Prepare for Differential Equations?

[theomicron]

Hi everyone,

First, I'll apologize if this is posted in the wrong forum; I couldn't see any more fitting categories.

Secondly, I just wanted to introduce myself. I've been a member for a little over a year, but haven't contributed since I didn't think I had anything useful to contribute academic wise; now that I've finished my first year of engineering, I can help answer some of the more basic calculus questions.

My main question is this: next year I am being thrown head first into four courses all dealing with DEs (in all forms) and maxwell's equations. What is the best way to learn/prepare for differential equations? I understand that they present a very solid foundation for later courses so they're very important.

Cheers!

 

[quantumdude]

I would say buy the DE book now and start grinding away. I would also recommend getting the Schaum's outline entitled "Modern Introductory Differential Equations". It has many problems with detailed solutions, and even more problems with just the answers.

 

[theomicron]

Great! Thanks for the quick response. I'll see if I can find a copy of Schaums somewhere. Do you happen to know if that covers PDEs as well?

 

[quantumdude]

It doesn't but there's another Schaum's outline entitled "Partial Differential Equations". I have them both, and I like them. If you want an honest-to-goodness textbook on PDE's I would recommend Strauss. It's the one I was taught from, and I really liked it.

 

[cordyceps]

Another good one to look at might be "Ordinary Differential Equations" by Pollard and Tenenbaum. Lots of problems, and quite comprehensive. (And it's a Dover, so it's pretty cheap.)