Description:I gave this book such a low rating because it falls way short of the expectations of its intended audience. This book is terrible choice for someone who knows nothing about differential equations and wants to teach themself. The examples and explanations and derivations are difficult to follow and not really any different from what you would find in a typical college textbook. I was hoping to find a book that explained differential equations in plain, simple English and avoided using jargon and confusing symbols. I was disappointed. The author also skips a lot of steps in the examples. The answers in the back of the book are not very well explained. The book is full of problems titled "Now you try" but the answers are not given. How am I supposed to know if I did it right? I feel that the author's mathematical formalism and usage of symbols was out of place. I see nothing wrong with explaining things using language like "now you take this thing here, and derive it, then multiply by this other over here... etc". If you can follow the author, you probably don't need this book in the first place. This book is no more user friendly than a typical 800 page textbook, just shorter and soft cover.