MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus: study plan and how long it takes
The MIT OpenCourseWare playlist is 35 videos and 28.3 hours long. Here's how long it takes at different paces, a week-by-week schedule built from the real videos, and a planner that turns it into your own daily plan.
35 videos · 28.3 hours · MIT OpenCourseWare
MIT 18.02 (Fall 2007), taught by Denis Auroux, covers vectors and matrices, partial derivatives, gradients and Lagrange multipliers, double and triple integrals, vector fields and line integrals, Green's theorem, flux, and the divergence and Stokes' theorems.
It's one of the clearest multivariable calculus courses available, with reviews before each exam.
Who it's for: Students taking multivariable calculus, and ML or physics learners who need gradients and vector calculus.
How long does it take?
The full playlist is 28.3 hours across 35 videos. Here's roughly how many days that is at different daily watch times and speeds, counting video time only:
| Daily time | At 1x | At 1.5x | At 2x |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 min a day | 57 days | 38 days | 29 days |
| 1 h a day | 29 days | 19 days | 15 days |
| 2 h a day | 15 days | 10 days | 8 days |
Make your own schedule
The playlist link is already filled in. Press Plan, set how much time you have each day and your speed, and you'll get a day-by-day schedule with a finish date and a calendar file. It reads the live playlist, so new videos are included.
Week-by-week schedule
A sample plan at 1 hour a day and normal speed, using whole videos so none is split across days. That's 5 weeks in total. For a different pace, start date or speed, use the planner above.
Week 1Videos 1–7 · 5h 40m
Day 1 · 39m
- 1Lec 1: Dot product | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200739m
Day 2 · 53m
- 2Lec 2: Determinants; cross product | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200753m
Day 3 · 51m
- 3Lec 3: Matrices; inverse matrices | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200751m
Day 4 · 49m
- 4Lec 4: Square systems; equations of planes | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200749m
Day 5 · 51m
- 5Lec 5: Parametric equations for lines and curves | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200751m
Day 6 · 48m
- 6Lec 6: Velocity, acceleration; Kepler's second law | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200748m
Day 7 · 50m
- 7Lec 7: Review | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Week 2Videos 8–14 · 5h 48m
Day 8 · 46m
- 8Lec 8: Level curves; partial derivatives; tangent plane | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 0746m
Day 9 · 50m
- 9Lec 9: Max-min problems; least squares | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 10 · 52m
- 10Lec 10: Second derivative test; boundaries & infinity | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200752m
Day 11 · 50m
- 11Lec 11: Differentials; chain rule | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 12 · 50m
- 12Lec 12: Gradient; directional derivative; tangent plane | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 0750m
Day 13 · 50m
- 13Lec 13: Lagrange multipliers | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 14 · 49m
- 14Lec 14: Non-independent variables | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200749m
Week 3Videos 15–21 · 5h 47m
Day 15 · 45m
- 15Lec 15: Partial differential equations; review | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200745m
Day 16 · 48m
- 16Lec 16: Double integrals | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200748m
Day 17 · 52m
- 17Lec 17: Double integrals in polar coords; applications | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200752m
Day 18 · 50m
- 18Lec 18: Change of variables | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 19 · 51m
- 19Lec 19: Vector fields and line integrals in the plane | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200751m
Day 20 · 50m
- 20Lec 20: Path independence and conservative fields | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 21 · 50m
- 21Lec 21: Gradient fields and potential functions | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Week 4Videos 22–28 · 5h 46m
Day 22 · 47m
- 22Lec 22: Green's theorem | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200747m
Day 23 · 50m
- 23Lec 23: Flux; normal form of Green's theorem | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 24 · 49m
- 24Lec 24: Simply connected regions; review | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200749m
Day 25 · 49m
- 25Lec 25: Triple integrals in rectangular & cylindrical | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200749m
Day 26 · 51m
- 26Lec 26: Spherical coordinates; surface area | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200751m
Day 27 · 51m
- 27Lec 27: Vector fields in 3D; surface integrals & flux | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200751m
Day 28 · 49m
- 28Lec 28: Divergence theorem | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200749m
Week 5Videos 29–35 · 5h 20m
Day 29 · 50m
- 29Lec 29: Divergence theorem (cont.): applications & proof | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 0750m
Day 30 · 50m
- 30Lec 30: Line integrals in space, curl, exactness... | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 31 · 48m
- 31Lec 31: Stokes' theorem | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200748m
Day 32 · 50m
- 32Lec 32: Stokes' theorem (cont.); review | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200750m
Day 33 · 29m
- 33Lec 33: Topological considerations; Maxwell's equations | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 0729m
Day 34 · 44m
- 34Lec 34: Final review | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200744m
Day 35 · 49m
- 35Lec 35: Final review (cont.) | MIT 18.02 Multivariable Calculus, Fall 200749m
Tips for finishing
- Sketch every surface and region yourself; multivariable calculus is much easier when you can picture it.
- Plan three lectures a week with the OCW problem sets.