Customer Reviews

BSCS Biology: A Molecular Approach, Student Edition

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Took two days for shipping, even though it was suppose to be 5-10. Great product, brand new. Highly recommend this owner.

This is a really poor textbook. I used it when I was a freshman in high school several years ago, and now my sister is using it, too. I can vaguely remember the difficulty I had trying to read and digest the chapters but, looking at it now, I can definitely see why!

First and foremost, the book uses a level of technical language that is unfit for any introductory biology course, except _maybe_ honors college courses. I'd be surprised if any student could understand everything in this book because it seems to be written in a manner that assumes the reader is already really familiar with each topic, which 1) wouldn't really make any sense for anyone to have besides someone teaching the course and 2) it's supposed to be an introductory biology text, no one is going to have specialized knowledge of any topic covered.

The second problem I have with the book is that, even after you decipher what the author was trying to say, the relevance and relation of things isn't explained. They tell you about one thing and then another thing, and you're asking yourself, "Wait, why is this here?" The paragraphs just don't flow correctly. Maybe the editors didn't notice because they couldn't get past the technical nature of the book.

Third problem, most (all?) of the diagrams are just awful. Trying to make sense out of them from what you've gathered from the text often seems impossible, or it seems like the text contradicts the diagram. Some diagrams are just placed in really bad positions and I know a couple times I've at first thought a diagram was describing one process, but it's actually describing something entirely different!

Stay away from it if you have a choice. It's awful.

I purchased this book as a copy for my daughter to have at home. I have been reading it along with the class and find it very confusing. My daughter does not like it either. However, it is the book used by her school for honors biology.