20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not too good for self-study, January 23, 2006
This review is from: Chemistry (Hardcover)
I'm an 8th grader that wants to learn chemistry very badly, and bought this book.
Most of the book provides an adequate explanation for all the essential concepts encountered in a regular high school course. I know this because after reading this book, I looked at the state tests for a high school chemistry course, and I could do most of the problems. There are many examples in the book that help a student understand what the text is trying to explain. There are also a lot of practice problems after each section and chapter that reinforces the contents of the chapter/section very well.
However, without a teacher, if some concept is not clear, then chaos occurs. There are selected parts in the book that are vague in a way. To me, the noticable ambiguity in the text comes in the bonding chapter. They sort of assume that out of nowhere you can write an electron dot structure, a concept that other review chemistry texts take pages explaining. Hybridization was also explained poorly, and several weeks after I read that part (when I was finished with the book), I finally thought I got it, and then a chapter review problem proved that it was still a mystery. I have another chemistry book that I use to help me understand in case I don't get what's going on in this chemistry book.
Bonding isn't the only chapter that is a disaster in clarity (although it is the worst). The chapters from about 16-23 were all not as good as the other ones. There was also some guessing involved in the oragnic chemistry section, but that was not too bad; I still figured it out.
My school uses this textbook (as I found out months after I bought this book). With a teacher, this book is perfect, but without one, get ready to think; appreciate the pictures in there when you can, but focus a lot on figuring out the material.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fairly Decent, March 20, 2005
This review is from: Chemistry (Hardcover)
This book is a decent chemistry book that does a good job in covering chemistry material. Although there are not enough example problems in the book to gain a good understanding of the "math" goes on chemistry. The book doesn't provide goods STEPS in chemistry problems. For example, the text lacks a section that tells teh student how to draw a Lewis Dot Structure and the steps to determine bonds. This text also has labs but they aren't really that good.
The book does offer good examples of realife chemistry in action. Things are organized well with good charts, graphs, and summary tables. The book problems are o.k. but one should supplement the book with another excercise book. It's easy too understand and good for first year chem only.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Chemistry, September 29, 2011
This review is from: Chemistry (Hardcover)
This is the second Chemistry - yes second - textbook I purchased for my daughter. The value and condition of the first book was so tremedous, I ordered a second. One for school and one for home. For less than $10 I was able to purchase two very good quality books and more importantly reduce my daughter's daily back pack load by at least 2 lbs. ECampus delivered as promised. I will use them again! - Happy in Savannah
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