Customer Reviews

Essentials of Genetics + Web Address Code

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

 

 

If you are taking an introduction to genetics course, this book is difficult to understand. It seemingly presents the concepts for those that have had previous knowledge of genetics. The chapters on Mendelian Genetics, Mitosis, and Meiosis are done well, but later chapters dealing with regulation, mutation, transcription, and translation are difficult to understand. The pictures are not very helpful, either. If this book is required for your introductory genetics course, i recommend getting another book in addition to this one.

I bought this book because it was the prescribed text book for the genetics class I was taking. The book jumps around topics. It does not explain concepts and is one of the most unorganized books I have ever read! Biology - Campbell does a better job of handling the concepts than this one in spite of not being a pure genetics text book. Would not recommend the book to beginners. May be expert level users can use it as a reference guide!

I don't know why this book has such negative reviews, I absolutely loved the book. I thought it was extremely insightful when it came to the different topics it introduced. I found the images really helpful as well. This is the first text book for a class, that I read word for word... I enjoyed it a lot. I'm a biology major so maybe that's why the concepts to me were not that confusing. Overall it was a very good book, and everything was explained well, & if I ever was confused about a concept, I either youtubed or googled the topic.

I took this course because it is a required course for my major. After getting into the first month of classes, I started to read the textbook. Genetics is a very interesting topic, and this book displays this. It breaks down concepts for the student to understand, and has great photos and figures. There are also one to two page "stories" which relate to the concept of the chapter at the end of each chapter. These are real stories of history or happenings of how Genetics has severely affected people. There is also a review and questions at the end of each chapter. Overall, I would give the book a four star rating.

"Essentials of Genetics" is an excellent book. Genetics is a very difficult subject, and this book helped me so much. It explains all the concepts very well, along with giving good pictures and examples. I would highly recommend this to anyone taking a course in genetics.

PLEASE tell somebody to eliminate the "-P-S-" abbreviation! (Fig. 9-12B, p. 201)
For years, I am fighting this imbecile representation of phosphate-sugar chain that persists in many, many textbooks, including Klug et al.

Nobody should abbreviate sugar as S (especially after Hershey-Chase experiment explained a bit earlier). Ask the Chemistry department!
"P" for phosphate is bad enough as well; so many students do not know the difference between phosphate and phosphorus!

Also, on Fig. 10-8 deoxyriboses have two strange features:
(a) they seem to miss C5' atom completely; (b) if P here is phosphate (-PO4), as I hope, then what is an extra oxygen doing here? Or "P" on Fig. 10-8 is different P from that on Fig. 9-10?

I would not recommend this book to ANYBODY!!! It's VERY confusing and doesn't explain concepts well (i.e. the "fork method"). I may be wrong, but the majority of people who teach the chapter of Mendelian genetics that deals with assigning letters to dominant and recessive traits teach that the alleles are assigned according to the DOMINANT trait (e.g. rough is dominant to smooth: RR (rough) or rr (smooth) NOT SS or ss!!)...I don't know...maybe I missed something, but I just think this is wrong in SOOOO many ways.... NO ONE should invest in this confusing, erroneous book...

This is for people that want to learn the basics of genetics. It is a simple book with illustrations that you can find in any genetics book that has pictures. The written material is the same drab of any genetics book. Only buy this if you need it for a class. If you are getting it for a light read, get an older edition and save some money. YOu will get the same material that way.

The over all time to get the book was good and the condition was good. Just like in the the message said when I went to buy it.

Seller sent the 6th Edition, but it doesn't look like the picture and it's the international edition. I don't think I would have bought the item if I knew it weren't the one being advertised.