Customer Reviews

General Chemistry

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

 

 

I am majoring in Biochemistry and we use this textbook for 1st year General Chemistry. I am not completely satisfied with it because I would have liked to see MORE examples of worked-out-problems in the text. It does have nice pictures showing what the text is teaching and it does have lots of problems at the end of each chapter for students to work on. However, I would have liked to see more examples of solved problems because there needs to be this to aid the student of Chemistry learn the subject better.

I am currently using this book as a first-year biology major, taking the average bio major's chem class. I have found this book to be poorly written and often unclear. I have found several mathematical and theoretical mistakes among the problems of the book, and as other reviewers have mentioned, it is very simplified and does not encompass more than the basic attributes and applications to whatever laws and theories it covers. The worst thing about this book is the fact that it is just an absolute pain to read. Chemistry is not as boring as this book makes it out to be. This text is not engaging at all. With all of the Chem texts I've seen in my professor's office, I wonder what made her choose this awful one to require for the class (thankfully, after thumbing through another one of her texts and commenting on how interesting it made everything, she said I could have it).

I'm a junior chemistry major, and we used this book in our General Chemistry I and II course. I must say, this book is awful. The problems in the back of the book are extremely easy and only cover the basics of each section. For instance, in Chapter 17, on acid-base equilibrium, the book only covers how to do a handful of types of acid-base equilibria problems, when there are tons of different types. For me, it was absolutely useless to even look at the book because the problems were so simplified and all exactly the same.

If your class suggests this book, I'd recommend purchasing another book because unless your professor is really easy, you'll be pretty screwed over trying to learn anything from this piece of trash.

This is a text that is relatively low level among those for science majors. It is generally clearly written. If you find questions on your test consistantly harder than the ones in this text, you might have to find used copies of other "harder" textbooks (Zumdahl, Brown/LeMay/Bursten, or Oxtoby) and work some of the more challenging end-of-chapter problems. On the other hand, if you can understand the concepts and follow the explanations in the text, you will have to buy a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry or Chemistry for Dummies.

An excellent textbook. The book was already outdated when I bought it for a Gen Chem class. It contained everything I needed. If your instructor will allow it, get an older edition. There are very few changes in newer editions of Ebbing/Gammon.

It has great examples. If you work out the examples, then the practice problems, and then the end of chapter problems, you should have an excellent understanding of the concepts. I wish my Physics text was like this book!

This book taught me a year of General Chemistry. It was a great resource.