Customer Reviews

Genetics: Analysis of Genes and Genomes

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

 

 

This is the 7th Edition, and has an orange cover. There have been so many errors in this textbook as well as the solutions manual that our course professor gives extra credit to those who point the errors out first in the problem sets. And this is the 7th Edition? Give me a break.
Errors include giving the wrong fractional values for specific genetics problems. Equations needed on the test are stated incorrectly in the text. The few answers that they give you in the back of the text book also contains errors. In the solutions manual I recall they were base pairing A with G and T with C, which resulted from a formatting error.
How do you get to the 7th Edition of a book and have so many GROSS errors in a college level textbook? This leads me to believe that the source is Greed, when I see the price this book cost at the university bookstore and the gross negligence of failing to even proofread parts of the text before printing this error filled text.

This is probably the worst textbook I have ever had to use after finishing a bachelors in biology! There is an incredible amount of errors that make this book lose all credibility. I would not trust any other book from either of these authors. I wonder if they ever had it proof read. There was a minimum of 5 errors PER CHAPTER! In my opinion, there shouldn't even be 5 errors in an entire textbook being used at universities. After reading just 2 chapters in this book I couldn't trust any of the information it was giving me because I was afraid it was another error. It makes the learning process take MUCH longer. If you ever have a choice, do not get this book. Plead with professors to use another book because this book will stunt your learning and put you in risk of getting the wrong information and a bad grade. AVOID THIS BOOK!

This is by far the worst textbook I've used in my college career. The content is explained in a way that is fairly understandable; some parts seem much more confusing than they should be, but you see that with a lot of textbooks.

The biggest flaw in this book was the editing. Each chapter had many, many mistakes. Mistakes in grammar, basic algebra, inconsistent numbers throughout problems, and just general mistakes. The mistakes made learning the content far more difficult than it actually was. It's as if the authors wrote the book straight through and then nobody proofread it. The solutions manual didn't help things either as it too was filled with errors. My friends and I even found what seemed to be an uncaught prank in the book, where a challenge problem stated, "The Christmas Grinch has a genetic mapping function given the formula..." The Christmas Grinch? It didn't make any sense and it is unprofessional.

I would strongly recommend against this textbook. But unfortunately, if you're getting it for a class, you probably don't have a choice.

Purchased this for a genetics class i took a while back and provided me with all the information i needed to complete the course.

This book might be good if used as a secondary reference for an introductory class, but it is definitely not a title I would recommend for someone trying to teach themselves about the subject. I felt constantly like I was being talked down to. The authors waste your time with unnecessary stories about so-and-so with such-and-such genetic disorder, along with space in the book for accompanying pictures. Sentence structure is poor; the text feels as if it were written around a multiple-choice test.

Another reviewer said that this text could be used for grad students; I would tend to disagree. Grad students are accustomed to getting a bit more respect from their textbooks. By this point in our academic careers, we aren't going to pay attention just because you threw in a picture of a cat (yep, see page 29)-- we're here for the science.

Generally speaking, it's not a book to read if you just want to know the science of genetics and understand the moving parts.

This book is written by two Harvard professors for their introductory life sciences course. I had to take this course because it's a requirement, and I'm annoyed that they assigned such an expensive, self-written textbook.

Personal annoyance aside, however, I have to say that this is a well-written textbook. I'm not so sure it's worth the steep price, but the writing is clear, the diagrams are helpful, and it really assisted me in understanding and clarifying fundamental biological concepts. I can't say this for most of the textbooks I've used. (The textbook was certainly a lot clearer than the lecture, unfortunately.) Given that textbooks in general cost a fortune, I wouldn't consider this a bad investment.

GOOD PICTURE REPRESENTATION WITH EXCELLENT NOTES AND LOTS OF EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT GENE AND GENOMES . PROBLEMS HAVE SOME ERRORS ITS LITTLE CONFUSING BUT OVERALL A FABALOUS TEXT BOOK OF GENETICS. GOOD FOR STANDARD EXAM PREPARATIONS AND ALSO FOR UNDERGRAD/GRAD STUDENTS . ALL THE BEST CHECK FOR FOR MINNOR ERRORS IN THE TEXT .... TAKE THE BEST OUT OF IT .....