Customer Reviews

Life

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

 

 

I used this book for 2 semesters of introductory biology in college. After the first month, I became frustrated with the poor explanations. I asked a few friends and they recommended Biology by Campbell. What a lifesaver!

I also continued to used this book and also found a number of errors in the pictures. This cost me a few points on tests and quizzes, so this added to my low opinion of this book. I also became hesitant to trust what it was telling me, particularly when there were differences between Campbell and this book.

It has a nice layout, and it breaks topics into meaningful chunks; the explanations were okay most times and simply inadequate too frequently for me. On a scale of 1 to 10, this book is about a 3 or 4 and Campbell is a 9. But reading Campbell also takes more time and effort.

This book is not nearly as comprehensive or thorough as Campbell's Biology, but it does do an ok job with the explanations. The book has a lot of charts that do a good job of summarizing the material, which is a feature the earlier editions of Campbell's lack. Some of the illustrations are as good as Campbell's, but I have noticed some inaccuracies in a couple of the illustrations, even though I have the fourth edition. This is not so good for Intro Students who don't know the difference yet. It also places too much emphasis on Linnean terminology (class, phylum, genus, etc), and not enough on cladistics/phylogenetics (which biologists use preferentially now).

The study guide questions at the end of each chapter aren't very good. They swing wildly in scope, with one question asking minutiae not covered very well in the preceding chapter, the next asking about broad concepts, and some big take-home points missed entirely.

There's also not many practical differences between the 4th and 5th editions. If you have to get it, buy a 4th edition and save yourself a lot of cash. If you don't have to get it, buy Campbell's Biology (5th, 6th, or 7th edition is fine) instead.

I was told to get this book for college Life Science, but it ended up being absolutly pointless in the class. What a waste of two dollars.

I did not receive the item I ordered. It is a bad experience.
I ordered the book "life" from this seller and chose Expedited Shipping.
The order status always shows as Shipping Soon even the expected date was over.
Contact Seller did not get any response.

So, do not buy anything from sarwatomar. It is a fraud.

The book arrived in better condition than stated. Fast shipping for the regular rate.

after i review i'll do tha