The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry: A Student's Guide to Success [Paperback]

Joel Karty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0805331174 | ISBN-13: 978-0805331172 | Edition: 1

The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry will help readers change their learning habits so they can master the Organic Chemistry course. This text is designed for readers to use early in the course before they dive too far into a traditional textbook. It prepares readers to think about and use the fundamental concepts; it develops in readers the right mindset for learning organic chemistry. This brief book shows readers that understanding fundamental concepts is absolutely essential for success, and helps them develop a good feel for how to apply those concepts to many different situations.  The text helps convince readers that brute memorization is not the right way to approach the course; instead, they should master fundamental concepts and important reaction mechanisms.  By following the same philosophy as those who write the MCAT exams, Karty focuses on improving readers’ thinking ability and powers of logical deduction. KEY TOPICS: Why do most students struggle in Organic Chemistry?, Lewis dot structures and the chemical bond, Molecular geometry and dipole moments, Isomerism, Charge Stability — Charge is bad!, Reaction Mechanisms — electron rich to electron poor, Intermolecular forces, Sn1/Sn2/E1/E2 Reactions: The whole story. For all readers interested in understanding the fundamentals of organic chemistry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (June 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805331174
• ISBN-13: 978-0805331172
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #314,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A WAY to LEARN (not memorize) Organic Chemistry, April 19, 2007

By 

D. J Stemke "Argo" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry: A Student's Guide to Success (Paperback)

I am a College Professor in Biology and I simply cannot tell you how many of my students consider Organic Chemistry to be the make-or-break course heading toward their degree. With stacks of note cards each with an organic chemical reaction neatly upon it so go most students in their quest to 'study' organic chemistry-and that means one thing, memorize. Guess what? They hate the course, and more often than not do miserably. I simply can't tell you how many students change their entire life plans all because of this course. There is a better way.

Organic and for that matter most science classes are puzzles, if you think about them that way. What Karty does in this book is give students the tools to approach organic from that perspective. I was fotunate as an undergraduate to 'discover' a similar paradigm to study organic chemistry which I then used it as a way to appoach almost all my science courses (ok, I did have to do some memorizing). I have to say it really helped make me a true scientists. Learning how to approach and think about a reaction is the key to mastering this topic which is EXACTLY what he passes along.

I would highly recommend this book to those students who are actually trying to become scientists (not just exam-crammers) and those who are looking for a better way to learn organic. There simply is no other book that I have seen that does it as well as "The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry". I tip my hat to Dr. Karty for developing and offering such a valuable resource.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous!, January 5, 2007

By 

Lucy Cat "Mandy" (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry: A Student's Guide to Success (Paperback)

I really can't say enough good things about this book. For starters, it is the first chemistry book that I couldn't put down and didn't fall asleep after reading it for about 20 minutes. It covers all the pertinent general chemistry topics for organic and is designed to be read BEFORE you start organic. But don't worry, its the perfect companion for use throughout the year of Orgo1/2 as well because it teaches you how to make complicated problems very easy WITHOUT MEMORIZING any reactions or formulas. I had an A+ in general chemistry and I thought I had all those topics down to a tee--- this book showed me new ways to look at concepts and easier ways to solve. It really is a must have. If you plan on taking the MCAT, don't review without this book! It's brilliant!

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for organic chemistry students, May 10, 2006

By 

Aubrey Wilson (Elon, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry: A Student's Guide to Success (Paperback)

I have just finished taking a year of organic chemistry with Dr. Karty, and although I am not too fond of the subject, he is amazing. Karty is incredibly intelligent, but he has become a master at passing along this difficult material on to the us less genius people. This talent shows through in his "Nuts and Bolts" book. He breaks down the concepts into simple terms and helpful pictures. The main reason this book is so successful is that it really stresses the actual comprehension of the concepts rather than memorization of millions of little facts, and it becomes more and more apparent that this study technique is crucial to your own success in organic chemistry. I would recommend this book to any student going into an organic class, from the chem whizzes to the chem idiots.