Customer Reviews

Organic Chemistry and CW+ GradeTracker Access Card Package, 6th Edition

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Now I do BMedSc which means I dont have all the time nor the patience to study loathsome texts that are both pedantic and verbose. I am majoring in three streams of chemistry each valid in its own right (Organic synthesis, Biochemical pathways, Analytical/Physical chemistry). So basically I have limited cash to through around buying books and at that have limited time to study the books I get. There is only so much a person can ingest academically without obliterating their sanity and social life. Wade has made life easy for me because it censors itself from all the crap that you really dont want to face in Organic chemistry and saves them for the later chapters. By then you would have established yourself from the earlier chapters and will find it easier to tackle reactions, reaction mechanisms, molecular protocols and this nonsense they call spectroscopy.

The ups of this book are:

It isnt too introductory or too complex so it teaches you all that you need and also will serve as a reference later on.

It has a fine balance of complex problems and explanations to back everything up.

It has appropriate graphics and very well summarized at the end of chapters.

I personally suggest that March's Advanced Organic chemistry is a pretty good buy along side this book. That way you dont have a large bulky text you have to carry all the time. You can consult either of the two depending on what it is you are looking for. Now if you want to really save money are too tight then get Organic Chemistry by Nick Greeves et al is pretty good a book, cheap and well done overall; very robust. But I have my standing with this. I personally own three organic text series that I covet:

This, obviously.

March's Advanced Organic chemistry.

The third is an absolute secret lol, well its Vogel's practical organic chemistry.

March's does a real good job on reactions and mechanisms, so after your done understanding primary concepts through wade you'd just be carrying March's. The last, Vogel's is pretty advanced stuff and is (like the name suggests) very practical. It goes in depth with experimental procedure and theory of experimental procedure; overall this book starts and undergrad and helps you all the way till you start working.

So I must admit that this is the book my favorite professor in college used. I also must admit that my favorite professor in college was Skip Wade the author. That said, this is a *very* good book if you're looking to understand the concepts behind orgo. Yes, there's memorizing (for goodness sakes, make flashcards! You can't get around this!). Yes, it's a pain. Yes, you'll find yourself doing 'back attacks' in your sleep. But in the end, this book will beat into you the intuition necessary to continue on in chemistry. And, as an added bonus, Wade throws in some little jokes to give you relief during those all night study sessions. Ah, memories...

-- a current chemistry graduate student (with Wade still on my desk)

Wade's Organic Chemistry is becoming a classic introductory text, and with good reason. For its target audience of second-year undergraduates (with no background in organic chemistry whatsoever), this text is an invaluable resource to help get through a notoriously difficult subject. Throughout the text, Wade emphasizes certain principles to guide students' thought processes, helping them see what a truly and surprisingly logical subject organic chemistry really is.

The organization of the text is largely by functional group; occasionally, functional groups are split into one synthesis chapter and one reactions chapter. There are also chapters on spectrometry and spectroscopy (Mass, IR, NMR, UV-Vis) as well as a few very important concepts in organic chemistry (stereochemistry, substitution and elimination, aromaticity).

Wade's pedagogy focuses on reaction mechanisms, and this is key to establishing patterns in students' minds so they can predict the outcome of a wide variety of organic reactions. Arrow-pushing diagrams are really the heart of organic chemistry, and in this text, there are hundreds, all very clear and instructive. Wade is also wise not to burden first-year students with too much organometallic chemistry; a rigorous understanding of Grignard and organolithium reagents, as well as various inorganic catalysts, is beyond the scope of an introductory text. Wade focuses on the organic aspects, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Colored electrostatic potential maps are extremely useful for beginning students learning to predict reactive sites; various three-dimensional models are helpful for visualizing reaction stereochemistry, a crucially important topic.

The only real complaint I could level at Wade is that the text does not emphasize real-world chemistry, such as competing reactions, the cost of reagents, safety concerns, and alternative synthetic routes. For those students required to take the course but not pursuing a degree in chemistry, such objections are irrelevant; for those pursuing a degree in chemistry, more advanced coursework and practical lab experience will undoubtedly fill these gaps to some extent.

Although the text runs well over a thousand pages, length may be the price to pay for Wade's clear language and helpful visuals. This text is certain to make a notoriously difficult subject accessible to as wide an audience as possible, and along the way, give students an appreciation for a truly fascinating subject.

This book is nicely written for someone who is not going to be an organic chemist. It is easy to read and understand. One downfall I will mention is that it is so easy to read, students are many times fooled into thinking that they understand the material. But overall, good features including helpful graphics, summaries and examples.

This is one of the finest O-Chem books I've seen! I own other O-Chem textbooks, but this one does a superb job of explaining concepts in detail, and providing useful notes in the margins to avoid common mistakes. It's well-written and explains concepts in very good detail. There's a reason that L.G. Wade's books are the standard for O-chem textbooks, and this book follows in that great tradition of excellence that has become the Hallmark of L.G. Wade's writing. I strongly recommend getting the full solutions manual with it as well.

Well-designed, sophomore-level organic chemistry textbook. Very colorful and easy-to-read with large diagrams, great hints, interesting chapter introductions and real-world photos, and user-friendly illustrations of mechanisms and structures. Touches only briefly on the more advanced topics and lacks an extensive reference appendix (because it's only a sophomore-level book). However, I think it was a good buy and fun book to learn from. I used it later in my advanced chemistry classes to refresh what I had forgotten or we didn't cover.

Students in chemistry, this book is clear and colorful to a better understanding of this though class.

The book is good if you dont feel like forking out an additional $200 for the newest edition. Do find a friend who does own 7th edition if your professor assigns book questions. The new book has additional problems that are not in this edition.

Very easy to understand book.

book was well worth the cheap price. There really aren't that many marks on it and all of it is legible so it's definitely worth buying. I'm learning a lot and the product is just what it said it would be.

This is probably the only textbook that I actually have read for class completely. It was very thorough and easy to read. The book provided many sample and example questions. This book was my best friend for the class. Without it, I don't know if I could have passed the class as organic chemistry is a tough subject without a good professor and a good textbook.