Customer Reviews

Organic Chemistry

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not a very good organic text. My department selected this text, and I am teaching out of it now, but I don't like it very much. It follows the standard functional-group based organization that the majority of organic texts on the market currently use, which I have certain problems with (see the text by Whitesell & Fox for a contemporary alternative organizational format). I don't think that this text does a sufficient job in the beginning of equipping the student with the fundamental chemical principles that are needed later in the course, especially with the sparse treatment of bonding and MO theory given in the first chapter. The same goes for the treatment of basic principles of thermodynamics, kinetics, and acid-base theory. These are such important principles; I wish the text did a more thorough job in discussing them. The biggest gripe that I have about the text is that it is a slave to the new IUPAC system of organic nomenclature. For example, while, granted it is technically correct, according to the IUPAC system, to use 1,1-dimethylethyl to refer to a tert-butyl group, practically speaking, this is not the case. Just call it a tert-butyl group for Heaven's sake!! 99.999% of organic chemists are going to know what you are talking about. The homework problems also leave a lot to be desired. If you are considering adopting this text, I'd recommend taking a good look at one of the other texts on the market (e.g. Whitesell & Fox, Jones, or Bruice) before adopting this one. You might come to regret your decision.

A very well-written text, Vollhardt covers basic functional groups in organic chemistry and even difunctional compounds, carbohydrates, polycyclic benzenoid and heterocycles. With very plain language and explicit illustrations, each chapter provides a summary of new reactions and plenty of exercises. The intensity of this book is along the line with McMurry's Organic Chemistry. This book is suitable for especially students studying biological sciences who need an overview in organic chemistry.

Granted I am taking this course for the second time (yes I fell behind and hopelessly played "catch-up"). However, the previous book I used by Bruice was far more helpful. It contained more examples, explanations were more simply put, and there were more excercises throughout the chapters to reinforce concepts. Although there were several mistakes (apparently due to bad editing), I felt overall, the text by Bruice was superior.

After one term of having this book, I decided to become

a chemist. It grabbed me really hard and made me realize

the complexity and wonder of chemistry (something I hadn't experienced with freshman chem.) If you are a chemistry major, this is definitely the book you will want to use. If your prof is using a different text, I'd definitely keep a copy of this one to use as a second opinion, at least. It is extremely well-written and it's written at a high level. In other words, it

doesn't just string you along and give you the basics...

it delves deeply into reaction mechanisms and what is

actually happening in each reaction. Product yields for

many reactions are included, and this is quite useful.

The writing style makes you learn a new way of thinking - that of a scientist. At times, the syntax is a little "brainy"

(they refer to acetone by its IUPAC name, "propanone",

for instance, and they refer to ethylene oxide as "oxacyclopropane".) I had an earlier version of this book in class when I took organic many years ago, but the revisions are mostly in presentation and in the problem sets. True, the problems in each chapter are not always good. If your instructor is good, they will provide their own problems to supplement the book's. But my suggestion is to go ahead and just do a web search for old exams and problems given by profs at other schools. Many of these are great and will give you tons of insight. For those who have already graduated, this is a good and up-to-date book to keep with you in your graduate studies or in the lab if you work in such a capacity.

If you want a book to start learning university Organic Chemistry...this is the one. The text is well writen, very clear and is always acompanied with ilustrations wich use color to enhance your understanding. These factors make it a easy-to-grasp book (but still concise) that doesn't demand any high level chemistry. It covers some necessary bonding concepts, nomenclature, reaction mechanisms and examples of organic chemistry applications. It was very helpful for me...and I still refer to it for the concepts of reaction mechanisms and structures in organic chemistry issues.

I used this text for my introductory Organic chem class, and found it both easy to read and helpful. It seems well-organized and has plenty of clear examples and good chapter-end summaries. However, I would highly recommend purchasing the study guide and solutions manual as well. Many of the problems are challenging, and having this resource available is very helpful. However, at the time of this writing, the only version of this study guide available on Amazon is that for the 3rd edition, which is little good for use with the 4th edition textbook, so be sure find the proper study guide for the textbook you purchase.

this book is great for two main reasons:

1) the way my orgo class is set up, the prof teaches pretty much out of the book. so i mean if you don't go to class, that's fine. reason for that? because we use this text, which does a great job of explaining everything. it covers all the models that can help you more easily visualize things in your mind, like orbital-level models when visualizing mechanisms. while some of the earlier chapters, like the one on stereochemistry, can still be a little confusing, the text is overall well-written.

GRADE: A-

2) PROBLEMS: problems are the bread and butter for doing well in orgo. this book provides a lot of problems and equips you to think in the right way in order to do well in any organic class. furthermore, the problems are pretty appropriate; there are none that are too difficult given the material that is actually covered in the textbook. i highly recommend getting the solutions manual for the sole reason of checking answers. if you hope to find a solutions manual that will explain why you did something wrong, you'll be left disappointed as it will only leave you more confused in its attempt to explain how it arrived at the right answer.

After perusing several other texts at different colleges, I have come to the conclusion that the Vollhardt book is indeed a well done text. Although more examples would have been nice, I feel that the reactions are done in a straightforward manner and the Chemical Highlights provided are fantastically interesting. The Viagra synthesis presented was very helpful in discussing yields of pharmaceutical drugs. Overall, I'd give this book a B+/A-

this book is recomanded for any people who are interested in organic chemistry.

it is so easy to read and understand

befor i bought the book me & my friend check alot of books and we think this book is one of the best book today on the market the book show u and explain u how reaction are going in color (very nice and use full ) in the last of each section u have a summery reaction list and the exrcise are very good like in the test & this book come with very nice prog that exercise u and show u 3d reaction like sn1,sn2,e1,e2 benzen reaction and more any way don't hate organic chemistry soooooo much :-) bye bye ,and good luck on your's exam y.m bar-ilan university