Customer Reviews

Prentice Hall Chemistry

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

 

 

This book was largely a disappointment. I had heard previously that this was the leading high school text that is used and had high expectations. I was disappointed to find a plethora of type errors (including math mistakes!) and also very poor descriptions of things like bonding theory, equilibrium constants, reaction rates etc. The book covers a lot but fails to get real advanced in much of anything. I would reccomend for the advanced high school student a college level text with a good teacher instead of wasting your time on this.

This book is a good study aid if you have a good instructor. However, depending on this book to teach you chemistry may become a little confusing (as my high school teacher is currently doing). I noticed that it's not very straightforward. Say you were learning about radiation - the types of radiation and how decay occurs. The text itself won't tell you exactly how the mass or atomic number changes after a certain radioactive decay. Rather, it provides you with assessment questions at the end of each section with direct questions about number changes, making it so that you would have to figure out from the extensive number of examples what the answer is. This textbook's method of teaching is making the reader infer, which is great for literature, but certainly not for textbooks. I recommend something that is more concise and straightforward: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry, 2nd Edition (Complete Idiot's Guide to). What takes 3 pages to explain in the textbook is explained in 3 paragraphs in this guide.

this book contains all the necessary information, but the way its written leaves much to be desired. if you're trying to learn for yourself expect to read each paragraph at least twice before grasping the idea. also it fails to simply walk the reader through chemistry equations (molarity, molality, ect.)

Good thing my teacher was so good because this book is terrible.

The explanations are lacking in important areas and overdone in others. It spends like 2 pages on VSEPR theory, incomplete activity series and solubility rules, and terrible intro in stoichiometry. We only did 15 chapters, but this book didn't help at all. I didn't even read half of it because the problems offer no challenge whatsoever. Not enough application problems. The end of section review Qs only ask for definitions and explanations, no real chemistry. No difficult and tricky questions whatsoever.

Honestly, no clue why high schools use this text so much. Pretty sad if this is the best there is.

This book is fine for students who have no problem manipulating equations and
don't mind doing calculation after calculation after calculation after calculation...
Way to many calculations for the student who just wants a basic idea of what chemistry is
all about. Probably a good book for students who naturally are good at calculating, self
learning, figuring out problems with little guidance. The assessments always present
problems in a way that is different than how they were presented in the examples.
Very frustrating for this homeschool mom whose high school aged daughter is not interested in the subject. (She started off a little interested, now is just completely turned off to it.) Even her math tutor doesn't want to
tackle some of the problems.

Received book/CD in less than a week in good condition. It is helping my daughter to stay ahead and review Chemistry more carefully. Having textbooks at home is better than having to carry the heavy textbook, and better than using the online book.

First time ordering a used book. Referred to other customer ratings and reviews for guidance on quality and reliability. Book is in excellent condition. Would order from them again without hesitation.

The book seems fairly good, a bit too much information for middle-school kids, probably more than they need. It seems very comprehensive to me, I hope the students make good use of it.

The authors do not know how to make chemistry concepts clear and simple. They make simple concepts complex. The book is full of fluffy materials and long paragraphs of commentaries.

I agree with many reviews on this board. This is not a good book for high school students. The only good reviews about the book are for the condition of the books, praising Amazon services. Contents are the king! I can live with an old book with good contents. I am very disappointed that our schools choose this book as textbook.

I am very happy with my purchase. The condition was very good, better than stated and delivered quickly. I would purchase from All American Textbooks again.