Customer Reviews

Pushing Electrons: A Guide for Students of Organic Chemistry

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

 

 

Adoption of hard cover for this book indicates that it has been more widely used as a supplimentary text for organic courses. Indeed just as the title suggests, this serves as a guide to "push electrons", the main principle behind writing reasonable mechanisms for organic reactions. Many students, unfortunately, find writing mechanisms extremely difficult and have no clue of how to begin. This book does not present chemistry of major functional groups, rather focuses on discussing how electrons shall move properly. Students who consider taking organic chemistry should at least read through this book, as a prerequisite check for your knowledge of electron structures and feel comfortable about directions of which electrons move. Excellent tool for organic student except that now students have to pay a higher price for the hard-cover version.

This book starts out great, because it really makes it clear for us idiots the reason electrons are pushed. It is an engaging study tool that makes you want to open the book everyday. The problem with the book, I'm now learning, is that I now know how to push electrons, but I still don't know when to apply what rules. I thought that the book would have talked more about how to identify electrophiles, and nucleophiles (with regards to reagents). Instead the books jumps for being really easy to follow, to asking the reader to attempt really complex mechanisms. That's like asking a kid who just learned his ABC's to write a book. Very poor ending.

However, for those of you who are clear on electrophiles and nucleophiles, this book would be perfect for you. I suspect that if you know those well, you might not need this book.

This book is not a substitution for organic chemistry by any means. It's mean (the first 2 chapters) to prepare, review, and reinforce concepts learned in Gen Chem but vital to organic.

The last 3 chapters are not review. They require some understanding of organic first. They are meant to reinforce and review what you learn in class.

So you can't just jump for chapter 1 and 2 directly into 3. One and two are meant for prior to organic. And 3 through 5 are to be used during the class.

It's definately got me several steps up on my classmates so far.

Ken

The book is truly useful and very easy to read. Although it does not cover a lot of topics from Organic Chem., the topics that are covered are greatly explained. It is worth the money!

I'm taking Organic Chemistry this semester at a Big 12 university, and bought this book on recommendation from my professor. The simple truth is, past a certain point, you can no longer rely entirely upon memorizing reactions to do well in this subject -- you really have to understand the mechanisms. This book provides the basis for that, and is therefore very valuable. It's only downfall is that it's very expensive... If you're ok with parting with 50 dollars I'd recommend it.

This book refrains on the theory and encourage the practice of pushing electron. It's extremely easy to follow and a great practice guide to read before a first organic chemistry course. Help the student master a technique essential to the understanding of Organic Chemistry mechanism.

This book is a wonderful homework tool in helping to learn this concept. It is full of sample problems and solutions to get you to understand and learn!

This was an optional text for my organic class. It starts with some very basic review, but by chapter 3 (there are 5 chapters total), it dives into topics that are very useful for organic. The book is tedious to complete. It seemed like I drew hundreds of benzene rings. But the repetition and review were helpful tools for remembering everything. If you have the patience to work through the exercises in this book, the concepts learned will be nice tools to have on your belt!

I forget at this point what the description was at the time I bought it, but it was a good quality book and very helpful to anybody who has to take Organic Chemistry.

This book is a great resource for preparing to take Organic Chemistry. It takes about a total of 12 hours to read the book and do the practice activities. It was an awesome review of Lewis structures and electrons! I would highly recommend it to anyone taking Organic Chemistry!