Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good self-study course, if you're interested, November 3, 2000
I am the reader from Montezuma, NM, and after taking a few more chemistry courses and re-reading the outline, I feel that I should add a few observations to my enthusiastic review from above, which I wrote over 3 years ago.I own many, many Schaum's Outlines, and am satisfied with all of them. However, before you buy this outline of college chemistry or any of the other Schaum's Outlines, you need to ask yourself what your needs are. If you are looking for a brief review of a subject, you should look elsewhere. If you are taking a course in general chemistry and need a little help with some areas of it, you should look elsewhere--preferably, ask someone with a thorough grasp of the subject to explain those areas to you. The Schaum's Outlines are best used as a self-study tool. Let's face it, reviewing an entire subject and solving all the problems to gain a solid grasp on the material is difficult and time-consuming, and I suspect few students already enrolled in a course will have the extra time to rehash what they've already been told by reading through a Schaum's Outline, and even fewer will want to go through so many problems--at least in my courses, the problems we are provided are too much to begin with. For review purposes, Schaum's may help some students, especially if you are reviewing years of material such as I did for my IB exam. However, since you need to know what your course will test you on specifically, you would need to go through the outline along with your notes. Therefore, spending more time reviewing your course notes might be a better use of your time. Schaum's Outlines are essentially cheaply made textbooks, and, as with other texts, the writing varies widely from one book in the series to another. If a cheap self-study course is what you seek, or you'd like to preview a course you plan to take, by all means go with Schaum's. If you are a student looking for help with a subject, seek it elsewhere. For help with grades, I suggest you try the Scham's "How to Study" guide and follow their suggestions.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Study Aid, March 30, 1998
By A Customer
This book is concise and complete. The reviews are great, and the problems aren't just busywork--they actually will help you understand the material. For the higher level International Baccalaureate chemistry exam, I have had to review 2 years worth of general chemistry, and this book has helped me immensely.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is what a chemistry help book should be!, February 13, 2006
Over the passed few months, I have been buying a lot of chemistry help books to help me survive college chemistry. I have bought the more popular ones like Chemistry for Dummies and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry. Both of these books are ok, but the part that they really lack is that they didn't adequately help me in the math of chemistry. In fact, it's actually kind of misleading to read these books, and then take a chemistry class. Because these books brush over the math of chemistry so much that I was led to believe that chemistry didn't have that much math in it. But nothing could be further from the truth! When I took my first chemistry class, I felt like I had more math than I did in my actual math class. And, unfortunately, both Chemistry for Dummies and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry didn't help out too much in this area (and to make matters worse, the FEW examples of math based chemistry problems they had were ridiculously easy.)
I was fed up. I had spent money on two chemistry books that were near worthless as far as helping me out with the math. And when it came to chemistry 102, Chemistry for Dummies might as well have been cast into a fire.. as it doesn't seem to cover much of anything passed chemistry 101 (just look up "enthalpy" in the index... it doesn't even merit a mention in Chemistry for Dummies!). After I told my professor about my problem, he showed me Schaum's Outlines for College Chemistry. I thought, "Oh great, another worthless chemistry book." But then when I flipped through it, it was like a dream come true. Not only does it cover just about every single topic from chemistry 101 AND 102, it also has page after page after page of examples of math based chemistry problems, and it breaks the problems down so that I could teach myself how to work the math problems.
And incase anyone is wondering, yes it does explain the main topics in chemistry. So it's not just a straight math book. The explanations are a little dry compared to Chemistry for Dummies and the Idiot's Guide to Chemistry, but this book is so infinitely awesome in every other way, that this is easily forgivable (besides, the Dummies and Idiot's book may be more fun to read, but they do so at the sacrifice of information, and are often overly simplistic).
As far as I'm concerned this is a TRUE chemistry help book. It is by far the most complete chemistry help book I have ever seen. Remember this: chemistry is not a spectator sport. It is a lot of math, and math must be practiced over and over until it is mastered. Chemistry is not a subject like biology where all you have to do is "read it and memorize it". If you're looking for a good chemistry help book, then I don't think you have to look any further than Schaum's College Chemistry.
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