Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive for a Chemsitry text, easy to read and understand., October 29, 2005
The Pros: Whew... This coupeled with a great teacher for the course have made Organic Chemistry a little less painfull than it would otherwise be.
An extremely easy read compared to my Chemistry I and II texts, Carey doesn't just spew chemical jargon like so many Chemistry authors tend to do. He provides unique visuals, supporting facts, and side notes that provide usefull information, and occasional real world application stories about the importance of organic chemistry... like in the 60s Dr.s used the wrong enantiomer (certain shape) of a chemical that had a mirror image chemical that should have been used instead... this lead to birth defects in childeren...It takes what your are learning and shows you how this is and has been important.
Another Pro: The student solution manual comes with complete answers and detailed explanations to all questions... a big help when I get stuck on a 'but why'... problem.
The con: The included CD-ROM for Molecular modeling isn't that good. A really hard-to-use program, definately not user friendly, and I'm an advanced pc user. If you have about a month before your Organic class begins, you could probably go through the Chapter summaries at the end of the text, and the programs online help site to figure it out, but once you start Organic I, you're not going to have time to waste figuring this out... I suggest the classic plastic molecular model kits (available here on amazon). The pretince hall ball and stick models seem to be the Chem norm and I like them the best.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
In Peripatetic Style, Carey Waxes Tirelessly While Avoiding the Point, May 4, 2006
Ok, perhaps I'm being a little harsh. Whether or not you enjoy this book by the esteemed Professor Emeritus Dr. Carey (Virginia ) depends largely on the teaching methods you embrace. Personally, I am the "Joe Friday" of students. Just the facts please unless and until I ask for more. As I read Carey, I envision a group of gangly sophomores following their Professor around their Jeffersonian campus as their teacher drops morsels of wisdom and his students anxiously retrieve them. As the brisk walk comes to a close, Professor Carey will guide you back to the classroom from where you originally departed and tell you all that you really needed to know about organic chemistry.
All of the aforementioned is a "Careyesque" way of saying, if you use this text, always read the last paragraph first. If you curious about "Why?", then go back and read the preceding paragraphs ( in order ).
The fine details that Carey offers in some areas are truly quite interesting on subsequent reading but at first they are tiresome and admittedly distracting.
I grew to love organic chemistry. Like most difficult subjects, it requires multiple textbooks to truly tame this monster. If you find the Carey approach annoying, I suggest some additional material.
Brown/Foote have published a fine text on Organic Chemistry with an additional solutions manual. No fluff here. These guys grew on watching Friday and Gannon. They are an excellent source of mechnisms and practice problems not found in Carey. Another nice benefit of Brown/Foote is that they organize the problems in the back of each chapter under the topic of the material so you can target your weaknesses. Strongly recommended. 5 stars.
Also, please utilize Professor Klein's ( Hopkins ) two books ( Organic Chemistry as a 2nd language and Second semester topics ). I found his books to be a wonderful STARTING point for topics and he often has wonderful heuristics that are helpful. Beware however, that I did find direct contradictions in a few areas between Carey and Klein on the subject of Substitution vs Elimination competition. In fairness to both, the matter is very difficult to illuminate because many times the answer is a prediction but results must be determined experimentally.
Finally, do NOT buy flash cards. You must make your own. Use them religiously. Keep score of the number of times to get the answer right AND the number of times you get it wrong. Keep working the cards until you get it right more times than you get it wrong.
I also purchased the solutions manual for Carey. All I can say is that you CANNOT live without it. It is a superb tool when used properly. The practice exams at the end of each chapter are terrific.
Good luck on your journey. May you tame the monster young Jedi.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A decent resource for Orgo beginners, September 13, 2006
Orgo (I, II) was the most difficult subject I EVER had. I've taken both sections over and went through 2 books. The strengths of this particular book are its reaction summaries: before introducing a topic, the author dedicates a page or two to summarizing the reactions that lead up to this topic and then summarizes the reactions of the topic once he's through explaining it. Example: 'Reactions That Yield Alcohols' and then `Reactions of Alcohols'. Summaries are accompanied by short, yet thorough descriptions. With elaborate and comprehensive reaction mechanisms, this book is more of a reference that a textbook, although the text is inclusive and relatively simple. If you understand the lectures and use this book for mechanisms, reactions and problems, rather that for understanding concepts, you'll be fine.
One major weakness of this book is the NMR IR Spectroscopy section, which does a poor job of explaining this easy but confusing topic. Another shortcoming -- the only all-inclusive table of functional groups is provided in the index at the very back of the book, so you'll have to make a copy to keep it handy at all times. The problems deserve a mention -- most are simple and repetitive, those who do them get the grades.
A general note to the beginners: ALLNIGHTERS BEFORE ORGO EXAMS DO NOT WORK (even if you put Ritalin in your coffee)!!! Do yourselves a big favor, study constantly through the semester and just review before the exam. Concentrate on mechanisms and problems rather than on theory and you will successed. Remember -- memorization comes from doing problems and not from repeating a reaction 10 times in a row. All the luck in the world to the brave souls who register for o-chem!
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