Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 Excellent purchase September 3, 2008
Book was shipped on time and came in great condition. Had no problems. Great experience
Good high school chem book July 26, 2007
This was a good book to learn chem from for a high school chem class OR use as a supplement to one's high school AP chemistry class. Good clear explanations. In re one of the previous reviewers comments, I do agree that some answers were wrong. The problems given in the book were of average difficulty, perfect for an average chem student.
 review from AP chem student March 27, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Overall, I didn't especially like this book. I used it in high school AP chemistry for an entire year.
First of all, the hardcover edition is very heavy and generally cumbersome to use, and i'd definately recommend buying the paperback edition. The book attempts to cover a huge amount of material, which is overwhelming, and it is too much to cover in the course of one academic year.
The content of this book was of average quality, but at times confusing. Many of the explanations provided seem to require a background in chemistry--not a good thing if this is the first chem course you have ever taken. But if you've studied chmistry previously, this book should be fine, provided that you understand how to do basic calculations using conversion factors and mole ratios.
I was sometimes confused by the more complicated topics. In some cases, the explanations of the topics were fine, but the examples problems went above and beyond the basics, which was confusing. Other times, the explanations were unclear but the examples were fine. Generally, I was able to understand the concept in the end, but at times it was frustrating.
The thing that bothered me the most about this book was that some of the most basic formulas were not explicitly stated. The book would show you how to derive the formulas and do a number of complicated calculations, but the formulas themselves are not always right there, in bold print. I'd be sitting there trying to do my homework, and i'd have to go searching back through the text to find the formulas, which was annoying. I'd recommend writing the formulas out seperatly, of using one of those quick-study guide things that fits into a 3-ring binder.
Also, beware, some of the answers in the back of the book are incorrect and/or don't match what's in the solutions manual.
Great book February 23, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
To tell you frankly I am very poor in Chemistry. This book has been a great help in understanding facts. The book is wonderfully illustrated with examples and sample problems. This is a better or easier reading book than say Brady Senese (which is also a very good book btw)
students and penny-pinchers January 25, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
the international paperback version of this book is exactly the same as the hardback version and it's considerably less expensive. it comes with the CD-ROM but does NOT provide OWL or online access codes to the web based program- but you can purchase those separately at the thomas learning website... and you'd still be saving money.
as for the book, I've only been using it 3 weeks but I like it so far. (much better than chemistry: structure and dynamics which I used last term- blah!). while not for complete beginners the explanations and sample problems are well written and there are lots of homework questions to make sure you really understand the material. (odd answers are in the back of the book). the real selling point for me is that all the pictures are in color (very helpful if you're a visual learner).
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