3 comments about Chemistry: A Molecular Approach (MasteringChemistry Series).

1. This is a new textbook for general chemistry. Yes, there a quite a number of general chemistry texts and they all cover roughly the same general material. They differ more in how they organize the material, illustrate it, and their method of helping the student develop a solid understanding and command of this basic material. The student not only needs to learn the basic facts of chemistry, she needs to learn how to think about it so when she looks at the world, she can see and understand the issues as they relate to this vital science.
   
   Dr. Tro begins this book by explaining how the text was developed and provides instructions for the student on how to make the most of the book. I liked this a great deal. He starts the book by providing what he thinks is the most important scientific idea in all of human knowledge: "the properties of matter are determined by the properties of molecules and atoms". From there he builds all the principles taught in general chemistry. He also define chemistry as: "the science that seeks to understand the behavior of matter by studying the behavior of atoms and molecules".
   
   Each chapter is organized in a similar fashion and a great deal of emphasis is placed on making the illustrations demonstrate a principle - a process - rather than an isolated picture. Tro also has interesting articles of chemistry in various fields in different chapters and he often introduces ideas with practical issues that will likely matter to the student.
   
   For review, at the end of each chapter he goes over the key concepts taught, the key equations and relationships discussed, and the key skills that the student is expected to have learned. He provides exercises to test one's mastery of the material that the student can answer for himself. The problems are organized by chapter topic. Those listed with blue numbers have answers provided in the back of the book. There are also cumulative problems that build on skills learned previously, challenge problems, and conceptual problems that go a bit further than the minimum requirements of chapter mastery.
   
   Besides Appendix III with selected answers, there are others with key equations, useful data, and a glossary. And there is a good index, as well.
   
   I think it is a handsome and very useful text for teaching and learning general chemistry. A general reader could benefit from studying from it because it is clear and engaging enough that one can work through what is being taught.



2. They were out of stock so my order was cancelled. I did received my refund in a timely manner.



3. My whole class did not like the book. I deeeply regret paying so much for it. It's pretty confusing and it has little examples on how to solve the problems.

2 comments about Chemistry Problem Solver (Problem Solvers).

1. This book helped me pass my chem class w/ a good grade. Although time consuming to do the problems, if you take the time it will help you master the concept & improve your grades. I spent hours doing problems in this book but it was well worth it...



2. I couldn't have passed the course without this book. Every problem explained in step by step.

4 comments about Organic Chemistry Study Guide with Solutions Manual.

1. the delivery was timely, the book was in good condition, and the price was a good deal



2. The product arrived quickly and in very good condition. I was very happy with my purchase. Thank you.



3. The book came in just a few days. It was exactly as described.
   Excellent transaction.



4. The guide was in excellent condition, just as stated, and I hope it will be helpful to me this fall.

5 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry, 2nd Edition (Complete Idiot's Guide to).

1. I purchased this book to help with homework and I have found it to be very helpful. The book covers the basics of a high school chemistry course but unlike most textbooks or internet resources, it tries to break down and simplify chemistry to make it more manageable. For example, I was having a difficult time explaining Lewis Dot structures or even finding a good resource for understanding it on the web. The author did a very good job of simplifying the approach whereby the generation of these structures made sense. The periodic table that is included in the book is detachable and also helpful. I would have liked a few more problems and some additional pictures may have been helpful but it was an excellent resource especially when combined with a number of the fine websites and interactive periodic tables on the web. It certainly made my life easier helping with homework and recommend it.



2. book as good as new, got in on time, and overall i was satisfied with the purchase and the delivery process



3. I admit I was a bit insulted by the title, after I was refered to this book by a librarian. However I had went through at least five or six chemstry books before I found one that I could remotely understand. Ideally enough it follows the similair if not same pattern as my textbook.
   
   I must applaud Ian Guch for a job well done on his ability to community the knowlege of chemistry into a language that the students can understand. As a struggling college student this book looks indeed to be a great help. He gives you simple visual ideas and relates them to common situations so you can get the "big picture." This was a big help for me as a visual learner.
   
   Another plus about this book is that unlike most that I have gone through this one actually covers other branches of chemistry as well. So that was a huge plus, most (or at least the ones that I have read) books only covered chemistry basics.
   
   The only issue I have is that the problems they give you do make you feel like an idiot. If the author were to add a bit more challenging problems this book would be "perfect."



4. This book is excellent on covering the material I am currently learning in high school. I'm not sure how helpful this will be to AP Chemistry students, but this will definitely help out students of regular chemistry. The book is very informative in a concise, and surprisingly, humorous way. It's extremely straightforward, which is a plus when you are trying to memorize key concepts without the excess ranting you sometimes find in textbooks. By the way, what takes 3 pages to explain in my textbook can be explained in 3 paragraphs in this guide. The greatest thing is that I have been able to score 93% and above on my tests (can't credit my teacher because he depends on the textbook to teach us). Use this guide and you'll be set for the rest of the year!



5. It's a good book for mastering and improve your chemistry. It's a new book and fast shipping.

5 comments about Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story.

1. Very interesting. Very well explained, and the chemistry is flawless. 6 Stars to be truthful.. A must have for any chemist.



2. For the person looking for both hard information regarding the world of psychoactive substances (and The Drug War), and an enjoyable honest and heartfelt love story, this is for you. A real masterpiece!



3. I purchased PIHKAL from Amazon and read it in it's entirety.
   
   The most poignant aspect of this book reveals that as we are organic machines, our consciousness is just another chemically induced perception and therefore only one valid reality predisposed by evolution for survival.
   
   Shulgin's Genius is honed with such objectivity, innocence, dedication and clarity that he is able to both successfuly and interestingly document the human-mind altering effects produced by the synthesised compounds entirely dedicated to the second-half of this book.
   
   Furthermore, I have read all of the Amazon reviews regarding PIHKAL and feel that some just do not get the extreme depth of this work. Reading this incredibly open account of Human reality means that there will always be dull bits and parts that make one cringe because that's how real life is for one and all.
   
   The potential reader needs to approach this work with an open mindset and absorb the content without pretence, preconception or professional envy affecting clarity because this book is about the other side of the coin.
   
   Finally, to dedicate ones life to recording Human perception so openly in hardcopy is a tremendous quantum leap ahead of the absurd revisionist realities that people in our "Soap World" prefer to pretend that they live via TV and use to deal with personal issues through the application of anger, violence and greed which are wrongly accepted as legitimate relief mechanisms.
   
   In summary, PIHKAL is an extremely important piece in the Jigsaw of the "age of reason" and awareness. Don't be threatened, it definitely deserves at least "5 Stars". Read it, do it and get to the next level...... the evolution of mind.



4. I thought this book very infomative and educational.
   It gives great insight to DR.Shulgin & his wifes life work.
   A must read for any aspiring chemist.
   This book cuts away all the propaganda surrounding many of these recreational compounds and chemicals. The facts and nothing else.
   Educate yourself, knowledge is always your friend.



5. This book has the story and the science, the fantasy and the dry reality. I love there is a love story here as well. This is inspiration for couples to dive deeper into each other.

5 comments about Principles of Modern Chemistry.

1. book was in really good condition, although it didn't come as fast as i expected it to come.



2. well, he talks about lots and lots and lots of experiments. I hate this book



3. I am an undergraduate in an advanced general chemistry class and I had to purchase this...atrocity. Principles of Modern Chemistry is written by three physical chemists, who, while experts in their own fields, have an extremely skewed and flawed view of general chemistry. This book is not an effective textbook. It is replete with mistakes (diagrams,equations!!,questions), and very few effective example questions to reinforce the concepts. Instead, there are random equations placed about, and the central concepts are only lightly discussed. The organization of this textbook is also quite terrible. I love chemistry, I hate this textbook.



4. The product was received in excellent condition, exactly as described. I requested and payed for expedited shipping but received it via standard shipping.



5. This book is not as approachable as many general chemistry books; as a previous reviewer has noted, this book is written by physical chemists and the organization and presentation of the concepts in the text reflects this. As a physical chemist, I generally like this text; however, I acknowledge that it's not for everyone and I do have a few critiques.
   
   Students who are not mathematically-inclined will have a hard time with this text: the thermodynamics section, the derivation of the kinetic theory of gases, and some of the derivations of the quantum mechanics material are intimidating! However, students with a firm grounding in math and physics will get much more out of this text than they will out of other standard general chemistry texts like Brown and LeMay (Chemistry The Central Science Tenth Edition).
   
   I would strongly recommend this book for students who have an interest in math and physics or who have already taken an introductory chemistry course and want to understand the phenomena described at a more detailed level. For AP Chemistry or for students who haven't taken intro physics or intro calculus, I would instead recommend the Brown and LeMay book. I feel that its coverage of some of the topics is a bit more superficial, but it is more approachable for students taking chemistry for the first time.
   
   One last note: I dislike the newest edition of this book because they authors reorganized the chapters into a "quantum first" presentation (quantum mechanics is introduced in chapter 4 rather than chapter 15 as it was in the 5th edition). While this organization is suitable for some full-out physical chemistry courses, it is not appropriate for this book. If this book is to be used as a general chemistry book, consider doing the chapters out of order: start with the history of chemistry chapters, skip to the thermo stuff, and come back to quantum later. It's much easier to grasp intuitively if you work from the macro to the micro and not the other way around.

5 comments about Cracking the GRE Chemistry Test, 3rd Edition (Graduate Test Prep).

1. I used this book to study for the Chemistry GRE. It definitely helped me but it needs alot of work. There are too many errors and the organic section seemed like just a big list of reactions, rather than any system for understanding it. PR needs to add way more practice problems and practice tests, also. This would make it far more useful. I wish they kept refining it and I wish there were some competitors to this book!



2. You would like to think that Princeton Review would do a good job with something like this, but it's pretty miserable. It's obvious that they just hired some first year grad student to write it.
   
   The organic section consists of a list of reactions with little to no explanation. No mechanisms are involved and it's just expected that you memorize all 50 some pages of mechanisms.
   
   The physical section is absolutely miserable and they don't seem to want to stick to a sign convention when they talk about thermodynamics.
   
   The analytical section is not comprehensive.



3. While I have been impressed with the Princeton Review materials before, their chemistry review book is a bit lacking. This would be a good book to go through maybe a month or two before the exam, but for GRE studying, the most helpful resources are always practice exams, and the one with this book is definitely much easier than the real thing.



4. If you plan on taking the chemistry GRE, you should probably get this book. It is fairly inexpensive. However, it isn't as good as it should be and isn't worth much more. The book explain the test and goes over almost all the key material on the exam. It includes one full length practice exam that is unavailable online. It also has a few other practice problems. These are the key reasons to get the book.
   
   The downsides are numerous. They basically mean that you need additional preparation. If you have your old text books and notes, they'd help a lot, but I didn't save mine. The book has maybe a dozen errors in it, which can be quite confusing. It really should have been through another printing by now to fix those. It contains only one practice test which i find inadequate. I'd like 5 in total and only two are available online, the offical ETS practice book, and one of the old ETS practice books. This book should have maybe 2 more practice exams in it.
   
   Basically, get the book, be careful of the errors, but don't be foolish and think you can rely on this book alone.



5. To preface: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK
   
   The book covers all the material necessary, but there are barely any practice questions with each section leaving you wondering what is important to take away from the material and what is extraneous? Should it be understood from cover to back? There isn't even an introduction portion explaining how to best make use of the book. Doesn't really qualify as proper test prep.
   
   To make things worse, there are crucial errors. Not grammar errors, they clearly hired enough people to hammer those out, but science errors in terrible places that will screw you up on the exam. I find a significant error, the wrong variable used or name given, every 10-20 pages. For something as crucial as test prep, where the student is filling gaps in knowledge, such errors are inexcusable. For shame Princeton Review, your company clearly has no motivation to actually aid people and is concerned only with getting money out of them for this exam before the user realizes how bad the text is. On an exam that is not particularly well attended, I can see you lack impetus to make a good prep book, but it doesn't speak well of your corporate policies if you're just trying to deceive the consumer instead of being grounded in a quality product. Eventually this will catch up with you.

No comments about The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler.

1 comments about Organic Chemistry, Student Study Guide and Solutions Manual.

1. This is the study guide companion to the text (which I am finding quite good). It is essential to work the book to develop the foundation of concepts necessary for this course. However, many chemistry texts offer solutions for at least even or odd numbered problems in the back of the textbook, then offer a reasonably priced study guide that works the problems more fully. The Solomons et al text gives absolutely no answers so you are forced to buy this study guide - which is extremely pricey - in order to really get any value out of the text. I actually need to learn this subject and even on Amazon the duo cost me $200. At this price, I would have liked more thoroughness on some of the worked solutions. Some you get, some you don't.

5 comments about Organic Chemistry.

1. I took this course during the summer and we packed 4 months of Organic Chemistry II into one stressful month.
   Of the many texts available for o chem, this one has to be the best. Although it is as thick as the other books, the material is extremely well organized and the author spoon-feeds the information to you. Before every exam all I needed to do was go through all the tables in the chapters and read the summaries at the end of each chapter and I was all set!
   If you really don't have the time to sift through dense material and weed out important information, this book will lay everything out for you in a very understandable manner.
   
   Highly recommended!



2. I had to buy this book for class and for some reason I thought I ordered the older edition, but I got the newest one and it is in perfect condition. I received the book within 3 or 4 days of ordering. I appreciate the speed of the order since I needed it right away for class and the book is in like new condition, so I couldn't be happier :) Now if only I could buy an "A" on Amazon too...



3. This is a great book for the subject. I find that the practice problems throughout the chapters are very helpful!



4. It came in great time - I wasn't aware it wasn't hardcover but it still works all the same.



5. I received the book just in time for my spring/summer semester! The book was in perfect condition...no complaints! Thanks a lot!