Book Takes Readers Along the Wrong Direction
Written: Oct 12 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: detailed pictures, helpful problems, sells cheap for its size, nice reaction summaries
Cons: weak presentation of mechanisms with emphasis on memorization (which is not humanly possible)
The Bottom Line: This undergraduate textbook should be avoided because it mistakingly leads its readers onto the path of memorization and not understanding. It sells cheap though - might buy as additional aid.
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| djork's Full Review: Organic Chemistry 3rd Ed Books |
I have had quite a long companionship with this organic chemistry textbook - it was requires for the whole year, so I've covered it from the table of contents to the table of index. My overall impression was that this textbook does nothing more than impede readers on their quest to learn organic chemistry (dubbed o-chem by most college students).
The first chapters I thought were pretty decent. It starts with the very basics, explaining such topics as hydrogen bonding and orbitals. It assumes the reader has no idea about any of these topics just yet. Big mistake, if you ask me, to begin learning O-chemistry right after a year of general chem, starting right on these beginning chapters. Somehow the professors, however, trust this book to fill every student in on basics. The book does a poor job at that. So in summary, you are left with very little knowledge after a year of introductory chemistry and these beginning book chapters - and thus you are left unprepared to take o-chem. Just like with physics, if you don't have the right basics - you will not do well on more complex material.
Later into the sequence of O-chem classes, I found out that this textbook stresses memorization. Meanwhile our professors specifically stated that o-chem is nothing to memorize. Truly, how can you memorize hundreds of reactions? Is that the way chemistry should be studied? Somehow, the authors of this book lead gullible student to believe just that.
The information is grouped into chapters according to the type of compound in questions (i.e. Amines, Alcohols and Diols, Ketones and Aldehydes, etc.) For each chapter, the book goes over a number of reactions, and then summarizes them in a table at the end. Isn't that just tempting to try and memorize each such table, thinking that you are learning o-chem? In fact, you won't be if you approach it with this method. For each chapter, the book explains basically same mechanisms each time, reminding you in the process "Oh remember we showed you this on such and such page?" - It does not, however, teach you how to recognize these pathways on your own, to recognize what reaction pathway the starting material will follow. Without such recognition abilities, all you are left with is memorizing statements it makes about the list of reactions that are presented in each chapter.
Instead, you should memorize the mechanisms, not reactions. And each mechanism is bounded by certain logic, which is easy to understand IF you have proper basic knowledge. But you were never provided with such from the very beginning, were you? At the beginning chapters it hardly covered bonding, pKa's, orbital structures, soft/hard acid and base theory. This book does a poor job of making you learn mechanisms. Many a time I found it showing a picture of a reaction or two - then followed a word description of the reaction. Sort of "now go and memorize that" attitude to the reading. And so it goes reaction after reaction.
A note on author. Over time of laboratory experience, I have noticed that not all statements in the book are correct. The man seemed to have a limited practical experience with chemistry, so the book is not always to be trusted. His last name is almost always mistakingly pronounced as "Ege" with "g" read as the first letter of word "great". His last name is French, and this "g" is not same as English "g". Is is read as a sound that English language lacks, a sound that resembles "zh" - a deep buzzing sound you would produce if you say "z" but extend your lips forward and pull your tongue to area right above top teeth. The last "e" is not pronounced at all.
In conclusion, I would recommend picking up a book by Peter Sykes called "Mechanism in Organic Chemistry", a much more serious book on the subject.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
djork
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Location: south CA, USA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
College student in sciences; traveled some; love coffee, cats, plants, trips, music, and the net
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