chemistry

I used this text for my introductory Organic chem class, and found it both easy to read and helpful. It seems well-organized and has plenty of clear examples and good chapter-end summaries. However, I would highly recommend purchasing the study guide and solutions manual as well. Many of the problems are challenging, and having this resource available is very helpful. However, at the time of this writing, the only version of this study guide available on Amazon is that for the 3rd edition, which is little good for use with the 4th edition textbook, so be sure find the proper study guide for the textbook you purchase.

This is not a very good organic text. My department selected this text, and I am teaching out of it now, but I don't like it very much. It follows the standard functional-group based organization that the majority of organic texts on the market currently use, which I have certain problems with (see the text by Whitesell & Fox for a contemporary alternative organizational format). I don't think that this text does a sufficient job in the beginning of equipping the student with the fundamental chemical principles that are needed later in the course, especially with the sparse treatment of bonding and MO theory given in the first chapter. The same goes for the treatment of basic principles of thermodynamics, kinetics, and acid-base theory. These are such important principles; I wish the text did a more thorough job in discussing them. The biggest gripe that I have about the text is that it is a slave to the new IUPAC system of organic nomenclature. For example, while, granted it is technically correct, according to the IUPAC system, to use 1,1-dimethylethyl to refer to a tert-butyl group, practically speaking, this is not the case. Just call it a tert-butyl group for Heaven's sake!! 99.999% of organic chemists are going to know what you are talking about. The homework problems also leave a lot to be desired. If you are considering adopting this text, I'd recommend taking a good look at one of the other texts on the market (e.g. Whitesell & Fox, Jones, or Bruice) before adopting this one. You might come to regret your decision.

Granted I am taking this course for the second time (yes I fell behind and hopelessly played "catch-up"). However, the previous book I used by Bruice was far more helpful. It contained more examples, explanations were more simply put, and there were more excercises throughout the chapters to reinforce concepts. Although there were several mistakes (apparently due to bad editing), I felt overall, the text by Bruice was superior.