Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Schaum's Outline of College Chemistry is intended to supplement a college-level general chemistry course book. While it is not intended to completely replace a standard textbook, it does cover about 90% of the topics in the more expensive, weighty texts. There are 21 topically arranged chapters in which the authors limit themselves to 4-5 sub topics per chapter. This is especially useful for students who wish to correlate Schaum's chapters with those in their course textbook.
More or less, the progression of topics follows that of most standard, general chemistry textbooks. This book was first published in 1980 and has since been revised about 9 times. Most of the dated language has been brought up to date to match current standards, however, the layout (font and font size) is rather drab and unappealing. Students accustomed to bright, colorful textbooks will probably find this book hard (or perhaps impossible) to adjust to.
For those who can see past the dull surface of this book, you'll find a treasure trove of helpful, succinct explanations and many hundreds of challenging and relevant practice problems. Successful chemistry students know that "studying" means solving problems. If you spend any more than 20% of your study time reading pages and pages of textual explanations, you aren't studying effectively. Schaum's Chemistry contains excellent textual explanations but its true strength lies in the outstanding quality of practice problems (and corresponding worked solutions.) In each chapter, roughly 20-25 problems with detailed solutions are provided. Then, an additional 30-40 practice problems are provided with non-detailed solutions. I would suggest that students work through these practice problems continually throughout their course and in the weeks leading up to major exams. Some problems are extremely basic and others are quite challenging.
In terms of utility, I would say that this book would be especially useful for Chemistry majors and those who plan to continue taking advanced chemistry courses. While highly advanced topics (quantum mechanics with partial differentials, molecular orbital diagrams with symmetry and group theory, etc...) are understandably neglected, the overall "gist" of general chemistry topics with algebraic formulas are covered quite nicely. I would consider this a useful reference for undergraduate quantitative chemistry courses, physical chemistry or analytical courses. It would also be a useful refresher for students preparing for the GRE Chemistry Subject Test.
For students who are in high school level chemistry (and perhaps AP Chemistry) I would suggest the Schaum's Outline of Beginning Chemistry, Third Edition (Schaum's Outline Series) title which contains lengthier explanations and problems geared for more introductory courses.
For students who are looking for a useful reference for the MCAT, I would suggest a different text entirely since the MCAT is a multiple-choice based examination. The practice problems in this book will greatly enhance your understanding of general chemistry topics, but will not make you a better MCAT test-taker. For the MCAT, I suggest Examkrackers MCAT Chemistry which contains multiple choice and passage-based practice problems.
Overall: "A" rating for quality of content at an excellent price.
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