Organic Chemistry I as a Second Language (ISBN: 978-0470129296) by David M. Klein is one of the best guides for organic chemistry around. It works not as a replacement for your class’ textbook, but as an repellent supplementary text that helps students grasp important chemistry concepts in three ways.
First, the book helps students master major themes. It pieces major components such as resonance and electron movement together clearly and non verbosely to help you perform better on trickier concepts that are presented later in the course.
Next, the book’s problems will help to improve your chemistry problem solving abilities. They’ll give you additional practice and help hone the skills that will be required to perform well on exams and quizzes.
Lastly, the book offers study tips and advice that will help streamline your studying process. The new methods it presents for the different aspects of organic chemistry will make acing your next test a breeze.
The book itself is fairly small (well compared to those hulking textbooks at least), but its 336 pages do deliver. Organic Chemistry as a Second language does an excellent job of explaining resonance structures and electron movement — all in plain and simple English. Now while it won’t delve into reactions too much (you’ll still need your textbook for all of those), it does provide a solid basis for understanding the reaction mechanisms.
So basically, this is a great book which I recommend reading before you take the class. The concepts it clarifies may seem simple to you if you’re an organic chemistry god, but for all you normal students out there it is an excellent resource that should not be overlooked.
Check out my Pushing Electrons Review for another great study guide!
Related posts:
