Most Useful Chemistry Book.. (1 Viewer)

[MortImmortelle]

Which chemistry books do you consider the most helpful, best explainations etc..What would you suggest.

[right now i have
HSC course: Conquering Chemistry and Macquarie Study guide for Chem

using both of them i find that the info is rather brief :S...
What other books would you guys suggest? ]

 

[Martyno1]

I actually think that Conq Chem is a great book.. it helps me understand a lot.. haven't looked at the Macquarie Study Guide yet.

btw, your subjects thing in your sig is a great idea! *copies*

 

[chocolate_lover]

I actually think that Conq Chem is a great book.. it helps me understand a lot.. haven't looked at the Macquarie Study Guide yet.

Yeah, I agree, Conq Chem is really good for me.

 

[dr baby beanie]

Jacaranda is good as well

 

[MortImmortelle]

I actually think that Conq Chem is a great book.. it helps me understand a lot.. haven't looked at the Macquarie Study Guide yet.

btw, your subjects thing in your sig is a great idea! *copies*

hmm fair enough...maybe my mind is wurped coz i just did some biology and there doesnt appear to be a lot of information in comparison *freaks out*...

teehee thankx martyno1....yes spread the love of the
:uhhuh:

 

[xiao1985]

question is: if you are a chem nerd...

if yes: get pathway
if no: get conquering chem

 

[kloudsurfer]

I thought conquering was crap, but thats probably because we have the old edition (I go to a povo public school lol)

But we got new textbooks before the hols. Chemistry Contexts, which I think is great. It has a lot of extra information which allows you to read into stuff if you want to.

We also use the Maquarie Study Guide in class lol. It is great, becaus it gives you a summary, so it works well with Contexts.

 

[dr baby beanie]

Any opinions on Spotlight?

 

[Grangern]

I used both conquering chem and Spotlight. Conquering Chem was good as it is divided into sections, one for each syllabus dot point. It explains each concept thoroughly although the only disadvantage it had was that it didnt really give good examples for the calculation bits in the syllabus, eg titrations etc. I also thought the exercises they gave out were pointless and annoying

I thought Spotlight also had its advantages as it gave great examples of the calculation dot points and actual steps on how to work them out. The exercises are graded from easy to hard, which i liked. Unlike Conquering Chemistry, it also includes practicals that are needed to be completed, i.e dot points from the second hand column of the syllabus. This really helped a lot as our class didnt get to do most of the mandatory practicals. Some info in Spotlight are not really studied in the HSC course, which i ignored, but other than that i really found the textbook useful as it explains the concepts deeply, allowing you to understand more info that couldn't be found in Conquering Chem!
Cheers!

 

[MortImmortelle]

I thought conquering was crap, but thats probably because we have the old edition (I go to a povo public school lol)

But we got new textbooks before the hols. Chemistry Contexts, which I think is great. It has a lot of extra information which allows you to read into stuff if you want to.

We also use the Maquarie Study Guide in class lol. It is great, becaus it gives you a summary, so it works well with Contexts.

Whats the old edition of Conquering Chemistry?..mine says 3rd edition..

We aren't allowd to take Chemistry Contexts home but we have them at school if we need them. But i havent had a look at them yet.

Does anyone have any opinions of Chemistry In Context?

 

[Nakashima]

http://community.boredofstudies.org...stry-textbooks-guides.html?highlight=textbook
http://community.boredofstudies.org...y-summaries-resources.html?highlight=textbook
http://community.boredofstudies.org...st-chemistry-textbook.html?highlight=textbook

 

[kloudsurfer]

Whats the old edition of Conquering Chemistry?..mine says 3rd edition..

We aren't allowd to take Chemistry Contexts home but we have them at school if we need them. But i havent had a look at them yet.

Does anyone have any opinions of Chemistry In Context?

Mine is the third edition too. Apparently there is a fourth edition based on the amended syllabus of 2003 (ish?).

Anyway, personally I think Contexts is much, much better. Conquering is ok too though.

 

[MortImmortelle]

Mine is the third edition too. Apparently there is a fourth edition based on the amended syllabus of 2003 (ish?).

Anyway, personally I think Contexts is much, much better. Conquering is ok too though.

oh what! i didnt know there was a newer version
hmm...how am i going ot get that..

ah well.

 

[cerebaton]

Conquering Chem is definetely the way to go. Hell, I only used Conquering and still got 94 in the HSC...and this is coming form someone who failed Year 11 Chem.

Don't get all caught up with which textbooks to use. Generally 1 or 2 will be more than sufficient. What's more important is how you apply that knowledge in the exam...seems like the exams are moving away from asking questions which are exactly the same as the dot points.

 

[andykillz]

Well for textbooks i find that Spotlight Chemistry is better than Conquering Chemistry.
For Study Guides Surfing and Macquarie Chemistry.

 

[kloudsurfer]

Well for textbooks i find that Spotlight Chemistry is better than Conquering Chemistry.
For Study Guides Surfing and Macquarie Chemistry.

Whats 'Surfing'?

Anyway, does anyone else think that Excel is totally crap?

 

[kathrynso]

I have an excel.. haven't looked at it yet.

Do you guys have the Dot-Point books? They are great!!!
Also have the MAcquarie which I live off. And got given Contexts from class.

 

[dr baby beanie]

^^ Dot-Points, we get given them but I don't think people really use them (but this is physics)

Whats 'Surfing'?

It's not a textbook as such more like a summary and testing your knowledge book, like KISS.

Why's that?

Very short, not detailed enough, doesn't explain somethings well...something like that??

 

[kloudsurfer]

I have no idea from experience, but I hear that Conquering Chemistry is indeed a good book.
Why's that?

Yeah wat beanie said. And it really doesnt seem to follow the syllabus like the other Excel books. Its only Excel Chem thats crap, the others are ok.

 

[xiao1985]

cc is about 50 or a bit over last time i check... 2ndhand ranges from 30-40 (though the new edition of cc just came out last year... so not too sure its effect on the pricing)

excel should only be a last minute revision book to serious chemistry students... (second what beanie said)