» Chemistry the Easy Way (Barron's E-Z Series)

Chemistry the Easy Way (Barron's E-Z Series) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Comment: I am not sure about helping college students or using it to CLEP out of chemistry, but this book helped my son, 17, get through high school chemistry by bringing his grade from an F to a B. The book puts into easy terms what may be lacking with the instruction received in school. I would definitely recommend this to any other mother that has a child struggling with high school chemistry. It was a terrific addition to the high school book by putting things into an easy to read and understand format.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice and simple review
Comment: This book was a nice refresher of inorganic chemistry before I took an organic chemistry class. I found the chapters easy-to-read and short, with quizzes at the end of each one. The only negative aspect are the few errors in answers and in editing, though most of the errors were obvious and could be corrected by going back in the chapter.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book ... for bright students
Comment: Don't be fooled by the deceptive name "The Easy Way." This is yet another book in Barron's "Easy Way" series, but this is just a name of the series. There is actually no easy or alternative method that this book employs, and it is just like any other school study guide. I did find this chemistry book helpful in many ways, but some stuff in the middle and back seemed to be too difficult for self-learning. It's not a book for everyone.

Beginning with chemical nomenclature, ions, and other concepts, "Chemistry: The Easy Way" does a good job listing new terms and important scientific concepts. However, when it gets to stoichiometry, thermochemistry, and kinetics, things start getting a little confusing. Formulas are given, some examples are given, and then you have to solve are the problems and do all the math with this meager material to teach yourself.

However, this book does have something useful - it has some practice tests at the end. This may be helpful if you are dying for a practice cemistry test.

This was a pretty good book by Joseph Mascetta. Bright students may understand this stuff quickly, but many people who resort to these types of study guides, however, are students who want to improve their understanding of chemistry and to get a better grade. This book doesn't seem to solve all that. In some cases, the testbook seemed much clearer. Preview this book at a library or bookstore and see for yourself. It could be an excellent resource for some people, but a mediocre one for others. Again, you should try it out and see for yourself.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Chemistry the Frustrating Way!
Comment: I recently needed to brush up on my Chemistry. (I had Chem 1 in college.) I could live with the boringness of this book. But I could NOT put up with the mistakes and poor editing. The chapter tests have questions on things that were never covered in the chapter, as well as wrong answers! That is not only INCREDIBLY frustrating, it also makes me wonder what else was wrong in what I was reading.

I finally decided I had to give up on this book when I was having fits of complete rage and frustration. And let me tell you what brought me back to sanity -- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chemistry. It is a FABULOUS book. Easy to read, easy to follow, everything is thoroughly explained, and it's funny!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Chemistry the BORING way
Comment: I bought a whole bunch of books to help me with my Chem 101 class in college, and the good news is that this book was the most complete and comprehensive of any of them.

The bad news is that this book is crushingly dull, and sometimes hard to understand. While it was infinitely more comprehensive than "Chemistry for Dummies", it was so boring that I could barely keep my eyes open when studying with it. Perhaps that has something to do with my lack of talent for chemistry (as evidenced by my grade), but it seems to me that any good introductory chemistry book should at least be interesting enough that a relatively talentless student can keep their eyes open while reading it.

I recommend this book for those who can follow boring texts or those who need something to help them with their insomnia.

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