Organic Chemistry I for Dummies

by Arthur Winter

Book Overview

A plain-English guide to one of the toughest science courses around Organic chemistry is rated among the most difficult courses that students take and is frequently the cause of washout among pre-med, medical, and nursing students. This book is an easy-to-understand and fun reference to this challenging subject. It explains the principles of organic chemistry in simple terms and includes worked-out problems to help readers get up to speed on the basics...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764569023
• ISBN13: 9780764569029
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: For Dummies
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great book for explaining the basics, even if you don’t have the chemistry background

This book has taught me a lot about understanding how organic chemistry works and I barely remembered high school chem lol. My only problem is that the thumbnail is selling the 2nd edition (the more updated edition) but I received the 1st edition. I only selected this listing for the 2nd edition.

Dummy Chem

I found the book extremely helpful. I used it as a supplemental review to help me study for my Organic Chemistry Final and for the Medical College Admission Test. The book covers the foundational concepts thoroughly and in an easy to read, easy to understand, format. It is no susbstitute for a real Organic Chemistry class, but it is a close second and if you read it alongside of your textbook you'll be amazed at how much easier the class becomes. After reading it, I found that I was actually able to predict the direction of many reactions, even though I had never seen that particular reaction before. I was using the authors website, [...] All in All a great buy.

I. Love. This. Book!

This book is FANTASTIC. I taught myself organic chemistry from this book. And you must understand...I am chemistry-challenged. I had general chemistry in high school, and I did not recall a thing. I vaguely knew what an atom was, that it has protons and neutrons and electrons. That was it. Nothing about resonance structures, valence electrons, eloectronegativity, how to calculate a formal charge.... Then I picked up this book for fun. Suddenly, I was smart! I knew everything! It was amazing! There is no math in this book, and no problem sets. But after reading just a few chapters, I picked up my best friend's college-level textbook in o-chem, and I was able to read it, understand it, and do the problem sets! No problem! It was amazing! I! LOVE! THIS! BOOK! PS. If it has been 20 years or never since you've had General Chem, some parts of the book might throw you a bit. Luckily my best friend was taking her final in o-chem, and my college roommate is now a PhD in chemistry [and a professor], so I was able to email them stupid questions like, why does the Nitrogen have an extra electron here??? and get some answers. I have always been wary of chemistry, regarding it as a foreign language I could never learn. I am not fluent in it, but I know it well enough to explain it to others now, and my Chem-geek friends are all tickled to death by what I have learned. This book truly is for "Dummies" and it really works GREAT.

A good ADJUNCT to Orgo

*****Updated July 2007************* This text exceded my expectations. I had an Organic Chemistry class that focused on, and taught from, a Physical Chemistry prospective. Great if you've already taked Organic I and II, horrible if you're starting in Organic I. This text covers the Reactions covered in most traditional organic courses, and also covers the Molecular Orbital Theories usually emphasised in P. Chem. It was more than helpful. :) Just like Chemistry for Dummies, this text covers all of first semester Orgo 1, scratches the surface of the beginning of semester two, and thats it. Of course, its not going to cover everything, or it would be a textbook, but it covers the 'need to know' topics, and explains them well. This is a great adjunct to the text and course. To be honest, it really didn't make any sense until I had taken the course and learned what I was reading. This has great information that your prof. may have left out, And/Or it usually has a different way of explaining something, which may help or enforce what you've already learned. For example: The Diels Alder reactions... in my Orgo class, we had a 1/2 page section on it in our notes, did 1 'practice problem', and were told to, "make sure you know this for the test". This book definately saved me here, with a thourough explanation of how, why, what to do, etc. I fully understood the reaction (I read it before class , but none of it made any sence, but going to class turns on the 'light bulb' and reading it before class is a great way to make learning orgo I much easier). There are a few other adjuncts out there that may help, the standard deviants 3 vhs set, "the deep fried world of organic chemistry" may be helpful. Have fun in class.

A great helper to this poor struggling organic chem student

I discovered this book last week, and I only wish I had found it earlier in the term! The book is broken down into easy to understand sections and is written so that you can skip around to whatever chapter you need. The author explains the basic organic terms in the KISS method (keep it simple stupid) which is much less overwhelming than my textbook. He also approaches the subject matter with humor, and doesn't patronize. I wouldn't say to use it instead of your textbook, but it's definitely a useful supplement. Too bad my instructor didn't have it on her 'recomended reading list' a few months ago when I was buying the necessary books for the class. [...]

Excellent book

An excellent book I saved myself many hours by reading this book. This book cuts through all of the countless details that fill up my million-page organic chemistry book and gets right down to the stuff that you really need to know for a test. I learned more from this book than my $100 textbook. The writing is even very funny at times, but the humor never comes at the expense of providing information. Thankfully, this book is very easy-to-read. The writer addresses the reader directly, and the language is both simple and clear. Our class had already covered a lot of the material before I bought this book, so reading through the whole thing took me only about a week. Still, after reading through this book, all the concepts that confused me initially really started to make sense. The concepts and the connections between the different reactions and ideas clicked. In any case, the problem-solving guides, particularly on nomenclature, resonance, and spectroscopy are worth the cost of this book alone. Once I had worked enough problems using them, I found myself miles ahead of the other students in class. I think if you read the chapters in this book before going to your class, work a lot of problems in your textbook, you will do well.