Reddit reviews Chemistry: The Central Science (12th Edition)

While it may not be quite as engaging as the Feynman Lectures, I liked Brown, LeMay, and Bursten's general chemistry textbook enough to read it cover-to-cover, on my own time. I thought it was very accessible. Plus, older editions are pretty cheap.

This is the edition I read.

And the current edition

I'd recommend finding yourself two nice textbooks, and working through one methodically while referencing the second during times when the first doesn’t sufficiently explain things. Also, when studying the text, I would recommend solving as many of the “in-chapter” and “end of chapter” problems as you possibly can. You’ll be far more likely to understand the material if you have to apply the requisite knowledge, and it’s pretty established that long term recall will be enhanced by application of material (see the testing effect if curious--Roeidger and Karpicke’s studies were well done).


In fact, regardless of how you are initially presented with the material (be it Khan lectures, textbooks, guides online, people’s answers to your questions, etc.), the bulk of your understanding will likely come from working out problems yourself. This effect can not be overstated, and regardless of how you decide to engage the material, I cannot stress the importance of applying the material.


Assuming you follow the textbook plan, if you find a concept or problem that you just cannot comprehend, look to online resources for aid. Some examples include Khan Academy, MIT Open Courses, and of course, r/chemhelp or r/homeworkhelp.


If you absolutely need some direction and find that a textbook isn’t cutting it, then the MIT series has a number of explicit instructions and lectures to steer you along. If you can catch them when they’re available, Coursera has some courses as well, with actual feedback systems that would likely prove useful.


For book recommendations, I’d check out this thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/chemistry/comments/1xzi9t/general_chemistry_book_recommendations/ There seems to be a good discussion there with lots of options. I personally used Chemistry: the Central Science, but it’s worth mentioning that the math used is pretty low level and isn’t representative of further chemistry study. Still, the concepts are explained fairly well. A note: textbooks can be found for much, much cheaper than is initially seen on listings. Used copies of older textbooks often go for almost nothing. You can even sometimes find PDFs of books, but the legality of that is questionable (even if they’re way easier to navigate and manipulate).


Still, your best course of action likely depends on your individual learning style, so take these suggestions with a grain of salt.

I don't have either of those, unfortunately. But my suggestion, as a biology major, is not to buy the BIO201/202 text. I never used it and did well in both of those classes. Do buy the access code, but don't buy it through the bookstore. Wait until the professor gives you the URL to purchase the access code directly through the publisher.

You can buy a used copy of the CHM101/102 text here. This book is the full textbook. The publisher just cuts the book in half and bills it as a custom edition for UNCW.