Advanced Chemistry for You by Lawrie Ryan, 0748752978, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Good grounding for chemical knowledge

This book is set out in a user-friendly way and is supported by a comprehensive index. The numerous diagrams and photos help to make the topics under discussion easily accessible. Key points are highlighted within the topic and there is a concise end of chapter summary, with test questions and answers reinforcing understanding. There are worked examples of more difficult calculations, which provide students with a systematic approach to the maths.

I particularly like the mini cartoons and limericks which pepper the text, helping to break up topics which could otherwise be heavy reading. This book covers complex topics in a light-hearted but informative way and provides an exceptionally good grounding for building further chemical knowledge.

Review for Advanced Chemistry For You by Lawrie Ryan

Not a good text book.

This book is a blend of a complete lack of advanced information and a confusing layout. Granted the many exam questions are helpful but the information doesn't equip you to answer them well. For my chemistry course our teachers instructed us to buy this book then seem to have covered the syllabus using handouts and their own notes from other sources. They appear to have chosen it because it lends itself to the EdExcel syllabus and does have all the necessary topics in. However we often turn to photocopies from A-level Chemistry by E.N.Ramsdon for better understanding concepts involved. The "For You" series have been an irratation to me throughout my science education. I have had the misfortune to use them through All 3 GCSE sciences and Chemistry and Physics for A-level. They give the basic facts and encourage parrot style recall of the facts rather than scientific understanding. I don't like these books, they were acceptable at GCSE but won't help you to high grades at A-level.

Good for last-minute stuff but not much else

I found this book to be good if i needed last minute answers - information is easily at hand and the book is set out in an easy-to-read way. It's really easy to find the topic you need.
However, I've also found (like another reviewer here) that this book lacks quite a bit of depth. For example, the coverage of organic chemistry reactions is nowhere near what the syllabus requires and the stuff on reaction mechanisms is poor too. These are only two of the many oversights by the author but they form quite a bit of A-Level understanding. Having now finished my A-Levels, I'd give you this advice: buy this book if you haven't got time to revise properly. However, if you want to do it the proper way, through understanding, buy 'Understanding Chemistry' or 'A-Level Chemistry' - 2 excellent books with enough information to get you through and give you a thorough teaching of A-Level Chemistry (and they cover organic chemistry and reaction mechanisms really well too...).

This is an excellent book.

I was finding AS really difficult until a friend recommended this book. Now I can follow whats going on and I have a chemistry book that I actually enjoy using (hard to believe!). The illustrations are brilliant, and there are even cartoons which make it seem less stuffy. There are loads of questions to practise on (and I've found the answers to the past paper questions at the back very helpful).
There are also Chemistry At Work pages that have extra stuff that you might not need for your exam but it talks about the latest chemistry and how chemistry might be used in the future which is interesting anyway.

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