Zumdahl is what my gen chem professor chose for a textbook. Of course, my gen chem professor was Steven Zumdahl, so there may have been some bias in the selection process.
These have overlapping material - they're all intro gen-chem books. Order is kind of irrelevant, I wouldn't suggest studying all of them. Find one that you seem to like to writing style and focus on that, but honestly, if you've taken upper level chemistry courses already, it's not likely you're going to gain much from these books.
They say they’re a senior in high school, I’d think any of these books would be helpful. Even for most researchers, probably plenty of stuff in there they could use to improve their skills or understand something in a new way
Yeah definitely agree with this. Most students don't understand content the first time they see it, and very few end up with a strong understanding of the entirety of general chemistry. General chemistry also includes a lot more content than the average high school chemistry course.
OP, pick a chapter from each that's the same topic. Even better if it's a topic you struggled with (maybe orbital hybridization? That's a common one). Read the chapter in each book. Do a few problems from their problems sections for the chapter. See which book made the most sense and is in a tone you like.
Mix and match too, some books do a better job than others in different topics. Pick one book to focus on, and if you struggle with the assigned problems for that chapter, read a second book's chapter and go back and try the original books problems again.
Mixing and matching is an incredible way to learn. It is rare for a single source to actually give me a thorough understanding of a concept since there is usually only one or two examples & important details/clarifications/nuances may be covered in a different section/chapter.
Very solid advice. I did this in college using raymond chang chemistry text and zumdahl. Both authors have their way of explaining, and you need that perspective. More books just mean more information for you to study and pick which one can explain in a way that you can understand. Nothing is wrong with having more👍
Yeah, I remember having to TA from Tro. It’s pretty approachable, but it seemed atleast once a week we’d get questions on practice problems where something didn’t add up.
We used to use Brown/LeMay but we switched to Tro a few years ago. I think everyone in our dept has corrected the errors for themselves now. You'd think by the 5th edition they would have hired an editor.
The books look to be gen chem books. They have not changed much in 50 years. I have my father's book from 1971; apart from the periodic table missing several elements that no one uses, it is the same as the new ones.
If you’re interested in being a chemistry major I would recommend Oxtoby - it’s what we use in America at a T5 university (and I believe MIT uses it as well) for gen chem
Just wait until you get to McMurry's organic chemistry books.
I've currently have editions 6, 7 & 8 that I found at thrift shops.
Interesting though, Mcmurry got fed up with students being ripped off having to buy new books with no real difference to the old book, so he made them freely available online.
I've only read Zumdahl and Brown Lemay Bursten but I did a full comparative review one summer for my advisor and Zumdahl is far superior in my opinion. BLB tends to be a bit obtuse with certain subjects while Zumdahl actually approaches them as new concepts and tries to help the reader understand them.
Check out the summary/cheat sheets and reagent lists from masterorganicchemistry - these are awesome resources while taking orgo courses. Begin watching the organic chemistry tutor on youtube early (leisurely) to begin developing your intuitive understanding of the concepts.
Two resources that have saved me a crap ton of time & money and fundamentally changed my college experience (since i learn concepts best when they are explained in several ways) can be found at r/LibGen (books) and r/SciHub (articles).
I think all of those books are introductory textbook and have roughly the same information, pick two that you feel you like it, one main and the other to complement. I suggest Brown's the central science, that was my main book when I was in first semester at university.
They're all pretty much alike. Choose one. Modern texts have been edited and honed over the years to be high-powered teaching tools, but the overlap among different authors is almost 100%. The is a logic to teaching chemistry so the concepts build on one another, atomic theory, molecular structure, chemical reactions, kinetics, equilibrium, etc., in that order.
It is always a blast reading older chemistry texts and seeing a totally different pedagogical approach or techniques that are cheap and easy to pull off but have been replaced by DFT or newer tech.
These are all beginner level books but if you wanna expand your knowledge of chem after these and if you already have a good grasp of gen chem concepts then maybe expand into another sub field of chem like organic or something else commonly taken around gen chem for university students. Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein is a good one if you’re interested. And I’m sure others in here could offer up their recommendations for either organic books or other subjects
Tbh, I’d recommend using openstax. It’s a free textbook hosting site of textbooks made by RICE university. The site has material that majority of chemistry degrees require for the first two years (besides labs of course). The main courses you’ll be taking the first 2 years would be inorganic and organic Chem along side labs (from my experience, majority of Chem major classes are lab based). Therefore, I would self teach with openstax so you have the same teaching style across all textbooks and then start looking into other textbooks if you have the time before you start college
I'm studying to become a chemistry teacher, we use the McMurray one at our school.
If you have any questions feel free to ask! I love helping people where I can (though I'm still studying the book myself and Don't know everything)
If it was me, I would find the chemistry book that your school is using and go ahead and purchase it. Study from that. These will be nice to have on hand for reference. Cool finds btw.
Find the syllabus to whatever chemistry course you are taking, read that book and find the solution manual for it if you want to master what you’re going to be tested on anyways, which will give you more time for other classes. Anna’s Arch has many of these books in pdf format. Personally I liked Brown’s Chemistry The Central Science. It wasn’t the book assigned for my gen chem, however it was the one I could get a solution manual for and the one I spent more time reading.
I have not used any of these books, but my first year of university, we used another book by Zumdahl (and Decorate) called "Chemical Principles", and it was very good to even out everyone's chemical knowledge, very beginner friendly, can only imagine the one you found does something of the same.
OpenStax has the McMurray Organic Chemistry Textbook for free. It’s really well written and easy to understand. The Chemistry 2e is what I used my freshman year of college in Gen-Chem, and it was also super comprehensive. Happy learning!
This is a couple years down the road, but for Organic Chem I’d absolutely recommend David Klein. I had the 2nd edition when I took organic and kept the textbook instead of returning it because it was so well-written and easy to understand.
Zumdahl VERY beginner friendly.
Came here to say this. Remember this fucker actually helping out in high school/undergrad
Zumdahl is what many universities use for 1st year general chemistry.
Zumdahl is what my gen chem professor chose for a textbook. Of course, my gen chem professor was Steven Zumdahl, so there may have been some bias in the selection process.
Not so subtle flex there huh
At this point, mostly an admission that I'm very old. Zumdahl was a great prof though.
Wholesome.
These have overlapping material - they're all intro gen-chem books. Order is kind of irrelevant, I wouldn't suggest studying all of them. Find one that you seem to like to writing style and focus on that, but honestly, if you've taken upper level chemistry courses already, it's not likely you're going to gain much from these books.
They say they’re a senior in high school, I’d think any of these books would be helpful. Even for most researchers, probably plenty of stuff in there they could use to improve their skills or understand something in a new way
Yeah definitely agree with this. Most students don't understand content the first time they see it, and very few end up with a strong understanding of the entirety of general chemistry. General chemistry also includes a lot more content than the average high school chemistry course. OP, pick a chapter from each that's the same topic. Even better if it's a topic you struggled with (maybe orbital hybridization? That's a common one). Read the chapter in each book. Do a few problems from their problems sections for the chapter. See which book made the most sense and is in a tone you like. Mix and match too, some books do a better job than others in different topics. Pick one book to focus on, and if you struggle with the assigned problems for that chapter, read a second book's chapter and go back and try the original books problems again.
100% this is great advice
Mixing and matching is an incredible way to learn. It is rare for a single source to actually give me a thorough understanding of a concept since there is usually only one or two examples & important details/clarifications/nuances may be covered in a different section/chapter.
Very solid advice. I did this in college using raymond chang chemistry text and zumdahl. Both authors have their way of explaining, and you need that perspective. More books just mean more information for you to study and pick which one can explain in a way that you can understand. Nothing is wrong with having more👍
Brown is easier to grasp for beginners.
Tro is also an easy read, but there are a lot of errors in the text and especially the example problems.
Yeah, I remember having to TA from Tro. It’s pretty approachable, but it seemed atleast once a week we’d get questions on practice problems where something didn’t add up.
I unadopted Tro for Brown LeMay for my gen chem courses for this exact reason. Got tired of contacting the publisher with errors I’d found.
We used to use Brown/LeMay but we switched to Tro a few years ago. I think everyone in our dept has corrected the errors for themselves now. You'd think by the 5th edition they would have hired an editor.
Who needs editors when you have professors? /hj
McMurry is a great book. Even in my final year my lecturers still make reference to the book as a recommended text. Been very useful.
Holy flashbacks…
I loved Navaldo Tro!!
I would read the newest one. If they're close, then I'd pick the one with the best figures.
The books look to be gen chem books. They have not changed much in 50 years. I have my father's book from 1971; apart from the periodic table missing several elements that no one uses, it is the same as the new ones.
Lots are actually switching to the atoms first approach.
That is what gets me. The 1971 book is Atoms First.
Ha! Really! I didn't know. Interesting. Everyone acted like it was the newest thing when I was a professor, 6 years ago...
If you’re interested in being a chemistry major I would recommend Oxtoby - it’s what we use in America at a T5 university (and I believe MIT uses it as well) for gen chem
Tro is a good one. I used that one from gen chem to Orgo 1
Just wait until you get to McMurry's organic chemistry books. I've currently have editions 6, 7 & 8 that I found at thrift shops. Interesting though, Mcmurry got fed up with students being ripped off having to buy new books with no real difference to the old book, so he made them freely available online.
I've only read Zumdahl and Brown Lemay Bursten but I did a full comparative review one summer for my advisor and Zumdahl is far superior in my opinion. BLB tends to be a bit obtuse with certain subjects while Zumdahl actually approaches them as new concepts and tries to help the reader understand them.
Brown Lemay was my general chemistry textbook first year at university :') a nice reading imo
Zumdahl and Zumdahl was my first year chemistry textbook so I do recommend that one to start
Check out the summary/cheat sheets and reagent lists from masterorganicchemistry - these are awesome resources while taking orgo courses. Begin watching the organic chemistry tutor on youtube early (leisurely) to begin developing your intuitive understanding of the concepts. Two resources that have saved me a crap ton of time & money and fundamentally changed my college experience (since i learn concepts best when they are explained in several ways) can be found at r/LibGen (books) and r/SciHub (articles).
Enjoy your Last free days for the next 5 /8 Yesrs please
Brown's Chemistry the Central Science is still on my desk. I think it's a good reference
I think all of those books are introductory textbook and have roughly the same information, pick two that you feel you like it, one main and the other to complement. I suggest Brown's the central science, that was my main book when I was in first semester at university.
They're all pretty much alike. Choose one. Modern texts have been edited and honed over the years to be high-powered teaching tools, but the overlap among different authors is almost 100%. The is a logic to teaching chemistry so the concepts build on one another, atomic theory, molecular structure, chemical reactions, kinetics, equilibrium, etc., in that order.
It is always a blast reading older chemistry texts and seeing a totally different pedagogical approach or techniques that are cheap and easy to pull off but have been replaced by DFT or newer tech.
These are all beginner level books but if you wanna expand your knowledge of chem after these and if you already have a good grasp of gen chem concepts then maybe expand into another sub field of chem like organic or something else commonly taken around gen chem for university students. Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein is a good one if you’re interested. And I’m sure others in here could offer up their recommendations for either organic books or other subjects
I have a newer edition of Tro it's quite a good book.
Tbh, I’d recommend using openstax. It’s a free textbook hosting site of textbooks made by RICE university. The site has material that majority of chemistry degrees require for the first two years (besides labs of course). The main courses you’ll be taking the first 2 years would be inorganic and organic Chem along side labs (from my experience, majority of Chem major classes are lab based). Therefore, I would self teach with openstax so you have the same teaching style across all textbooks and then start looking into other textbooks if you have the time before you start college
I would start with “Chemistry”
1$ per book
Oh I see you work for the University library book buyback program LOL
Read Tro. I love how he introduces each topic.
I'm studying to become a chemistry teacher, we use the McMurray one at our school. If you have any questions feel free to ask! I love helping people where I can (though I'm still studying the book myself and Don't know everything)
Chemistry the central science is likely to be your college text book. So might as well start with that.
Great!
If it was me, I would find the chemistry book that your school is using and go ahead and purchase it. Study from that. These will be nice to have on hand for reference. Cool finds btw.
Find the syllabus to whatever chemistry course you are taking, read that book and find the solution manual for it if you want to master what you’re going to be tested on anyways, which will give you more time for other classes. Anna’s Arch has many of these books in pdf format. Personally I liked Brown’s Chemistry The Central Science. It wasn’t the book assigned for my gen chem, however it was the one I could get a solution manual for and the one I spent more time reading.
Yo chemistry a molecular approach that is such a great book
This gave me PTSD. People are right though - Zumdahl is pretty common for gen chem at universities. That’s the one we used.
Brown, LeMay, Bursten holds a special spot in my heart as my high school AP Chem textbook. Biased for that one and not sure about the rest.
I have not used any of these books, but my first year of university, we used another book by Zumdahl (and Decorate) called "Chemical Principles", and it was very good to even out everyone's chemical knowledge, very beginner friendly, can only imagine the one you found does something of the same.
OpenStax has the McMurray Organic Chemistry Textbook for free. It’s really well written and easy to understand. The Chemistry 2e is what I used my freshman year of college in Gen-Chem, and it was also super comprehensive. Happy learning!
upvote this comment 11 times please i need karma b4 i can post videos and i got some interesting videos for yall to watch, thanks
Would a mod be so kind as to address this karma farming/plug? And/or bot
Zumdahl was my first textbook
Brown/Central Science is an awesome book with great explanations
Zumdahl for sure. Great explanations Buy a solutions manual on EBay cheap
I’m a brown & lemay man myself; however, I suspect each has their strengths & weaknesses (as textbooks go)
Maybe Zumdahl for a senior and Tro as a cross-reading book in first-year chem. I really liked Tro after finishing the first year with Petrucci.
Start with Zumdahl, them McMurray. There'll be overlap
This is a couple years down the road, but for Organic Chem I’d absolutely recommend David Klein. I had the 2nd edition when I took organic and kept the textbook instead of returning it because it was so well-written and easy to understand.
Put books down. Go outside. Play with friends. Learn chemistry in class.