Organic Chemistry 3rd Edition

Organic Chemistry by Smith is a superb text for the introduction to the subject as it is taught today. I just finished using it in an OC class, having taken my first one some fifty years ago, using Morrison and Boyd. Clearly the subject matter and teaching technique has changed. Smith is a clear example of the current method of taking "bites" of Organic, hopefully chewable ones, and then detailing in each bit what elements can be used to develop the entire body of knowledge. Smith has a superb answer book which accompanies the text.Smith progresses as do most of the other authors. I am familiar with Wade Organic Chemistry (7th Edition) and Klein Organic Chemistry as comparable texts. Wade has been used at MIT and Klein is new but his shorter books have been invaluable. Smith starts as do the others with a review of structures, acids and bases, and reactions.As a weakness she presents the movement of electrons, namely movement of bonds and pairs, but it seems to be spread out and is not as unified as it could be. Klein on the other hand does a superb job at that.She moves through alkanes, alcohols, alkenes, alkynes and then ringed structures and summarized incrementally the uses, naming, creation and reactions of each. Her presentation of SN, E and A reactions is standard as compared to other texts.She presents a wealth of examples and the problems are extensive and work through the details extensively.What I find different from fifty years ago is that reactions ate part of each chapter rather than the heart of each chapter, OC is cooking, it is not mathematics, there are no fundamental principles from which you can derive the results, just recipes, recipes which can be logically sown together into a fabric.Thus for example if you have an ether and you end up with alkyl halides you just memorize the answer. Smith tries to provide the logic but the ultimate goal of seeing the forest for the trees is missing. She fails to show how this builds with alkyl halides, alcohols, ethers, ketones, esters going from one to another. The synthesis problem is somehow always an afterthought although the problem book does build on it. It would have been nice to see a build of key reactions going from one class to another and reactions where we add bonds, move OH elements and the like. Namely the tool kit we had half a century ago is missing at the expense of now watching details which albeit important, fail in my opinion to reveal the nature of Organic.I am not a chemist and never wanted to be one. But it was of some importance from my perspective to regain a fluency in the subject. Smith is an excellent vehicle to do that. Having had Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Thermo, and written extensively in random process theory I also found the attempts to describe the Phys Chem elements as light but given the audience it is the best one can do.Let me give two examples from the middle of the text. Chapter 12 deals with oxidation-reduction reactions. This is classic OC, just remember the recipe. The chapter is just a collection of cook book facts with the window dressing of explaining them by moving electrons. Unless you know the answer there is no way ever to derive it. This is not math. However Chapter 14 is NMR. Having spent a few decades dealing with MRI and understanding it from several perspectives, give the spin quantum issues, this is one of the best technique explanations of NMR I have ever seen. It explains the technique, not the theory, but it explains it to the level of giving the chemist a tool to work with. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.The answer book is superb. It goes thru thousands of well structured and worked out questions all leading to a better understanding.Overall Smith has done a brilliant job of explaining the current state of Organic for a new learner. In addition I found barely a few minor errors which is amazing for such a complex effort. This text is definitely worth using.

I know writing a review for a textbook is a little silly, as we (students) never have a CHOICE as to which textbook we use. However, perhaps some chemistry department head somewhere may be scanning these reviews when choosing a new Ochem textbook for their schools.This is one of the best textbooks I have ever used. Everything is laid out in a beautiful, easy-to-follow format. The chapters are filled with examples and practice problems, along with a ton of practice problems at the end of each chapter. The diagrams are clear and accomplish the very difficult task of helping us visualize complex organic molecules.Part of what makes this textbook amazing is the solution manual. It's the best solution manual I have ever seen or used. It LITERALLY lays out the solution for EVERY SINGLE problem in the book--all of the problems within the chapter, and every problem at the end of each chapter.A good student could accomplish a lot with just these two volumes (text + solution manual) and no lecture!! For this, I would highly recommend these two books for those studying for the MCAT.Plus, the author has chosen to live in Hawaii, so you know she's brilliant!!

As a student I find this text one of the best I have ever used. The easy to follow bulleted information format theme throughout the book is extremely helpful both in learning the material and studying for a test. Its beautiful cover, clean molecular graphics, and relevant aside images create a pleasant aesthetic that transfers to the material and enhances the learning process. Visualization is so important for organic chemistry and beautifully presented here. Chapter and page layouts make sense and are easy to follow as new subjects are presented. If you are a professor I would recommend you start using this text book to teach your O-Chem course, your students will benefit from it.I needed to know Organic Chemistry by Janice Gorzynski Smith was THE book that was required for my class. Having the full cover image, author information, and ISBN displayed prominently saved me time, energy, and heartache.

I was kind of scared in buying this book because I did not believe that a it would come with the book, the answer book and access for online. But when I saw a few other reviews saying that it did contain everything I bought it. Shipping was fast and when I got my book everything was in its original packaging. It was never open. If you need to buy this book buy it here because you need the answer book since there are NO answers in the actual book which sucks. But I definitely give this a 5 stars, fast shipping and everything that it said it had it had.

I bought the package with the book, the Connect card and solutions manual. The book I received is used. It's in good condition, but it is used. No where did I see it written that the book in this package is used so in a way I feel cheated. I think the package is still a good deal, and I most likely would have bought it anyway, but because I was not informed that the book was used I feel let down by Amazon. I bought this from Amazon itself and not from any third party partner.Also, the price of textbooks, especially chemistry textbooks, is outrageous. Even used texts are over $200. I would rent the textbook if I didn't have to have it for 2 semesters in which case the rental costs more than the new book.As to the text itself, it is very clear and written in a comfortable tone and laid out very well. It is not overly verbose like my general chemistry text was but is very concise. There are lots of diagrams and tables to help make a difficult subject easier to master. I am quite pleased with this text and would recommend it for anyone wanting to learn organic chemistry.I have to separate my disappointment in Amazon from the quality of the text itself so I am giving it 4 stars.