The Complete Guide to A-Level Chemistry Books (Organic Chemistry)

Member Name: rob_writer

Product:	Organic Chemistry
Date:	25/01/01 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You need a good book

Disadvantages: Ramsden is very poor

A-level chemistry is VERY hard, there is absolutely no doubt about it. A good textbook is a necessity, but unfortunately finding one isn't as easy as it sounds.

On the chemistry being hard note, a funny series of events happened on my first day of A-levels (Seems so long ago now). First we headed to our physics lesson, only to hear the teacher declaring that Physics was by far the hardest lesson. Next it was off to maths, and a ranting teacher telling us that maths was definitely the hardest A-level, he predicted half of us would leave before the end of the first week. Next stop Chemistry, hoping to hear that at least one of my subjects might be a little bit on the easy side. Guess what, almost the first words that left our teachers mouth; Chemistry is the hardest A-level. So I had managed to pick three A-levels which were all the hardest A-level, surely that must break at least one of the laws of Physics!

I actually find that Chemistry is the hardest A-Level, basically because it involves learning so much information. I guess you could just say I'm lazy, but I do prefer having to understand physics and maths rather than learning reams of Organic Chemistry. Anyway, back to the Chemistry, and the textbooks.

To be honest I haven't found any good text books on A-level chemistry, but what I find good are a set of revision/course books produced by the board of examiners. Anyway, lets take a look at what is available

A-Level Chemistry, Ramsden
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The first lesson we had Chemistry the teacher gave us a list of books that would be useful for us. The book she recommended to us was this, A-level Chemistry by Ramsden. She said it was the book that helped her get through her A-levels and degree. Taking this as the biggest recommendation any book could get, I decided to go and buy it. All £25 worth of it. For this price I thought it must be good. How wrong can a teacher be? In this case VERY.
This is the worst A-level chemistry book I have read, ever. Its structure has no relationship whatsoever to that of the A-level chemistry course, it isn't broken up in to modules, or even topics, just a randomly thrown together chunk of chemistry. And although the title says A-level, the chemistry in here is way beyond anything we do at A-level. I know they say A-levels have got easier, but if this book is anything to go by its a good job.
Maybe its just because its written poorly, but the majority of the book has nothing to do with A-level chemistry. Or at least not the A-level I do.

Good points with this book are few and far between, but if you do manage to find a relevant section the accompanying exam style questions are good practise for the real thing!

Oh and there are a few case studies on things like Chernobyl, which while not even on my course do make an interesting read.

Do yourself a favour, don't buy this book. It could be written in a foreign language, and I'd still probably understand more.

Other Textbooks
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Our school is full of very dodgy A-level Chemistry textbooks, be it the imaginatively named 'Chemistry in Context' or 'Further Chemistry', they are as bad, and boring as one another.

Maybe you think I'm just a cynic, but here are the books I do actually like. A lot.

The NEAB Syllabus Support Materials
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These books are great (apart from their rather unimaginative names), they are simple and easy to understand, go straight to the point and unlike the textbooks cover only the chemistry that the syllabus requires. As we say, 'If its in the book, its in the exam!’

There are 9 of the books depending on what Chemistry course you are following, they go as follows

CH01 - Atomic structure, bonding and periodicity
CH02 - Equilibrium and inorganic chemistry
CH03
- Kinetics and organic chemistry
CH04 - Further physical chemistry
CH05 - Further inorganic chemistry
CH06 - Further organic chemistry
CH07 - Chemistry of modern materials
CH08 - Chemistry of colour
CH09 - Chemistry of living systems of food

They cost around £3 to £4 each depending on if your school or college can get them at a discount.

The books all follow the same layout. The majority of the book is taken up with the content of the particular module, basically everything you need to know for the exam. The main notes, diagrams and tables take the bulk of the text, but a nice feature is that the margins are taken up with little notes on certain parts of the chemistry, giving you pointers and things to watch out for in the exam.

Then, one of the best parts of the books, each one contains a whole exam paper at the back, one blank copy and one containing the answers. Doing the past paper is a great way to revise for the exam, it really makes you realise how you need to use the correct technique, as well as just knowing the information.

These books are a great way to revise come exam time, they can even replace your notes depending on how good/bad/messy/incomplete your notes actually are.

Without them I don't think I could have passed my recent chemistry exams, and I will turn to them for help come July and the final exams!

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