Organic Chemistry I As a Second Language: Translating the Basic Concepts

First off, let me reiterate what others have said -- this is NOT a textbook and it is not going to come anywhere close to covering the volume or depth of material that you are likely to cover in a year of college-level organic chemistry. The author clearly states that this book is meant to be a SUPPLEMENT to your course textbook, not a replacement for it or even a "Cliff's Notes"-style summary of its content. If all you want is an overview of organic chemistry reaction mechanisms, save yourself $40 and try a Google search instead - there are thousands of websites showing the mechanisms.With that out of the way, I found this book to be an amazing resource. Where my textbook seemed intent on rushing through as many mechanisms and factoids as possible, Organic Chemistry as a Second Language took its time in explaining the "why"s behind what was going on and communicated the underlying principles using humor and analogies so that the material felt approachable.Did this book match the content of my course perfectly? No. Did it teach me the specifics of all the reactions I needed to know? Not even close. What this book did do, however, was equip me with a working vocabulary of organic chemistry fundamentals so that I didn't necessarily need to remember the minute details of every reaction because I could infer them from the given conditions.If you're a natural o-chem whiz or you prefer just memorizing all the reaction mechanisms, you're probably not going to get much benefit from this book. But if you are someone who feels a little intimidated by organic chemistry and you really want to connect to the material, I think this is a great choice.

Organic Chemistry can be a hard subject, but this book shows it doesn't need to be as hard as it is often made in lectures. This book makes all of the information infinitely more accessible than my professor did, and has done wonders for my understanding of the underlying concepts.However, I also feel I have to say that this book alone is not enough. While it has practice problems interspersed frequently with the explanations (which is great) it doesn't have enough of them. This is all fine, as the book itself never claims to be anything more than a supplement, and I'm not sure if more practice problems would have actually made the book better. They may have ruined the flow that makes the book so readable. As such I'm not deducting stars for that, but keep in mind that you WILL need to do the practice problems in your textbook as well.As I said before, this is just a supplement, so you will still need to go to lecture as well, and probably at least give your textbook a light going over. It seems to me that it's be best to read this book, and not the textbook, before going to lectures, to have a solid understanding of the material to be reinforced by your professor. I would also recommend that you look at your textbook and do all of the practice problems after lecture, because that's what's worked best for me so far. Just keep in mind that ochem does require that you practice. A lot. This book just makes it easier.

No matter what, organic chemistry will always be the worse class ever! But, this tool helped.

This book is exactly what it says it is. It is a supplement to an Organic Chemistry textbook that speaks to the reader in as plain language as possible. It doesn't go into the incredible depth that an official Org. textbook would do, but that's the beauty of it. The book focuses on understanding what type of reactions are commonly used on certain classes of chemicals and how those reaction mechanisms proceed; the overall goal being the improvement of the students ability to predict products and mechanisms for similar chemical reactions. It focuses on hammering in the major concept that chemical reactions are all very similar in that they involve (mostly) a nucleophile and an electrophile. It has many example problems with solutions that can be used as a test of understanding for the various mechanisms and reactions. It doesn't go into depth about quantities nor does it really discuss any quantifiable ways to predict the concentrations, pH, temperature, time, etc. which a reaction needs to run. This is the book's only drawback as far as I'm concerned. It would have been relatively easy to discuss ways of quantifying concentrations\amounts of catalytic compounds (acids, bases, ion donors, metals, etc.) alongside the mechanisms but it was not included, hence the loss of a star. The same goes for the other quantifiable components of chemical reactions. That being said, this book is well worth the price. It is a relatively easy read and the authors speak in plain language while still managing to convey a lot of information that you will walk away with. Mainly, it will provide you the basic tools to confidently continue to explore Org. Chemistry without being overwhelmed by the subject matter. As any good chemistry book will say, including this one, "Memorization of the material is the best way to NOT understand it." Obviously, what this means is that a student should not memorize reactions and products, rather they should understand the mechanisms behind these reactions so that when they are confronted with a new problem they will be able to work it out based on their ground floor principles. These ground floor principles form the foundation of true understanding and are definitely the key to success in Organic Chemistry. This book will help you build solid foundations, pick it up for sure.

Incredibly well explained! I love that there are lots of practice problems, which helped to solidify the material. Only wish I'd started using it earlier.Thank you!!

This book goes over the usual orgo concepts but somehow makes them understandable! As the author himself states, this doesn't replace your usual coursework, but if you are struggling with Organic Chemistry this will save your life.

Great review book if is used in conjunction with a decent Organic reference book.

Good book for understand the basics of the mechanism of reactions.