Organic Chemistry
by John E. McMurry
It's okay as a reference, but there are some problems and discrepancies between the text (written by the author)
and some of the text problems (written by the author's wife, who is also an organic chemist). Their biggest
disagreement reveals itself in the section on substitution patterns and benzene rings. Thankfully, my professor
gave us some absolutes about this topic, thus avoiding any possible confusion.
So if this textbook is required for your organic chemistry class, find a good lecturer and use this textbook with
caution. Like other textbooks, mistakes and discrepancies like the one I mentioned above will transfer from edition
to edition. I am thankful that I had an excellent lecturer who treated this textbook only as a reference and a source
for practice problems.|I appreciate how McMurry explains the concepts of the book, although what I do not
appreciate was the excessive details he needed to mention in each chapter. It appeared to me as if these
unnecessary info were written there just to serve as fillers. I would've appreciated it if he wrote the concepts in a
straightforward way. Details are good to serve as examples but unnecessary ones just make the text dragging.|I
am taking credit for reading this thing. If I have to trudge through it 15+ weeks I am going to take credit for it.
So far it has been pretty good...as far as textbooks go. Explanations are clear, LOTS of exercises so I can work on
things I'm unsure about & I got the study guide w/ it so I've got back up for the problems.
I'll let you know how it ends...haha.
12/12/14 End of the semester & end of my affair w/ O Chem. One thing I've learned about Organic Chemistry
is...wait for it...Carbon is a whore!
I've heard from other people there are easier O Chem texts than this one. However, since it is rarely the student's
choice which textbook he or she is going to use they'll have to make the best of it. It was fairly easy in the
beginning & the explanations got more difficult to comprehend as time went on. I have to believe there are easier
ways to deliver this info.|UBC, Chem 233 - Organic Chemistry for the Biological sciences. Easy read, easy concepts.
Chem 233 is nothing in comparison to Chem 203 in terms of difficulty, depth of theory, required understanding,
beginning & the explanations got more difficult to comprehend as time went on. I have to believe there are easier
ways to deliver this info.|UBC, Chem 233 - Organic Chemistry for the Biological sciences. Easy read, easy concepts.
Chem 233 is nothing in comparison to Chem 203 in terms of difficulty, depth of theory, required understanding,
application in problems.|I have never been one to have the discipline to actually read textbooks, but for this class I
turned to the text out of desperation. I was pleasantly surprised. Unlike most science texts, McMurray's Organic
Chemistry is not a bad read. It is clear to understand, with good written, and visual examples of concepts. There
are practice problems throughout the chapters, as well as a series of exercises at the end of each chapter. I found
doing the exercises at the end of each section to be very helpful, and could use it as a check before going onto
the next topic. If you don't need to know organic chemistry, then I can't really recommend this as a fun read, but if
you do, this is a pretty good text to study from.