.:::. The Best Textbooks to Use for Science Courses .:::.

[raidkha]

It is a fact, and we all now that. Your Textbook is your professor no matter what, but the problem comes when professors or the department at school assign terrible textbooks that mess the students mind throughout the course. This doesn't happen because your professor want you to success, instead It happens for some financial agreements/business that the department/professors get some stuff out of it.

In this thread, I am going to list the best textbooks based on SDN replies and general student rating outside SDN. So please help this thread to develop so students don't waste their money on textbooks that makes them learn everything from the Internet at the end.

here are a list of subjects( that I need your rating on the textbook you used):
1- General Chemistry
2-General Biology
3- General Physics
4- Organic Chemistry
5- Biochemistry
6- Anatomy
7- Physiology
8- Genetics
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Evaluations and ratings:
"under constructions"


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Please list the textbooks with the author name next to it. At the end I will try to count the best textbooks and put them up for each subject in a rating order.
also, if you had a bad experience with a textbook. List it at the end of you threat. If there is a textbook that seems to be always a trouble for students. I will list it under the avoid list.


Please help this project to succeed for all SDN students.
best.

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[911 Turbo]

1- General Chemistry

Chemistry (by Chang)

2-General Biology

Campbell

3- General Physics

University Physics

4- Organic Chemistry

LG Wade


5- Biochemistry

Lehninger


6- Anatomy
7- Physiology

Seeley


8- Genetics

Snustad

 

[raidkha]

1- General Chemistry

Chemistry (by Chang)

2-General Biology

Campbell

3- General Physics

University Physics

4- Organic Chemistry

LG Wade


5- Biochemistry

Lehninger


6- Anatomy
7- Physiology

Seeley


8- Genetics

Snustad

Thanks, but can you put a sentence or two describing your experience with each of them.

 

[WildEMDoc]

1. General Chemistry - Principles of General Chemistry, A Molecular Approach , by Tro. Thought the book was okay, but I hated general chemistry so I never used it and just followed the notes from lecture.
2. General Biology - Campbell Biology, by Campbell/Reece. Probably the most comprehensive intro biology book there is. I TA'ed for intro biology during senior year for 2 different classes and the books they used were not nearly as good and inclusive.
3. General Physics - Physics by Walker. I actually really thought this was a good book. Easy to read, easy to understand and had excellent figures.
4. Organic Chemistry - Organic Chemistry by McMurry. Meh, the book was decent, although again chemistry was not my best subject in college and organic I never actually used the book, just followed the lecture notes for studying.
5. Biochemistry - Principles of Biochemistry by Lehninger. I think this is the go-to book for ugrad biochemistry. It is really dull and long, just like biochemistry lecture. I never used it as the professor gave us a course pack of his notes and I just printed them all out at Kinkos and used that as my book for the semester.
6. Anatomy - Never took.
7. Physiology - Physiology of Humans and Integrative Approach by Silverthorn. I took this class as a blow off class because it was the physiology for nurses which is basically at my school a low level intro-cell biology course. I never used the book, but I heard it was decent. If you actually want to learn physio indepth however it is useless because it is simply not for that.
8. Genetics - Genetics: Analysis and Principles by Brooker. I thought it was a decent text considering I had to use it so much because my professor was trash. Definitely not the worst book I have ever had, but not the best.

 

[911 Turbo]

Thanks, but can you put a sentence or two describing your experience with each of them.

The anatomy book had pictures of naked women in it.


And the rest were fairly well written.

 

[Intraleukin-6]

Organic Chemistry: Klein's book( Textbook and Ochem as a second language). Actually teaches you pretty well, and attempts to point out mistakes commonly made by students in Organic Chemistry classes. It's also geared toward someone entering the biomedical sciences with the practical application sections.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

As much as this is nice, it's usually better to get the textbook that your teacher requires because most of your test problems will be revamps of textbook problems.

 

[Bangersandmash]

Lehninger's biochem book is awful, especially for biochem at my institution. It is extremely dense and a chore to read, more than any other textbbook I've ever had. I'm one of those students that reads the textbook for every class before lectures and I can tell you biochem is the first class I've stopped reading the textbook.

 

[angemon89]

The only books I have ever enjoyed are:

Bio - Campbell (only first semester)
Physiology - Sherwood

I love how the books are laid out.
Pretty pictures+Easy to understand = a joy to work through
You can't go wrong with them.

Every other book my professors have used in all my other classes have been horrible.

 

[Irish Football]

The anatomy book had pictures of naked women in it.

👍 I think we used the same one!

 

[lobo.solo]

As much as this is nice, it's usually better to get the textbook that your teacher requires because most of your test problems will be revamps of textbook problems.

This^. Just get whatever is required and supplement with khan academy videos or others.

 

[Josh7]

I have yet to use a textbook for any course other than math. For Calc I-III I used Early Transcendentals 6th edition by Stewart. For Differential Equations I used Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modeling Fourth Edition by Penney.

These are the only two textbooks I've used and I think they're fantastic although the problems in Penney's text can involve ridiculous applcations. I think you need a textbook especially for math courses because they have lots practice problems which help you master the concepts. For other classes you listed I find that all necessary content has came from lecture.

 

[Hemorrage]

This^. Just get whatever is required and supplement with khan academy videos or others.

im not sure why so many people like khan academy.. i find most of khan's videos just primarily him mumbling on about whatever hes talking about rather than actually teaching examples

 

[487806]

im not sure why so many people like khan academy.. i find most of khan's videos just primarily him mumbling on about whatever hes talking about rather than actually teaching examples

Khan academy is useful for intro subjects. More difficult, like orgo and biochem, khan academy isn't much useful