<p>I am self-studying chem for May 2012. I was trying to decide between buying Zumdahl's book or Brown's The Central Science. And then I found my brother's old GChem book in the garage, entitled General Chemistry Principles and Modern Applications 9th ed. (Petrucci, Harwood, Herring, Madura) Pearson Prentice Hall. Would this suffice?</p>
<p>Depends on why you are self-studying. If the answer is to get college credit and be done with science, then I GUARANTEE that you will get a 5 if you watch these lectures. Rene McCormick is understandable, funny, but most importantly, straight-to-the-point. KNOW that she was an AP reader and that she also was on the AP Chemistry test writing committee for several years. The lectures are long, but ABSOLUTELY worth it. This is a priceless resource, and I would go as far as to say that you can ditch the textbooks (unless you plan on doing Chemistry Olympiad). You can do it! =]</p>
<p>[Rene</a> McCormick’s videos on Vimeo](<a href=“http://vimeo.com/user4216921/videos/page:7/sort:newest]Rene”>Rene McCormick’s Videos on Vimeo)</p>
<p>Chemistry hasn’t really changed much in the last few decades, so your brother’s book should be okay. However, I strongly recommend that you buy Zumdahl’s (the big purple-ish pink book); it is a wonderful textbook with really helpful practice problems. You could probably find it on Amazon or some other site for ~$20 and it is definitely worth the price. Also, get yourself Princeton Review’s AP Chem guide; it doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but the chapters and the practice tests are helpful in prepping for the AP exam.</p>