<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>Well I checked out Zumdahl? Its the pinkish purple on from school for AP Chemistry! </p>
<p>I am using Barron’s Preparing for The AP Chem exam. I must say it is really good. People bash on Barron for having too much info. If you slow down and maybe read a chapter or two a month. You will get a 5 just from that book! 
I have already started studying on this. I must say this is in too much depth. By understanding this I wish to get a 5. It has a lot of information, I think it would be helpful when I get to college. Higher level Chemistry will be a breeze! </p>
<p>I will be self-studying this! Good luck!</p>
<p>I used The Central Science for my course in school, the eighth edition. Really, though, the book didn’t help much at all. It had a ton of information in it that was completely excess. My teacher, about halfway through the year, gave up on the book and had us just use our Princeton Review books.</p>