<p>someone suggested to me that i should get Chemistry: the central science, but one of my friends has zumdahl.</p>
<p>zumdahl>all.
period.</p>
<p>Get Chemistry: The Central Science 11/e AP edition. It’s really a good textbook for me. It has an outline for which chapters to study for the AP exam, which saves a lot of time. Moreover, it helps me receive a 5 on the AP Chemistry exam this year.</p>
<p>yeah but the problem is that i can get zumdahl for free, which i can supplement with PR or Barrons, but Chemistry: The Central Science is expensive</p>
<p>I have both Zumdahl and Atkins, and I like Atkins better. But they’re both good books, Zumdahl is a little heavy though…too much information.</p>
<p>but doesn’t ur ap chem teacher has chemistry: the central science because mine provide me the textbook. I know that ap teachers receive their respective textbooks for free (well, actually they have to go to one of those meetings which cost hundreds of dollars to get one) by collegeboard ap.</p>
<p>zumdahl is pretty solid, the problems are challenging and will prepare you very well for the AP Chem exam</p>
<p>okay i’ll just get zumdahl then. is a particular edition good?</p>
<p>Zumdahl is win.</p>
<p>I used the 5th edition when I was a sophomore. I received a 5 on the test. Zumdahl’s textbook has a lot of good info. and challenging problems so the AP exam goes by smoothly. Chemistry: The Central Science is also good, but I didn’t really use it except as a supplement because Zumdahl covers pretty much everything you need to know for the exam. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I liked Atkins better.</p>
<p>I don’t think Zumdahl is particularly reader-friendly. Normally, I sit and read chapters in a textbook like any normal book, but I always had to skip around in Zumdahl to find what I needed. My teacher was useless and didn’t teach us anything all year. I read all of the Princeton Review AP Chem test prep book a few weeks before the test and got a 4.</p>
<p>Zumdahl can be superfluous sometimes. But, it is a great book for ap chem prep.</p>
<p>I think that Zumdahl gets too involved with certain concepts that sometimes aren’t covered in the AP Chem test. And it’s really not reader-friendly. I had to keep flipping back and forth pages just to find out the info i needed to know. I think a better textbook is Chemistry, the Central Science. It’s really reader-friendly and they explain the concepts very well!</p>
<p>Zumdahl is great for learning chemistry, but like ilovebio said, it can get superfluous if you’re planning on self-studying just for the AP exam. I asked my chem teacher the other day and she agreed; Zumdahl is more college oriented and not reader friendly. If you’re worried about the price, go on Amazon and get a used textbook (the ones I’ve found are under 5 bucks and they’re in close to perfect condition). So you could easily just get both :] I currently have four chemistry books lying on my floor right now…haha.</p>
<p>Zumdahl + PR = 5 in my case, at least.</p>
<p>I’ll go with what everyone said, Zumdahl is an EXCELLENT book. It definitely helped me pass the AP test. Great problems.</p>
<p>If you want some more problems (a LOT more) and some great explanations, try to buy the Zumdahl Study Guide as well.</p>
<p>I second lockn since I used the same and got a 5.
The key to Zumdahl I think is absorbing all the details from the text. The author stuffs a lot of information into most of the sentences and skimming over it passively isn’t going to help at all.</p>
<p>We used Chemistry the Central Science this year for the first time, after using Zuhmdahl for years and years. I really liked Chem: The Central Science a lot due to its organization and clarity…</p>
<p>for zumdahl, is the 6th edition good enough?</p>