Chemistry book

Indiego

Im currently only in TY but next year I want to start studying Chemistry outside of school, because my school doesn't offer it as a subject ( )
So I was wondering what book people recommend to use

Neodymium

Chemistry Live!

If your going buying a revision book don't buy the revise wise one (to be honest I think all the revision books are complete shíte, just make your own notes)
The rapid revision one is a bit better.

finality

Is there any chemistry book other than chemistry live? I find that chemistry live is quite badly written, it keeps going off the point and rambling on about things and then saying "but we won't concern ourselves with this as it's not on the course". It just gives so much unnecessary and irrelevant information.

extremebogman

I believe you have to have access to a lab to perform experiments should you take chemistry out of school? Open to correction.

Chemistry Live is quite good when used in conjunction with Rapid Revision and Exam Edge (all by Declan Kennedy). As for his ramblings- As time goes on I find them useful as it indicates what is actually on the syllabus.

conorc94

My school uses "Chemistry Live!" too

Neodymium

finality wrote: »

Is there any chemistry book other than chemistry live? I find that chemistry live is quite badly written, it keeps going off the point and rambling on about things and then saying "but we won't concern ourselves with this as it's not on the course". It just gives so much unnecessary and irrelevant information.

I don't think there is too much irrelevant information in the book. It might seem irrelevant when you're learning it first but when you start doing exam paper questions you find that the questions are very specific and you have to know exactly what you are talking about. For chemistry you will literally have to understand almost every single thing written in the book.

To the OP, get your calculations on lock down from the get go. The chemistry calculations would probably be my strongest point in chemistry but they can get challenging at times for some people. I do physics also, and I can honestly say that the chemistry calculations become more complex and logically demanding than almost any calculations I have done in physics.

Slow Show

finality wrote: »

Is there any chemistry book other than chemistry live? I find that chemistry live is quite badly written, it keeps going off the point and rambling on about things and then saying "but we won't concern ourselves with this as it's not on the course". It just gives so much unnecessary and irrelevant information.

I have Understanding Chemistry and I think it explains stuff really well. Sometimes I find it difficult to understand exactly what my teacher's talking about or I've forgotten but if a test is coming up I just read through the part about in the chapter and I'm grand.

So I'd recommend Understanding Chemistry if you're taking it up outside of school and won't have an awful lot of contact with a teacher (if you're not gonna get grinds or anything though...well, good luck, can't imagine learning and understanding chemistry all on my own! You really need someone to explain some of the more complicated concepts, I think). Can't really comment on Chemistry Live, we've gotten a few photocopies of experiments from it but that's it really. Found those notes about certain things not being on the syllabus quite handy though!

Indiego

Ok thanks everyone
I guess its a toss up between Chemistry Live! and Understanding Chemistry, I'll have a look at the two in the shop and see which I prefer I suppose


One quick, kind of related but unrelated question, I started watching some of the chemistry videos on khanacademy.org and because he doesn't teach to the LC syllabus, I was wondering, for the atom energy level sub sections, do you only need to know the s and p orbitals or do you need to know the d and f too?

finality

Indiego wrote: »

Ok thanks everyone
I guess its a toss up between Chemistry Live! and Understanding Chemistry, I'll have a look at the two in the shop and see which I prefer I suppose


One quick, kind of related but unrelated question, I started watching some of the chemistry videos on khanacademy.org and because he doesn't teach to the LC syllabus, I was wondering, for the atom energy level sub sections, do you only need to know the s and p orbitals or do you need to know the d and f too?

You need to be able to write s,p,d,f electron configurations, but you only need to know about the shape, etc of s and p.

Neodymium

Indiego wrote: »

Ok thanks everyone
I guess its a toss up between Chemistry Live! and Understanding Chemistry, I'll have a look at the two in the shop and see which I prefer I suppose


One quick, kind of related but unrelated question, I started watching some of the chemistry videos on khanacademy.org and because he doesn't teach to the LC syllabus, I was wondering, for the atom energy level sub sections, do you only need to know the s and p orbitals or do you need to know the d and f too?

You need to know the shape of the s and p orbitals and you need to be able to write the configurations for every element up until krypton I think which will include d orbitals for some elements. I don't think you have to know anything about f orbitals except that the f stands for fundamental.

Indiego

Neodymium wrote: »

You need to know the shape of the s and p orbitals and you need to be able to write the configurations for every element up until krypton I think which will include d orbitals for some elements. I don't think you have to know anything about f orbitals except that the f stands for fundamental.

Oh okay thanks a million

Hermione Granger

I was in the exact same position as you two years ago I used chemistry live as my textbook and I think it is the author Declan Kennedy who actually writes the exam paper for June.. The experiments are a huge part of the course with a minimum 2 questions needed to be completed. Ask one of the science teachers to supervise you while you do the basic ones in the lab mainly titrations etc. You should then try to do the day long course in Maynooth They cover some of the ones that you couldnt see in school anyway like mass spectrometry. Personally i found it very hard in forth year but speaking to others who studied chem it kinda clicks in leaving cert. I never did grinds and drew up my own notes. Also I found that the new red less stress more success gives an excellent summary of organic chemistry. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

JGCHEM

Hi the exam edge is a brilliant book really advise using it. My sister just did the leaving cert and had no idea in 5th year but it really all came together for her after christmas in 6th year. The main thing is to understand what is being taught and not to just learn off as its difficult to study in the last few weeks and cramming doesn't work in chemistry. If you're interested in notes on ALL the mandatory experiments with all possibilities of questions I can scan them in and e-mail them as I am thinking of selling them after all the work that went into them. We used Chemistry Live, Revise Wise, Exam edge, Chemistry syllabus, Exam papers and also skool.ie and The Institute of education notes. Please PM me if interested in purchasing.
Thanks
J

thisisadamh

I found Chemistry Live! an excellent book. Even if your school does not offer Chemistry as a subject one of the teachers might be qualified to teach Chemistry, so ask around. You might be able to get lessons and extra notes.

spurious

thisisadamh wrote: »

I found Chemistry Live! an excellent book. Even if your school does not offer Chemistry as a subject one of the teachers might be qualified to teach Chemistry, so ask around. You might be able to get lessons and extra notes.

Presumably not for free.:eek:
There are many people offering Chemistry grinds in the grind threads.

beeroclock

As others mentioned dont forget you need to perform the mandatory experiments also