Chemical Education Today
1001 Ways to Pass Organic Chemistry. A Guide for Helping Students Prepare for Exams Shelton Bank and Janet F. Bank. Saunders College Publishing: Philadelphia, 1997. 296 pp. ISBN 0-03-020692-8. $13.30.
A thousand and one multiple-choice questions grace this second edition of a book that diligent students will find very useful. The authors have not included answers because they are “aware of the natural inclination to look them up before ending the struggle for the correct answer.” Students are expected to do enough reading to convince themselves they have, indeed, reached the correct answer. The Banks’ suggestion that these 1001 questions be used in help sessions and study groups is a suggestion that is well taken. It would take great self-confidence to convince oneself that the correct answer had been arrived at in every case without group help. Despite the assertion that answers are not included, the TIPS that number about one per page and thus one for about every three questions constitute a short course in organic chemistry and often contain answers, especially toward the end of the book when the going gets tough for the student. A little humor also helps, such as “What organic chemistry word describes Sibelius and Saarinen?” Typos seem to be few and, of course, when they appear as one of the multiple-choice answers, they could well be deliberate, such as divalent nitrogen. There is not a curved arrow to be seen and hence no question such as “Which one of the following mechanisms is correct?” Not all of the questions are simply a matter of straight memorization. Some especially good ones as “Which is the best way to convert A to B?” have conversions involving three or four steps. The questions are well thought out and cover all aspects of the usual organic chemistry course including mass, NMR, IR and UV–vis spectroscopy. There are 54 questions on carbohydrates and, as might be expected, just 66 on all of lipids, amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids. For those who must assess student performance through multiple-choice exams this book should prove very valuable. The student who can answer these 1001 questions will not just pass organic chemistry but pass with flying colors. Paraffins. Kenneth L. Williamson Department of Chemistry Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA 01075-6407
trum) and a quite respectable 12-page index.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 8 August 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
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