Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry (Saunders Golden Sunburst Series) [Hardcover]

I returned to college to further my education this year after working as a High School Chemistry and Biology teacher for the last 5 years, and your text "Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) 8th Edition" is the required text that we are using for my Quantitative Analysis course. Myself and numerous other students in the class have found ourselves completely exasperated with the text for numerous reasons. Some of the reasons are as follows:

1. Formulas written incorrectly, while the definition/derivation is written properly right next to it, or vice versa.

2. Incorrect answers to the end of the chapter questions given in the back of the book.

3. The end of the chapter questions will often have no previous examples shown in the chapter, or in the chapters prior to it. Essentially there is no guide or basis to begin a question.

4. Asking for something in a way that is so convoluted that one has no idea what is being asked.

5. Suddenly using or asking for a term that has never been used in the book. Such as asking for "molar solubility"...nothing in text as to referred, nothing in the index, and nothing in the glossary.

6. Your solved examples within the chapter are atrocious, in that they are of virtually no use when trying to use them as a guide to the end of the chapter questions. And thank you for skipping/not showing steps or assuming things in the problems when they are shown.

These are great given that one comes to consider the questions, Did I make an algebraic error in solving? Was the formula given the correct one, and was it even given correctly? Did I do it correctly, and is it just the wrong answer given in the back of the text?

I have taken into consideration that I have been out of school for a while and that I may not be as sharp as I used to as far as some of the more complicated calculations, because I have not had much practice recently, however, when one is trying to learn from a book that makes it so hard to do anything with it, it makes it about as useful as a paperweight, which is about the best use I have for it now. A $100+ paperweight.

I thought that the mistakes were due to an early edition text, but with a simple view of the front of this book one can readily see that this is the 8th edition...the EIGHTH edition! One would think that after writing the same book 8 times, these errors and some general refinements may have taken place; thank you for the exception to the rule.

In all my years of school, I have come across many books, both used to learn from as well as ones to teach from, and I have never found a more poorly done text.

We, the students and professor, have created a website solely dedicated to the errors or oddities that we have so far found in the text: Needless to say, it continues to grow.

I will say that it is nice to see you incorporating Excel and other software into the text, which is beneficial in its use in Industry and presentation.

Thought you might want to know...thanks.

Overall, the book is average. Towards the end when you start reviewing different techniques like voltammetry, potentiometry, spectrometry, and seperations the author explains the material fairly well (and has the least in text problems). I noticed a lot of errors in the book for the in text examples so be careful when checking your answer. I bought the solutions manual to this book and a couple of questions in the manual actually stated that the answers in the back of the book were incorrect. Be very careful from chapters 9-20, as I noticed a few examples had math errors. Also, at least for me, the mathmatics were derived, but not explained as to understand why they add a new term or perform an operation. I would have liked to see them relate the math to the concept better than they did. If you sit with this book (I mean really sit with it) you'll do fine. This is not a text nor a course that you can cram for. It has to be studied everyday of the week.

I have had nothing but problems with this book. The practice problems in the chapter do not reflect the ones at the end of the chapter, which pretty much leaves it up to you to figure out what is going on. The chapters are not well written in the first place! Very hard to follow! There is no supplemental solution manual to follow along with so you can see how the practice problems were solved. I could go on and on. In general, possibly the worst chemistry text I have ever had to use.