Rating: 
Summary: This is NOT a textbook - this is BIOLOGY!
Review: I'm a biology student from Germany, main subject is genetics. Really, I can't understand all the discussion about the book, if you take it as it is - this book tells you about BIOLOGY!
It's NOT a detailed textbook, which - if including all the topics mentioned in Campbell - definitely would have 100.000 pages and more!! It's NOT a textbook about biochemistry, nor about genetics, nor about any other special subject!
It IS a wonderful illustrated (even in the german version), colourful, widespread and didactical brilliant written book about its topic: biology.
I bought the book and look upon it with a crying eye, because I'm not able to read it in an appropriate time, I'm quite busy with exams and the book is not useful for preparation for diploma or other university examinations.
But there's something I learned: as a student you learn so many things in detail out of more or less sterile books, so it might be possible that you lose the thread to the real beauty your subject consists of! What means detail without the whole? It feels good, it really feels good to reflect about the deep beauty and expanse of biology with this book; just take an hour or two a week, put your Stryer, Voet, Alberts, Griffiths and whatever textbook DOWN and open the Campbell. You will see, you breath again. And you'll get some power back - for studying the real detailed things. ...
Rating:
Summary: A very good book for starters - and for reference!
Review: This is the book I used when I was a freshman. It gave me a start to the world of biology and made my studies later on much easier! Even now I look back at it sometimes for reference. Its broad coverage and adequate depth makes this book a must for anyone intending to study Biology!
Rating: 
Summary: Great wealth of information
Review: This book is a fairly clear and concise book that deals with the subject of biology. It contains 8 units which are: The Chemistry of Life, The Cell, Genetics, Mechanisms of Evolution, The Evolutionary History Of Biological Diversity, Plant Form and Function, Animal Form and Function and Ecology. Each of these units presents its subject matter in a series of easy to understand chapters. All in all this book is 55 chapters and 1175 pages of interesting biological topics. This is a sourcebook for an overview of biology. The chapters get deep enough into each subject matter to leave the reader feeling filled with knowledge. A great buy for a high school student, a college student, or just a person who wants to know a little bit more about biology. I must mention that this books language and writing style could be difficult for some people to understand who are not already somewhat familar with biology and biological terms.
Rating:
Summary: A good desk reference
Review: This is a reasonably good general biology reference. It will come in quite handy years after college when you can't recall that small detail about something you learned long ago. It's well indexed for looking up all kinds of topics. It is, however, somewhat thin on details in several areas, but then again, it is meant only as a general biology text.
Rating:
Summary: Great For MCAT Review
Review: This book widely used as the text for introductory biology course in universities. As pre-med students, many of my friends kept this text even after they finished the intro course for future reference. Whether you're studying for the MCAT on your own or taking prep courses with Princeton or Kaplan, you will refer to Campbell for information. It is well-written (with full-color photographs and artwork), clearly illustrated, and easy to read. The price of the newest edition (this book does renew edition pretty often) is somewhat too high; yet you will find it very helpful especially for studying the MCAT.
Rating:
Summary: Clear, well written and Informative
Review: This is a great textbook for high school and college students. The important information is clearly stated, yet there is significant additional detail. The diagrams are very helpful in making complex concepts easily understood. Beautiful pictures, too.
Rating:
Summary: Supurb support
Review: What I like about this book, is the support you get when you have bought the book. My teacher uses the CD-rom for presentations in our class, therefore making things visible. (Mainly because of the great animations, with a lot of detail) Even better is the support over the internet. In a few months we will talk with teachers from all over the world. The book has only one downside: it's prize. After all, I'm only a student....
Rating: 
Summary: Extremely Poor Textbook
Review: This textbook is simply overloaded with superflous detail. I find it hard to believe that all the other reviewers think the book is "easy to read." That's preposterous. It is anything but "easy to read." In fact, it is poorly written and terribly verbose for a science book. By nature, science books are supposed to be direct and to the point. Campbell prefers to add gloss to his interpretation of Biology by adding great wealths of utterly useless detail. Actually, this book is so complex that my own teacher, who is a Biology major, has trouble comprehending key concepts. This of course, leaves the common student with absolutely no chance of gaining an adequate understanding of the subject matter. More then anything else, this book is just a source of frustration and stress. I hope that you don't dismiss this review as the rantings of a poor student. I consider myself to be relatively capable biology student. However, I have been unlucky enough to wind up with a terrible combination of an awful textbook and an even worse teacher. Enough said, this book is terrible. Don't buy it. Note: I gave this book one star because I wasn't sure if one could give "no stars."
Rating:
Summary: A great book for High School AP Students
Review: I used this book to take AP Biology my sophmore year in high school and i thought that it was one of the best textbooks that I have ever used. Despite its menacing look [just over 1200 pages] the material is clear and easy to understand. The way he presents the information in a personal way along with clearly visible and eye-appealing figures really makes difficult concepts easy to understand. He also did a good job of tying together his key themes. A great book for any bio student, whether in high school or college.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book
Review: This is one of the best biology books I used during my college years. It presents some of the elusive and intricate concepts in cell biology and genetics in a very simple fashion at the level of college freshmen. (eg. operons, mutations, etc). I strongly recommend this book especially as a source for modern biology, for its simple presentation of complex concepts in modern biology
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