Rating: 
Summary: Become an expert at solving organic mechanism problems!
Review: Every organic-chemistry graduate student will want this book when studying for cumes (cumulative exams). It doesn't seem appropriate as a textbook, but provides a wealth of information to help students develop their mechanistic problem-solving skills. As a professor at a research university, I have recommended it to all the members of my group.
Rating:
Summary: This book will help you get your PhD
Review: Grossman?s text was invaluable in helping me prepare for cumulative exams towards my PhD. I highly recommend this book as one of the best organic mechanism reviews I have come across. The problems are well thought-out, and often copied by other professors for use on cumulative exams (imitation is the highest form of flattery). Solutions are available online from the publisher, which is very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: This book will help you get your PhD
Review: Grossman?s text was invaluable in helping me prepare for cumulative exams towards my PhD. I highly recommend this book as one of the best organic mechanism reviews I have come across. The problems are well thought-out, and often copied by other professors for use on cumulative exams (imitation is the highest form of flattery). Solutions are available online from the publisher, which is very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: This and Weeks book turned me into an organic chemist
Review: I came to graduate school highly focused on analytical and physical chemistry (I had been an analytical chemist in industry). My background in organic was fair at best. I was taught by Dr. Grossman from this book. While it took a good bit of work, I got a B in his class. Moreover, I continued to refer to his book long after the course was over. It helped me pass my final cumulative exam, and I still refer to it. I found it helpful in a organometallic course (in which, incidentally, I got an A, thanks in no small part to Dr. Grossman's book.)
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I was a student of Dr. Grossman. He used this book as our textbook. It does a great job of breaking down sections like acidic, basic, etc. There are good problems at the end of each chapter to help reinforce what you have read. He uses words that are easy to understand, which makes the reading of the book more enjoyable. Overall, this is one the best organic mechanisms textbooks that I have read.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific
Review: Organic chemistry is rapidly-expanding field. New reactions pop out every day in research. How do you manage to secure the skills in writing and understanding these organic mechanisms? Many students try very heard to memorize reaction patterns yet unfortunately not able to master the concepts in mechanisms.This book is meant to fill this gap. It introduces to ligoic behind the organic reaction mechanisms. By looking at nucleophilic or electrophilic species, kinetic suggestions, lone pairs, possible synthons and leaving groups, disconnection approach, students are exposed in a wide-range of reactions. The goal of the book is to enable students to write correct and logical mechanisms for reactions that are not seen before. This book should accompany any undergraduate organic text and/or serves alone as a text for advanced course. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An A+ Guide to Organic Mechanism
Review: Organic chemistry is rapidly-expanding field. New reactions pop out every day in research. How do you manage to secure the skills in writing and understanding these organic mechanisms? Many students try very heard to memorize reaction patterns yet unfortunately not able to master the concepts in mechanisms. This book is meant to fill this gap. It introduces to ligoic behind the organic reaction mechanisms. By looking at nucleophilic or electrophilic species, kinetic suggestions, lone pairs, possible synthons and leaving groups, disconnection approach, students are exposed in a wide-range of reactions. The goal of the book is to enable students to write correct and logical mechanisms for reactions that are not seen before. This book should accompany any undergraduate organic text and/or serves alone as a text for advanced course. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Learn how to write mechanisms and pass your cumes!
Review: The purpose of "The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms" is to teach you how to write reasonable organic reaction mechanisms for synthetically useful organic and organometallic reactions. Rather than telling you the "right" mechanism for every possible reaction and expecting you to memorize it, I try to show you how to puzzle through a problem to arrive at a reasonable mechanism. The book is organized by mechanistic types. The first chapter covers such fundamental concepts as formal charges, curved-arrow formalisms, acidity and basicity, nucleophilicity and electrophilicity, and methods for identifying which of the five classes of mechanisms is operative in a particular reaction. The following five chapters cover polar reactions under basic conditions, polar reactions under acidic conditions, pericyclic reactions, free-radical reactions, and metal-mediated and -catalyzed reactions, and the final chapter consists of a mix of problems. Each chapter discusses and provides examples of common mechanistic pathways. In addition to problems scattered throughout the text, a very large problem set is found at the end of the chapter; the answers are available for free from the publisher's Web site. The "Common Error Alerts" are a unique feature of this book. A reasonable mechanism is simply one in which no step is unreasonable, so if you can learn what not to do when drawing a mechanism, you will be well ahead of the game. The Common Error Alerts are scattered throughout the text, warning you of common pitfalls and pointing out how to avoid them. "The Art of Writing Reasonable Organic Reaction Mechanisms" book can be used as a textbook for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. It will be especially valuable to beginning graduate students who are struggling through their cumes (written qualifying examinations). The book will be useful not only to chemistry students, but also to students in allied fields such as biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and pharmacy.
Rating:
Summary: Learn, not just memorize!
Review: The reason this book is good is because it will help you actually learn how to do organic chemistry instead of just memorizing reactions and their mechanisms. This book answers "WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?". A very important book for the graduate student in organic chemistry.
Rating:
Summary: Learn, not just memorize!
Review: The reason this book is good is because it will help you actually learn how to do organic chemistry instead of just memorizing reactions and their mechanisms. This book answers "WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?". A very important book for the graduate student in organic chemistry.
| 
