Thread: Books, books, books (read me!)

Hey.
I'm planning on studying biotechnology or a related field soon, but have little knowledge in the fields of chem, bio, etc to even start.
What I need, is books that will help me get my physics, chemistry, calculus and biology to the minimum level, so I can start university. In other words, the books you'd use in high school. I was specialized in electromechanics in secondary school, so we didn't get *any* chemistry or bio. And very little physics. Not to mention that my calculus is rather rusty, because it's been 2 years since I graduated. Any hints and tips on what books to use or courses to follow would be greatly appreciated!

The courses you'll take in college should be enough to prepare you but I recommend finding out what text your school uses, buy it and then review it over the summer. Knowing calculus and algebra well will make your college experience much easier...I wish that I had mastered math years ago...I'm 25 and just now learning Chem and Algebra because I didn't care in high school to do my best...

Originally Posted by gottspieler

The courses you'll take in college should be enough to prepare you but I recommend finding out what text your school uses, buy it and then review it over the summer. Knowing calculus and algebra well will make your college experience much easier...I wish that I had mastered math years ago...I'm 25 and just now learning Chem and Algebra because I didn't care in high school to do my best...

I seriously doubt the courses in University will prepare me. I've been to uni before, and they EXPECT you to have decent knowledge of certain fields. By the way, I'm not making this up. I went to the school's site, to the biotech section, and it said that I needed decent knowledge of those fields. Reading college text won't do me any good, I'm afraid. I have ->no<- skill in chem/bio etc at all, so it'll be like a caveman trying to understand quantum theory. I need to build decent high school level skill, by using books of that level.

Timothy when I am trawling through second hand book stores I occasionally purchase text books in chmeistry, physics, or biology, since for $5 or $10 what are you going to lose. I have never seen any that did not do at least an adequate job of conveying the basic facts. Publishers are not going to waste money producing a book that won't sell. I'd head down to a second hand book story and find some that appeal to you. Scan the Table of Contents, browse through the chapters, look for the range of references they give, then buy some.

Great idea, I should do that.

If your school is anything like mine, you will have online components for math classes which tell you step by step how to work problems (we have online components for all foreign languages and math classes).