Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

An essential undergraduate text, 04 Jun 2004
Most physics degree courses don't cover the topic of Statistical Mechanics until some way through the second year and this is mostly due to students requiring a reasonable grounding in thermodynamics, which is traditionally a 2nd year topic. Statistical Mechanics: A Survival Guide is an excellent book for any student studying this subject as it starts off by explaining the basics of statistics in such a manner that is very easy to understand. The foundations that it sets in the first chapter ensure that you have a very clear understanding of these basics, which are extremely important for grasping the idea of a microstate, essential to deriving the distribution functions for the various types of particle. It gives very complete discussions on quantum statistics and its applications along with the standard sections on ideal gases. The links between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are frequently highlighted so as to show how the two subjects go hand in hand. This is an excellent text on a subject that can become very complicated and the presentation and explanations in the book cannot be faulted.

My only quibble is the price - I would have expected just a little bit more for my money but nonetheless I still consider it an essential book for a physics student to have on their shelf.

Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

An essential undergraduate text, 04 Jun 2004
Most physics degree courses don't cover the topic of Statistical Mechanics until some way through the second year and this is mostly due to students requiring a reasonable grounding in thermodynamics, which is traditionally a 2nd year topic. Statistical Mechanics: A Survival Guide is an excellent book for any student studying this subject as it starts off by explaining the basics of statistics in such a manner that is very easy to understand. The foundations that it sets in the first chapter ensure that you have a very clear understanding of these basics, which are extremely important for grasping the idea of a microstate, essential to deriving the distribution functions for the various types of particle. It gives very complete discussions on quantum statistics and its applications along with the standard sections on ideal gases. The links between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are frequently highlighted so as to show how the two subjects go hand in hand. This is an excellent text on a subject that can become very complicated and the presentation and explanations in the book cannot be faulted.

My only quibble is the price - I would have expected just a little bit more for my money but nonetheless I still consider it an essential book for a physics student to have on their shelf.

Msi student thinks this book is really good., 23 Jan 2007
Am currently working on a dissertation using path integrals and wanted to look at an application within string theory. I instantly felt this book was very well written and informative. Anyone who didn't get Tensors and special relativity so well the first time will realise how clear this book is, from the start. Read someone elses copy and bought my own.

I would say that if one is at 2nd year undergraduate (UK) or above then this text not going to be too hard to follow. Of course this is not a book to teach you tensors or quantum mechanics and for that use, Schaum's outline to Tensors and F.S.Levin Intro to Quantum mechanics, but would still be easily accessible to someone with only basic knowledge of these two topics. Just as with any physics book one must be prepared to solve the problems, after all its all about the mathematics and concepts. Not a popular science book but certainly a pleasure to read. Comparitive in style to A.ZEE Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.(Learn a bit, solve some problems, learn a bit more).

String theory made understandable?! Who'd have thought it!, 16 Aug 2005
Armed only with an AS level in physics, the task of understanding the mathematics of string theory would seem an impossible task. And at first, it was - until I was recommended this book. 20 pages in I had already been introduced to reams of mathematics I had previously never heard of but - an important but - I could understand ALL of it. I'll admit that still doesn't make it an easy read - I've often re-read paragraphs to make sure I understood them - but Zwiebach explains everything in such a way that you need only have learned a bit about special relativity, basic quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and some statistics to be able to make sense of it. The first two, if you don't know much about them already, can be easily picked up by the curious layman via various popular science books (I myself only learned about them by doing so), and the latter two are pretty much covered by GCSE/A level maths and physics. Other textbooks you might find on the subject are all aimed at graduate level and as a result make no sense whatsoever, but this book is far more accessible. It even has problems in it for you to have a go at yourself...

If you're thinking this book looks good but expensive, there are things to bear in mind - you won't find it at your local library, it's far too specialised. Unless you have access to a university library, the only way to get hold of it is buy a copy. For anyone with an undergraduate level of understanding in physics, this book really shouldn't be too difficult, and if you're as geeky and interested in the subject as I am then AS or A level could be enough (provided you are prepared to have done some reading around the subject first - books I have found particularly useful were Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', Stephen Hawking's 'The Universe in a Nutshell' and 'The Quark and the Jaguar' by Murray Gell-Mann. But there are many others around that would be useful too). At first I got a copy from a university library via my brother, but having found it so instantly useful and understandable I'm buying my own!

Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

An essential undergraduate text, 04 Jun 2004
Most physics degree courses don't cover the topic of Statistical Mechanics until some way through the second year and this is mostly due to students requiring a reasonable grounding in thermodynamics, which is traditionally a 2nd year topic. Statistical Mechanics: A Survival Guide is an excellent book for any student studying this subject as it starts off by explaining the basics of statistics in such a manner that is very easy to understand. The foundations that it sets in the first chapter ensure that you have a very clear understanding of these basics, which are extremely important for grasping the idea of a microstate, essential to deriving the distribution functions for the various types of particle. It gives very complete discussions on quantum statistics and its applications along with the standard sections on ideal gases. The links between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are frequently highlighted so as to show how the two subjects go hand in hand. This is an excellent text on a subject that can become very complicated and the presentation and explanations in the book cannot be faulted.

My only quibble is the price - I would have expected just a little bit more for my money but nonetheless I still consider it an essential book for a physics student to have on their shelf.

Msi student thinks this book is really good., 23 Jan 2007
Am currently working on a dissertation using path integrals and wanted to look at an application within string theory. I instantly felt this book was very well written and informative. Anyone who didn't get Tensors and special relativity so well the first time will realise how clear this book is, from the start. Read someone elses copy and bought my own.

I would say that if one is at 2nd year undergraduate (UK) or above then this text not going to be too hard to follow. Of course this is not a book to teach you tensors or quantum mechanics and for that use, Schaum's outline to Tensors and F.S.Levin Intro to Quantum mechanics, but would still be easily accessible to someone with only basic knowledge of these two topics. Just as with any physics book one must be prepared to solve the problems, after all its all about the mathematics and concepts. Not a popular science book but certainly a pleasure to read. Comparitive in style to A.ZEE Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.(Learn a bit, solve some problems, learn a bit more).

String theory made understandable?! Who'd have thought it!, 16 Aug 2005
Armed only with an AS level in physics, the task of understanding the mathematics of string theory would seem an impossible task. And at first, it was - until I was recommended this book. 20 pages in I had already been introduced to reams of mathematics I had previously never heard of but - an important but - I could understand ALL of it. I'll admit that still doesn't make it an easy read - I've often re-read paragraphs to make sure I understood them - but Zwiebach explains everything in such a way that you need only have learned a bit about special relativity, basic quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and some statistics to be able to make sense of it. The first two, if you don't know much about them already, can be easily picked up by the curious layman via various popular science books (I myself only learned about them by doing so), and the latter two are pretty much covered by GCSE/A level maths and physics. Other textbooks you might find on the subject are all aimed at graduate level and as a result make no sense whatsoever, but this book is far more accessible. It even has problems in it for you to have a go at yourself...

If you're thinking this book looks good but expensive, there are things to bear in mind - you won't find it at your local library, it's far too specialised. Unless you have access to a university library, the only way to get hold of it is buy a copy. For anyone with an undergraduate level of understanding in physics, this book really shouldn't be too difficult, and if you're as geeky and interested in the subject as I am then AS or A level could be enough (provided you are prepared to have done some reading around the subject first - books I have found particularly useful were Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', Stephen Hawking's 'The Universe in a Nutshell' and 'The Quark and the Jaguar' by Murray Gell-Mann. But there are many others around that would be useful too). At first I got a copy from a university library via my brother, but having found it so instantly useful and understandable I'm buying my own!

Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

An essential undergraduate text, 04 Jun 2004
Most physics degree courses don't cover the topic of Statistical Mechanics until some way through the second year and this is mostly due to students requiring a reasonable grounding in thermodynamics, which is traditionally a 2nd year topic. Statistical Mechanics: A Survival Guide is an excellent book for any student studying this subject as it starts off by explaining the basics of statistics in such a manner that is very easy to understand. The foundations that it sets in the first chapter ensure that you have a very clear understanding of these basics, which are extremely important for grasping the idea of a microstate, essential to deriving the distribution functions for the various types of particle. It gives very complete discussions on quantum statistics and its applications along with the standard sections on ideal gases. The links between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are frequently highlighted so as to show how the two subjects go hand in hand. This is an excellent text on a subject that can become very complicated and the presentation and explanations in the book cannot be faulted.

My only quibble is the price - I would have expected just a little bit more for my money but nonetheless I still consider it an essential book for a physics student to have on their shelf.

Msi student thinks this book is really good., 23 Jan 2007
Am currently working on a dissertation using path integrals and wanted to look at an application within string theory. I instantly felt this book was very well written and informative. Anyone who didn't get Tensors and special relativity so well the first time will realise how clear this book is, from the start. Read someone elses copy and bought my own.

I would say that if one is at 2nd year undergraduate (UK) or above then this text not going to be too hard to follow. Of course this is not a book to teach you tensors or quantum mechanics and for that use, Schaum's outline to Tensors and F.S.Levin Intro to Quantum mechanics, but would still be easily accessible to someone with only basic knowledge of these two topics. Just as with any physics book one must be prepared to solve the problems, after all its all about the mathematics and concepts. Not a popular science book but certainly a pleasure to read. Comparitive in style to A.ZEE Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.(Learn a bit, solve some problems, learn a bit more).

String theory made understandable?! Who'd have thought it!, 16 Aug 2005
Armed only with an AS level in physics, the task of understanding the mathematics of string theory would seem an impossible task. And at first, it was - until I was recommended this book. 20 pages in I had already been introduced to reams of mathematics I had previously never heard of but - an important but - I could understand ALL of it. I'll admit that still doesn't make it an easy read - I've often re-read paragraphs to make sure I understood them - but Zwiebach explains everything in such a way that you need only have learned a bit about special relativity, basic quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and some statistics to be able to make sense of it. The first two, if you don't know much about them already, can be easily picked up by the curious layman via various popular science books (I myself only learned about them by doing so), and the latter two are pretty much covered by GCSE/A level maths and physics. Other textbooks you might find on the subject are all aimed at graduate level and as a result make no sense whatsoever, but this book is far more accessible. It even has problems in it for you to have a go at yourself...

If you're thinking this book looks good but expensive, there are things to bear in mind - you won't find it at your local library, it's far too specialised. Unless you have access to a university library, the only way to get hold of it is buy a copy. For anyone with an undergraduate level of understanding in physics, this book really shouldn't be too difficult, and if you're as geeky and interested in the subject as I am then AS or A level could be enough (provided you are prepared to have done some reading around the subject first - books I have found particularly useful were Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', Stephen Hawking's 'The Universe in a Nutshell' and 'The Quark and the Jaguar' by Murray Gell-Mann. But there are many others around that would be useful too). At first I got a copy from a university library via my brother, but having found it so instantly useful and understandable I'm buying my own!

Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

To really understand classical thermodynamics, 30 Aug 1999
A most intelligent book on the subject. The presentation of the axiomatics of classical thermodynamics and the derivation of the properties of system is the most rigorous I have ever read. Far away above most of the books on the subject. Excellent book for teachers also

Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

An essential undergraduate text, 04 Jun 2004
Most physics degree courses don't cover the topic of Statistical Mechanics until some way through the second year and this is mostly due to students requiring a reasonable grounding in thermodynamics, which is traditionally a 2nd year topic. Statistical Mechanics: A Survival Guide is an excellent book for any student studying this subject as it starts off by explaining the basics of statistics in such a manner that is very easy to understand. The foundations that it sets in the first chapter ensure that you have a very clear understanding of these basics, which are extremely important for grasping the idea of a microstate, essential to deriving the distribution functions for the various types of particle. It gives very complete discussions on quantum statistics and its applications along with the standard sections on ideal gases. The links between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are frequently highlighted so as to show how the two subjects go hand in hand. This is an excellent text on a subject that can become very complicated and the presentation and explanations in the book cannot be faulted.

My only quibble is the price - I would have expected just a little bit more for my money but nonetheless I still consider it an essential book for a physics student to have on their shelf.

Msi student thinks this book is really good., 23 Jan 2007
Am currently working on a dissertation using path integrals and wanted to look at an application within string theory. I instantly felt this book was very well written and informative. Anyone who didn't get Tensors and special relativity so well the first time will realise how clear this book is, from the start. Read someone elses copy and bought my own.

I would say that if one is at 2nd year undergraduate (UK) or above then this text not going to be too hard to follow. Of course this is not a book to teach you tensors or quantum mechanics and for that use, Schaum's outline to Tensors and F.S.Levin Intro to Quantum mechanics, but would still be easily accessible to someone with only basic knowledge of these two topics. Just as with any physics book one must be prepared to solve the problems, after all its all about the mathematics and concepts. Not a popular science book but certainly a pleasure to read. Comparitive in style to A.ZEE Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.(Learn a bit, solve some problems, learn a bit more).

String theory made understandable?! Who'd have thought it!, 16 Aug 2005
Armed only with an AS level in physics, the task of understanding the mathematics of string theory would seem an impossible task. And at first, it was - until I was recommended this book. 20 pages in I had already been introduced to reams of mathematics I had previously never heard of but - an important but - I could understand ALL of it. I'll admit that still doesn't make it an easy read - I've often re-read paragraphs to make sure I understood them - but Zwiebach explains everything in such a way that you need only have learned a bit about special relativity, basic quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and some statistics to be able to make sense of it. The first two, if you don't know much about them already, can be easily picked up by the curious layman via various popular science books (I myself only learned about them by doing so), and the latter two are pretty much covered by GCSE/A level maths and physics. Other textbooks you might find on the subject are all aimed at graduate level and as a result make no sense whatsoever, but this book is far more accessible. It even has problems in it for you to have a go at yourself...

If you're thinking this book looks good but expensive, there are things to bear in mind - you won't find it at your local library, it's far too specialised. Unless you have access to a university library, the only way to get hold of it is buy a copy. For anyone with an undergraduate level of understanding in physics, this book really shouldn't be too difficult, and if you're as geeky and interested in the subject as I am then AS or A level could be enough (provided you are prepared to have done some reading around the subject first - books I have found particularly useful were Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', Stephen Hawking's 'The Universe in a Nutshell' and 'The Quark and the Jaguar' by Murray Gell-Mann. But there are many others around that would be useful too). At first I got a copy from a university library via my brother, but having found it so instantly useful and understandable I'm buying my own!

Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

To really understand classical thermodynamics, 30 Aug 1999
A most intelligent book on the subject. The presentation of the axiomatics of classical thermodynamics and the derivation of the properties of system is the most rigorous I have ever read. Far away above most of the books on the subject. Excellent book for teachers also

THE BEST BOOK ON STATISTICAL PHYSICS, 23 Jul 1998
This is the Volume 5 of the famous Course of Theoretical Physics by L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. All serious students of theoretical physics must possess the ten volumes of this excellent Course, which cover in detail and rigour practically all the branches of theoretical physics. The Volume 5 treats the subject of classical and quantum statistics. It contains an unusual approach of these subjects, based on the general Gibbs method, avoiding the introduction of ergodic hypotheses and, in the case of the ideal gas, of "a priori" probabilities, which are difficult to justify and serves only to obscure the exposition. The book is complete and contains chapters not usually found in other similar books, such as the chapter on second-order phase transitions. The clarity of exposition and rigour is notorious in this book. A magnific book!

This is the most beautiful book on statistical mechanics, 23 Jul 1998
This is the first volume of the Statistical Physics of Landau, Lifshitz. It's, of course, an extraordinary book, coming from these authors. The book starts with a chapter which defines entropy and derives its main properties. Then comes a masterly chapter on Thermodynamics where the criterion for equillibrium is that the entropy be maximum. The things they derive from that! Now and then I like to reread this chapter just for fun! After that statistical mechanics of equillibrium is constructed along the lines of Gibbs, starting from the microcanonical distribution, wherefrom the others are derived. Applications then start. Thermodynamical equillibrium in General Relativity is treated, as is gravitational collapse of stars. Chemical equillibrium is wonderfully done, being applied also for relativistic reactions among elementary particles, as neutrinos. There is no other book even close to this, as physics is concerned.

Excellent, 12 Nov 2003
I use this book for my AS Level chemistry. It is not suitable for use on it's own but is an excellent supplement to a textbook. It has all the information you need, but not in as much detail as a main textbook.

Easy to understand, 01 Sep 2002
This is the best AQA revision book available. The rest of the books in the series are also worth buying. They contain a large amount of content but are small enough to read through for last minute revision. They helped me to get a grade A in my chemistry AS. I would definitely recommend these books to anyone studying the AQA syllabus.

An excellent guide-book for this module, 16 Mar 2002
The book covers the bare essentials for this chemistry module. Although it does not go into substantial detail, it is excellent as a quick reference and is also very useful for "last-minute" cramming

Small, concise and friendly looking but with plenty detail., 07 Mar 2002
The book is perfect for revision. I found it really great that it was specific only to my sylabus because it meant there were no extra pages to wade through. Although i am aware some books tell you which parts you need to look at for each specification i prefered a book catering for only one examining board because it kept content down to a minimum making it look less threatening and much more approachable! The modular format also really helped with this, i'd suggest you get the whole set! The content is easy to understand and in easily enough detail. The books do contain colour and highlighted text but not many different colours (generally just black, one bright colour and shades of gray) which i liked beaucse i find some revision books overwhelming and confusing due to them overdoing it on the colour! All in all, a very helpful revision aid.

Want to pass this exam? Buy this book!, 25 Feb 2002
It's official - whoever had the idea for this series of Collins revision guides is a genius. Why? Well, read on......
These guides are written specifically for the AQA Chemistry syllabus. Many revision guides are written for the general subject of Chemistry - however, there are differences between the different exam boards, and so using a syllabus specific revision guide ensures you are learning all of the material you need to know - and are not wasting time learning things not on your syllabus.
Plus, these provide clearly worked examples of the sorts of questions you get asked not only in exams, but also for your homework - which comes in useful! There is also a mock paper - taken form the AQA resource pack - and a detailed answer scheme, so you can really test your knowledge.
If that isn't enough to convince you that you should buy this immediately, this guide is also written really clearly, using bullet points, tables and margin notes to ensure you understand every topic fully, and each section is clearly referenced to the syllabus, so you can make revision notes really easily and quickly.
Still not convinced? Well - my chemistry teacher was so impressed with it, he's planning to buy a complete set for his class next year!
If you really want to do well in Chemistry......my advice? Buy this now!

An essential undergraduate text, 04 Jun 2004
Most physics degree courses don't cover the topic of Statistical Mechanics until some way through the second year and this is mostly due to students requiring a reasonable grounding in thermodynamics, which is traditionally a 2nd year topic. Statistical Mechanics: A Survival Guide is an excellent book for any student studying this subject as it starts off by explaining the basics of statistics in such a manner that is very easy to understand. The foundations that it sets in the first chapter ensure that you have a very clear understanding of these basics, which are extremely important for grasping the idea of a microstate, essential to deriving the distribution functions for the various types of particle. It gives very complete discussions on quantum statistics and its applications along with the standard sections on ideal gases. The links between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics are frequently highlighted so as to show how the two subjects go hand in hand. This is an excellent text on a subject that can become very complicated and the presentation and explanations in the book cannot be faulted.

My only quibble is the price - I would have expected just a little bit more for my money but nonetheless I still consider it an essential book for a physics student to have on their shelf.

Msi student thinks this book is really good., 23 Jan 2007
Am currently working on a dissertation using path integrals and wanted to look at an application within string theory. I instantly felt this book was very well written and informative. Anyone who didn't get Tensors and special relativity so well the first time will realise how clear this book is, from the start. Read someone elses copy and bought my own.

I would say that if one is at 2nd year undergraduate (UK) or above then this text not going to be too hard to follow. Of course this is not a book to teach you tensors or quantum mechanics and for that use, Schaum's outline to Tensors and F.S.Levin Intro to Quantum mechanics, but would still be easily accessible to someone with only basic knowledge of these two topics. Just as with any physics book one must be prepared to solve the problems, after all its all about the mathematics and concepts. Not a popular science book but certainly a pleasure to read. Comparitive in style to A.ZEE Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.(Learn a bit, solve some problems, learn a bit more).

String theory made understandable?! Who'd have thought it!, 16 Aug 2005
Armed only with an AS level in physics, the task of understanding the mathematics of string theory would seem an impossible task. And at first, it was - until I was recommended this book. 20 pages in I had already been introduced to reams of mathematics I had previously never heard of but - an important but - I could understand ALL of it. I'll admit that still doesn't make it an easy read - I've often re-read paragraphs to make sure I understood them - but Zwiebach explains everything in such a way that you need only have learned a bit about special relativity, basic quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and some statistics to be able to make sense of it. The first two, if you don't know much about them already, can be easily picked up by the curious layman via various popular science books (I myself only learned about them by doing so), and the latter two are pretty much covered by GCSE/A level maths and physics. Other textbooks you might find on the subject are all aimed at graduate level and as a result make no sense whatsoever, but this book is far more accessible. It even has problems in it for you to have a go at yourself...

If you're thinking this book looks good but expensive, there are things to bear in mind - you won't find it at your local library, it's far too specialised. Unless you have access to a university library, the only way to get hold of it is buy a copy. For anyone with an undergraduate level of understanding in physics, this book really shouldn't be too difficult, and if you're as geeky and interested in the subject as I am then AS or A level could be enough (provided you are prepared to have done some reading around the subject first - books I have found particularly useful were Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', Stephen Hawking's 'The Universe in a Nutshell' and 'The Quark and the Jaguar' by Murray Gell-Mann. But there are many others around that would be useful too). At first I got a copy from a university library via my brother, but having found it so instantly useful and understandable I'm buying my own!

Better than most, 08 May 2008
It is a pity this book has not been written with a consistent level of care and attention to detail (as regards exposition, language); otherwise it would have been splendid. The overall plan and the emphasis on physics is excellent. There is a lot in this book which you would not easily find in other sources. In particular the exercises are very well done as miniprojects containing substantial further topics. There is an element of trendiness in the title: look up "Entropy" or "Order parameter" in the index and you'll find lots of page references, as behooves key terms appearing in the book's title; but look up "complexity" and you are referred to a series of exercises; one feels "complexity" was added to the title for want of a sexy buzzword that would distinguish this from any number of other stat mechs books.

To really understand classical thermodynamics, 30 Aug 1999
A most intelligent book on the subject. The presentation of the axiomatics of classical thermodynamics and the derivation of the properties of system is the most rigorous I have ever read. Far away above most of the books on the subject. Excellent book for teachers also

THE BEST BOOK ON STATISTICAL PHYSICS, 23 Jul 1998
This is the Volume 5 of the famous Course of Theoretical Physics by L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz. All serious students of theoretical physics must possess the ten volumes of this excellent Course, which cover in detail and rigour practically all the branches of theoretical physics. The Volume 5 treats the subject of classical and quantum statistics. It contains an unusual approach of these subjects, based on the general Gibbs method, avoiding the introduction of ergodic hypotheses and, in the case of the ideal gas, of "a priori" probabilities, which are difficult to justify and serves only to obscure the exposition. The book is complete and contains chapters not usually found in other similar books, such as the chapter on second-order phase transitions. The clarity of exposition and rigour is notorious in this book. A magnific book!

This is the most beautiful book on statistical mechanics, 23 Jul 1998
This is the first volume of the Statistical Physics of Landau, Lifshitz. It's, of course, an extraordinary book, coming from these authors. The book starts with a chapter which defines entropy and derives its main properties. Then comes a masterly chapter on Thermodynamics where the criterion for equillibrium is that the entropy be maximum. The things they derive from that! Now and then I like to reread this chapter just for fun! After that statistical mechanics of equillibrium is constructed along the lines of Gibbs, starting from the microcanonical distribution, wherefrom the others are derived. Applications then start. Thermodynamical equillibrium in General Relativity is treated, as is gravitational collapse of stars. Chemical equillibrium is wonderfully done, being applied also for relativistic reactions among elementary particles, as neutrinos. There is no other book even close to this, as physics is concerned.

An excellent introduction to the subject., 03 Aug 2000
This text provides an excelent introduction to the principles underlying statistical mechanics. Although some prior mathematical knowledge is required, this knowledge need not include a great knowledge of statistical techniques. Much of the mathematical skills needed to understand and use statistical mechanics are covered in the first couple of chapters. The text also covers some fundamental thermodynamics, in a more understandable and useful manner than several books dedicated to thermal physics, before going on to present the joint application of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics as a very useful tool in predicting the properties of a number of types of physical system. Each chapter concludes with a selection of problems, with solutions at the end of the book, providing an oppurtunity to both test understanding of the material and develop the skills needed to apply statistical mechanics.

Finally, and most unusually for the type of subject matter covered, it is not difficult to read. The pages are clearly laid out, diagrams are used effectively and all equations are clearly ennumerated. Most importantly, however, the text covers the fundamental physics effectively and concisely, whilst providing sufficient detail on each topic.

I would consider this book essential reading for any undergraduate studying physical sciences, and a source of good reference material for anyone using the techniques of statistical mechanics at higher levels.