Awful. I can't believe this went to press (2nd edition, too!) Aug 17, 2009 (14 of 14 found this helpful)
Wow. I can't even believe that I'm writing this about such a major publishing company as Elsevier, but I am. This book is simply AWFUL. There are mistakes everywhere. Print mistakes. Copy mistakes. Editing mistakes. Informational mistakes. Two sentences one after the other that contradict each other. Here's an example sentence that has me completely baffled/astonished: "Prokaryotic cells are those containing no defined nucleus and a series of organelles that carry out the functions of the cell as directed by the nucleus." Huh? In the same sentence, they say it has no defined nucleus, and that the nucleus (which it doesn't have?) carries out functions of the cells. Wrong. Here's another great one: "HESI Hint: Concentrations have a great deal to do with the rate of reaction. As is the case with males and females, increasing the numbers of reactants (persons) means that a greater number of collisions can take place." I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
It's not just the copy that has mistakes. Sometimes, in the sample questions at the end of a chapter, they'll tell you that, say, "B" is the answer -- and then CONTRADICT that answer in the explanation. So, say, question #6 from the "Biology" section: "In which organelle does transcription begin? A: Ribosome; B: Nucleus; C: mRNA; D. Cytoplasm" The answer? C. Except that mRNA is not an organelle. So the description says "The DNA of a cell is located in the nucleus. Therefore the beginning of the transcription takes place in the nucleus." Um...wasn't that answer B? So now I'm TOTALLY confused about where transcription takes place, so I'll have to Google it.
They also have problems with superscripts and subscripts. So 6.02 times 10 to the 23rd (where 23 should be a superscript) is printed in the book: 6.02x1023. Great. I am terrified that the test is going to be this horribly written!! I won't know how to answer the questions.
I really wish, as another reviewer said, there was some competition to this book. I haven't taken the exam yet (it's a requirement for entry into nursing school where I'm applying), but I will update once I have taken it. It seems to me that this exam is blatant unanalytical memorization. This book does not tell you useful things like, for example, if you will get to use a calculator, or if you will reference the periodic table or if you just are supposed to memorize the charges and atomic masses for every single element (um...even my chemistry professor doesn't know that? Why on earth would I memorize it? I wouldn't know where to begin).
All in all, this book is just making me more confused than I was to begin with. I've got the brand new 2nd edition, and it's awful. I'm an older student, with a degree in English, but it won't take an English major to know how horribly written/printed/edited this book is. I can't believe they sent it to press. Wow.
I'm praying that the actual exam isn't this much of a disaster. I don't trust them even to score me right, if it's the same publisher!!
**EDIT** -- I'm back, after having taken the test. I found that the tiny part on medical vocabulary that is in the book is useful, and also that the math section is useful (I got a 94% on the math). There is a calculator provided with the test, and the math was really simple since you could use a calculator. You need to know basic percentage problems, and also how to read a ratio problem. Now, for the sciences. There are only 22 questions per science section, so it's pretty-much a crap shoot. I just finished a college chem course, and studied this book, and I got a 58% on the CHEM. Class average was a 60%. Most of the CHEM on the test was biochemistry, which isn't really covered well in this guide. There is SO MUCH biology in the guide that I figure if you memorized it, you'd get at least a 70% or so...I got a 68% on the biology, but I didn't memorize it. Anatomy/physiology had so much stuff that wa