I know what you were trying to say, you're just being helpful to
that student's query and direct to the point.
I'm making a separate point. Throughout my life (both academic
and otherwise), I always enjoy exploring alternative
sources instead of merely following the common (eg. course
instructor's materials, societal dogma, etc). It's just my personal
style to enjoy self-directed learning, exploration and
development.
Back to OC courses, particularly for H3 (whether NTU, NUS
or taught-within-JC) courses, I highly doubt it's 'essential' to
buy any textbook at all, whether McMurry or others.
If any textbook were indeed essential for the NTU H3
course, the student would likely have the required title and author
direct from the NTU lecturer, instead of asking on a
general online forum.
Courses usually have course notes given (though the student will
usually have to print it themselves or pay for it), and even
if the course instructor 'recommends' a certain textbook, it is
seldom 'essential'. And countless undergrads waste countless
$$$ buying textbooks that hey were under the impression that
it 'recommended' = 'compulsory'. But of
course, how 'essential' any textbook is for any course,
is entirely up to the instructor.
But if you personally enjoy using a
particular textbook that makes learning fun and productive for
you, that even the course instructor didn't recommend, then it's
$$$ well spent; definitely more worth it than wasting $$$ on
textbooks recommended by the course instructor but you don't
like.
And finally, OC (moreso at H3 level than H2
level) really requires more understanding than
memorizing. So all the more important it is for the
student to obtain a textbook he/she personally finds enjoyable.
I find Mcmurry quite easy to understand so it was good enough
for me in yr 1.
However, i won't deny that certain module's textbook is quite
useless and some like physical chemistry textbooks are useful but
SUPER boring...