Campbell Biology in Focus

by Lisa A. Urry, Michael L. Cain, Steven A. Wasserman

For introductory biology course for science majors

Focus. Practice. Engage.

Built unit-by-unit, Campbell Biology in Focus achieves a balance between breadth and depth of concepts to move students away from memorisation. Streamlined content enables students to prioritise essential biology content, concepts, and scientific skills that are needed to develop conceptual understanding and an ability to apply their knowledge in future courses. Every unit takes an approach to streamlining the material to best fit the needs of instructors and students, based on reviews of over 1,000 syllabi from across the country, surveys, curriculum initiatives, reviews, discussions with hundreds of biology professors, and the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education report.

Maintaining the Campbell hallmark standards of accuracy, clarity, and pedagogical innovation, the 3rd Edition builds on this foundation to help students make connections across chapters, interpret real data, and synthesise their knowledge. The new edition integrates new, key scientific findings throughout and offers more than 450 videos and animations in Mastering Biology to help students actively learn, retain tough course concepts, and successfully engage with their studies and assessments.

Genres: Nonfiction, Textbooks, Science, School, Biology, Read For School

1008 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[kota :)]

The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.

Real talk, I think everyone—and yes, I mean everyone (mostly…)—should take AP Bio. I hate science, yet it’s truly been one of the most rewarding classes i’ve taken in high school. Maybe I’m a little biased considering I somehow got a 90% on my final exam without studying (how???), but it’s not all that difficult either.

But this is Goodreads, not Rate My Professor, so let’s shift gears to Campbell Biology In Focus: AP Edition. I used the online textbook most throughout the year, and let me just say, at times it was heavenly (being able to click on a term and have the definition immediately accessible was a terrific feature for those late-night, last minute homework grinds), but at other times it was a hellish nightmare. And don’t even try to cmd + f your way through vocab because, yes, all six instances of the keyword your searching for will come up, but none of them will be what you’re looking for, and in addition to that, eight other instances that just don’t exist will also come up? I don’t even know how to explain it, but then you’re stuck sifting through 20 mentions (most of them being mere phantoms) of the same term only to find out that none of them are helpful. Then you’ve just gotta go to Quizlet to figure out what the textbook said before its last update (and there are many of them).

So, all in all, ”Campbell” is fine, but if someone lets you choose between this textbook and another, I’d probably choose the other.

[Shruthika · Rating 2 out of 5]

the online version was too difficult to use and made you click through like 12 subsections to get to the right place
the paper version was wayy too clunky to even bother opening
overall 1/10 for accessibility. the 1 point is for existing.
diagrams were actually v helpful (see i can be objective!)
animations were also sosososo good they actually saved me
however, khan academy beats this any day ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[vint cerf · Rating 2 out of 5]

fuck this
-2017-2018

[Karly · Rating 4 out of 5]

not worth it....

[Sathvik Kakanuru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Campbell biology is a college level biology textbook and is extremely helpful to understand concepts in all fields of biology, going deep in to each section but also not solely expanding on a section such as Raven's Plant Biology or Albert's Molecular Cell Biology. With impressive visuals and amazing pictures, the book not only explains the topics through words but supports visual learners with pics of the content. In fact, the pictures have helped so much that just seeing the pictures helps me remember what the content of the pages are. The concepts are displayed several times and so are in easy to understand language and several jokes to help you increase connections and links between subject knowledge and the jokes. One negative is a lack of depth in the animal diversity chapters and also the biotechnology chapters need more info but otherwise an amazing book.

[isabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly it wasn't awful. i am somehow looking forward to ochem now

[Marina French · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of tears...but interesting at times. :p I hope I do well on the AP exam.

[Lanie Smith]

academic validation isn’t worth this shit

[Andromache of Troy]

Truly, this book is well-written. However, I must confess, it took me through quite a TOUGH journey! Nevertheless, I found the last few units to be the most enjoyable. Despite the challenges, there was certainly some fun to be had in the end!😆

[River Guru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good luck getting through this one. The book is really pretty-lots of color photos and graphs, captions, etc but the data is not presented in a clear way. I got this book packaged with the mastering biology software, and the 2 seemed to have nothing to do with each other. Combine that with my professors lectures and PowerPoints-(which were also unrelated) and I was totally lost. This was an extremely expensive textbook-and it looks like they put a lot of money into making it...but I just didn’t find it helpful. Good luck. (This was my required textbook for intro to cellular and molecular biology).

[Brent Darling · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is what it is, a college textbook. Kinda dull at times, but did have some interesting information in it. And as with all college textbooks, it's ridiculously expensive.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't think I'll be able to skip bio 101 in college, it'll at least be easier now.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. The online Mastering Biology was a great companion.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, comprehensible, well-written explanations of the (college level) concepts those can get you through your AP Bio. The online version on the other hand... it takes some time until you find the very chapter you are looking for... (I have not read any other editions, therefore I am unable to compare them).

[Nina Sweeney · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst introductory biology texts. Related concepts are scattered and explanations of complex processes are ambiguous and wrong more often than is acceptable given the experience of the authors.

[Allison Hartley]

this book is so true bestie

[Yvonne]

No more reading guides!!

[Hiwete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never again. This textbook was the bane of my existence. Informative, but incredibly exhausting to get through. Thank you, next.

[Remy Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

yikes but at least I passed 😭😭

[Q · Rating 3 out of 5]

AP BIO MY GOAAAATTTTTTT!!!

This textbook was so good and so bad at the same time, it had great diagrams but man it went WAYYY into too much detail on pointless topics.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was a decent companion through my introduction to biology (at least since high school). The paired down text can become confusing at times when the authors error on the side of simplicity, but additional resources help at those times.

[Mills College Library]

570 C1873 2014

[Rebecca Osbaldeston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brillant!!! Great descriptions, beautiful illustrations, and I ACTUALLY enjoyed reading it. What more can you ask for?

[Jahnvi · Rating 3 out of 5]

khan academy saved me from this god awful creation.

5/5/25
i can finally say i'm done with this.

6/31/25
forgot to update but i got a 5 🎉