All you non-trads in OChem -- how are you surviving?

[Fltmedic2DO]

Wow, so I've been gone a few weeks and didn't realize how popular this thread became! Yay! Good to know I'm not alone here!

Anyway, so I now have more problems than just organic. When I am stressed, I get sick. Naturally. So after losing my Grandfather in February (he was basically a father to me), and stressing over OChem, I got very sick. It started as strep throat, but then migrated to my lungs. They couldn't control it, and I ended up in the hospital. I missed a week and a half of classes, just from being too sick to move.

I finally started to get better, and it felt like an accomplishment just to have survived. Then, my horse died. I know losing a pet is sad but not generally an excuse to "give up", but I had this guy since I was a kid. (I'm 27 now). He was my "crutch" - whenever I was sad or lonely, I'd go sit in his stall for a few hours and he'd make me feel better. He didn't die in his sleep, either -- he suddenly developed a serious condition that made him suffer terribly, and we had to call the vet out to put him to sleep. After losing my grandfather, being in the hospital, and then losing my horse, I just didn't think I could take anymore.

So this week has been spring break. I feel guilty about it -- but I haven't done hardly any studying. I just ---- recovered. I'm mentally ready to go again. I still don't have my voice back, but I'm ready to get back into the game.

I'm going to take your advice --- I'm going to quit focusing on the MCAT at all until I have my grades back under control. I'm going to hire a tutor. I have two tests to make up this week - I'm going to relax and focus on my "job" (school). I'm also going to get a white board for OChem and buy those books you guys were talking about!

Come to think of it, OChem is really a small problem in the grand scheme of life. 7 more weeks and I'm done with it completely. Ha! I'm going to survive it!

Hey Bud, so sorry to hear about your Grandfather and your horse. It also sounded like you might have have a bad case of walking pneumonia. Good thing though you took some time to recoop and hit it again. We're all in the same boat. I got sick as well from one of my patients. #$*! 'ing bug took me and my colon for ride that lasted a whole week. Missed my lecture series in biochem, Cellmolbio, and Pubhealth(Damn, street-medicine sucks sometimes...) I had just finished a Make up for test #2 in Orgo II. Luckily for me My prof was really helpful during office hours. She even gave up a lunch date to help us out. The one thing that seems to resonate throughout the thread(no pun intended), is Perfect Practice makes Perfect, and memorize your reagents. Just got to keep doing the problems over and over and over again. Even to the point of ad nauseum. This **** is tough though. I feel ya dog. I eeked out a B last sem. Now it seems like the rxn's and Friedel-Crafts just makes good nightly reading. My wife thinks i'm going insane in my membrane cuz I'm doing rxns on our bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker. Seriously, I'd wake up go to the bathroom, write the beginning of a rxn, sleep on it, then wake up and finish it before she gets in the shower and steams up the place (I know..poor excuse for a husband) Most of the folks here got it down. Props to you for starting this thread homie. We got some pretty good advice scrollin through. Just muscle through, you can do it. We got your back.
Don't sweat the small stuff, but always remember:
"In the grand scheme of medicine, it's the less attention to the mediocre that kills our patients (or at least prevents them from getting better sooner than then should have)"

---

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[olemissbabydoc]

4 more weeks!

 

[Nanon]

Hey, I know you're almost done, but for others who are planning on taking ochem soon, here's what I did, and it helped me do very well in both classes:

1. Find people you like to study with, and study with them.
2. Study a lot.
3. Study intelligently. I didn't learn squat from just doing problem sets over and over and over again. Instead, for most mechanisms, I made up stories that helped me to explain what was going on. 8 years later, I can still explain an SN1/SN2 and E1/E2 reaction, among others. This is why: http://www.scrupulousps.com/sn1sn2.html
4. Make it fun. I had a great prof who helped me see that mechanisms were elaborate puzzles, not just sources of irritation and frustration.

Good luck!

S.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

great advice nanon! anything to make it through the next 27 hours is wonderful! thanks!

got lab grades today - 95 this time. woohoo. so my grade has been buffered a bit. 4 more weeks of quizzes/tests, ugh, and 1-2 more lab grades.

hang in there guys. its almost over. when is everyone's last day?

 

[Deanis]

Two days until my OrgoII final and I'm freaking out a bit. I've done fine in OI and the first half of this course... then comes the carbonyls!

Any advice on connecting the various reactions? I am focusing on the mechanisms, but they're starting to all medl togoether. I need some way of simplifying things. I'm usually great at this, but I'm feeling a bit stressed out by carbonyl chemistry.

Any advice that is workable in the next day and a half?

Thanks for any last minute help!

 

[olemissbabydoc]

nothing but prayers and good luck deanis!

 

[Empi]

Carbonyls are the devil. I have a test tomorrow and I'm still trying to get all the preps straightened out in my hea. And the nomenclature isn't logical.

And the prof has been scheduling all of these off hour tutorials and reviews as though I'm a 20 year old without a demanding established life. Which explains why I'm online so early. We were invited to have breakfast with him and ask questions. He said we weren't obligated to go, but added if we thought we were well prepared, skip it, if our tutor was tutoring everything perfectly, skip it. you would need to be brain dead not to read between the line.

And I really like the naughty girls SN1 SN2 link, it gave me a needed laugh and made me think the wrong thing during yesterday's lecture.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

Took my last practice test for MCAT yesterday and got a 9/10/9. Why? STUPID OCHEM! Without all the orgo, it'd have been a 10+ biology section.
Grrrrr.

23 more hours of class here. I can do it... somehow!

 

[Deanis]

I have my OCHEM II exam in 2 hrs!

 

[Tutmos]

Given the topic, and I hate to put any additional pressure on those grinding through OChem right now, but I've seen in a few places in the past that Med school adcoms consider OChem grades in particular as the most important individual course grades from undergrad transcript. The explanation given was that it has some predictive value with how well the student will fare in medical school. Anyone have experience with these statements?

I'd also urge the suggestion many others have made about doing MASSIVE amounts of sample problems. I filled more than a full yellow legal tablet for each semester of OChem with nothing but practice problems that I did in my spare time. I did every problem in the book for each section and then actually did them over again a second time prior to exams. I also created a few legal size pages of small handwriting with all the reactions and important data points that I skimmed when I had 10 minutes to spare every day. I intend to use those same notes I saved for both classes in prep for the MCAT. It worked out for me, I had A's for Org 1, 2 and org lab.

I'd suggest for people that haven't taken it yet to consider trying to take as many fluff classes as you can when you have OChem or even reducing class load for a couple semesters to allow enough time to really dedicate yourself to it. Realistically OChem takes twice as much study time as any other similar credit value class I've taken and even three times as much as many. It's one of the most time consuming classes you'll take. Time is really what I think it takes to do well in it.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

three weeks away from being done!

lucky for those of you who are finishing up!! 21 hours + final for me...

 

[Nanon]

And I really like the naughty girls SN1 SN2 link, it gave me a needed laugh and made me think the wrong thing during yesterday's lecture.

Glad to be of service. -S

 

[st3ady]

Woohoo got my 3rd exam back! got a 100!!!!!! Hellz yeah, it feel soooo good. Now to crush the 4th exam, the final, and then lab final.... it won't be easy but this new grade gives me great confidence! thx for the motivation in this thread, good luck to all of you!

 

[CanadianGolden]

Carbonyl chemistry is the easiest topic in organic. It's the EXACT SAME process (nucleophilic attack at the carbon, push the double bond up, make a tetrahedral intermediate, electrons come down and kick something else off) over and over and over.

 

[Deanis]

Obviously you took a different chemistry course than I did. There were a lot more types of carbonyl reactions. The one (small) subset with a tetrahedral intermediate were the easiest of the reactions to be sure.

 

[Tutmos]

They are all generally the same, the leaving group is the variation as well as what happens after that, on the far end you get to deal with decarboxylation. The wade book did a really nice job with it. I vaguely remember something about Michael reactions, aldols and others. Hrmm never mind I need to review my Organic notes : )

How many people had a stand alone organic lab course? Mine was two semesters of lecture and a 4 credit Organic lab course. It sounds like some people are describing the lab being rolled into the lecture.

 

[Empi]

Congrats on the 100.

I know I got at least two Q's wrong on my exam, sigh. I had to put o/p activators in their order of strength. I knew the CX3 were deactivators, but I counted the electron pairs around the Br and forgot that is was weak not strong. Ug. One of those times I let the mental ball drop because the Br's and Cl's were not in my notes and not on my study cards.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

my class is lecture/lab combined for 4 hours credit total. Grade distribution is even, with lab notebook and quizzes counting 50% and lecture quizzes/midterm/final counting 50%.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

rocked my quiz (a-) and test (a) in ochem last week. at my univ, an a is an a.

 

[Pettie Baige]

I am currently taking orgo I and barely managing a desirable grade.
I got an A for 1st exam, and then totally bombed the 2nd exam, which shook me up pretty bad. The 3rd exam was okay but still disapointing considering the amount of time I invested on studying for it... and I am still having hard time getting myself together for this particular course.

I'm pretty sure most of pre-meds have similar experience where you felt like you were breezing through classes with straight A's and then at some point, BOOM!! you've got the worst grade of your life in front of you.

What upsets me the most is the fact that I literally studied my a$$ off for hours and days and I thought I was well-prepared cuz I thought I did understand all the mechanisms and background concepts.

In fact, when I did get my test back, it just brought me to tears because most of parts that were marked wrong was something I already knew answer to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and seriously I have no clue WHY I wrote down those ridiculous answers which have hurt my confidence greatly since it might indicate I don't function that well under stressful situation (which is a blow to a person who wants to be a physician, right??)

Now I am studying for my last exam before final, and feeling like I'm gonna have anxiety attack..

Obviously, I'm developing serious test anxiety over this class.
I wonder if anybody have advice on this kind of problem??
"lack of self-confidence after some failing grades and growing anxiety over the class. "

ok... it's 2:30 in the morning. I'd better stop rambling and get some sleep.
More orgo studying tommorrow !! AH!!!!!!!!!

Good luck with you all the orgo students for the rest of the semester!!

 

[Empi]

I'm right there with you, Pettie Baige.

I have a C right now. A C.

I've never had a C. I'm accustomed to studying my *** off and getting an A. Subjects like Genetics are challenging but I get an A-, boo-hoo, cry me a river because I work my *** off in Orgo and have a C. I got a B (mid range B) in Orgo 1.

There's nothing more I can do but work, memorize the crazy nomenclature and practice.

My professor doesn't like me and I don't know what I did to antagonize him. I get along with my profs, he takes a lot of points off for my bad penmanship.

I understand the concepts and mechanisms, I answer most of the lecture questions, I just don't get it.

It will be interesting to see how I do on the ACS final. I have a test on the last day of lecture and the final.

I will be glad to put this in my rear view mirror.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

me too! seven days, two quizzes, qnd the final to go.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

finally finished the first of the two quizzes. its one a.m., at least 3 hrs past my normal sleeping time, and I'm just winding down.

ochem, you are cruel and unusual punishment.

 

[Pettie Baige]

took the 4th exam of the semester yesterday. it was 7 pages long and by the time I was solving the last page, I felt like my hand was gonna fall off due to massive pain caused by too much writing!!
and of course, I didn't even get to solve the last problem, which was a synthesis problem, 'cause time was already up while I was working on the other synthesis one...there goes my 4 pts... I really hate synthesis...
god knows how many problems I've missed 'by accident' this time.. lol

I have a week until the final...... which is gonna be two parts: professor part and the assessment part (from ACS or something)...

god bless me!!!!!

(i just had to rant..)

 

[rohara30]

Adding --
I hope I don't sound like I'm blaming the instructor for not doing well in OChem. I'm not. I'm just --- frustrated with the whole thing!!!

There's a 12 volume DVD collection on Organic Chemistry that's supposed to be awesome. Someone in my post-bacc who was really struggling found it very helpful. Sorry, I don't know the name of it, but she was renting them off Netflix.

My Orgo teacher was pretty bad too. I quickly found I just had to teach orgo to myself. I used internet web pages from random universities, etc. Google what you're having trouble w/ and all kinds of useful tools will come up. Also, someone gave me their old Examcrackers materials soon as I entered my post-bacc. I found they actually explained concepts rather than just stated them, and they were especially helpful for Orgo.

 

[Empi]

My prof actually did a good job of lecturing but I could never pull off a good grade on his lecture exams.

I rocked a 96 on the ACS final yesterday (I'm still in shock.) and got a B- for the course. I dodged the C bullet again, thank goodness.

 

[st3ady]

Good luck everybody!!!! a happy ending to organic chemistry 2 for me

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

People call Organic Chem a foreign language...

I found the way my brain works is it is easier to just memorize than to try to understand. But I'm guessing this woouldn't work for everyone

 

[saylorsdad]

I finished up with an A how did every else do?

 

[Playmakur42]

I actually enjoyed O-chem. I just made a game out of doing practice problems & everything else fell into place. Here are some tips:

1. Get a dry erase board and at least 5-10 dry erase pens. Do lots of problems. At the end of the semester, those pens should be used up and ready for the garbage can.

2. Review every practice problem you either A.) got wrong or B.) got correct but weren't sure why until you totally understand the correct solution.

3. Look for the tricky exceptions to the standard rules in the practice problems. The teacher always tests a few variations of those and that's the difference between an 85% and 100%.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

got my "a" too, saylorsdad just glad it is over!

 

[saylorsdad]

Dry erase pens are nice, but as a school teacher make sure you put the darn lid back on the thing or it'll dry out and you'll be buying more of them. Chalk's much better for me as it'll last till you use or break it