Does Organic Lab actually teach you anything ?

[LargeMemberMD]

I have learned very little from chem labs. Is O-Chem lab any different ? Do you actually learn anything in O-Chem lab ?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Flopotomist]

I think labs in general take a bit of effort on the part of the student to integrate what you are doing in the lab to what you are learning in lecture. If you simply follow the cookbook, and vomit out a result, you aren't learning anything - but if you come to lab prepared and have studied the process/reaction under study, the lab reinforces concepts that you are learning about.

I found lab to be pretty helpful in both gen chem and in Ochem. Physics lab practically saved my butt in terms of understanding concepts. Good luck!

 

[bigdan]

Agreed. Besides the grunt work, I think that Orgo Lab did reinforce concepts from the lecture. In fact, the only Orgo that I remember is from Lab...

dc

 

[Jbienven]

I have learned very little from chem labs. Is O-Chem lab any different ? Do you actually learn anything in O-Chem lab ?

I feel like alot of the stuff they tested on the MCAT (w/ O-chem) was concept based stuff. I got most of this, like lab techniques, from the lab itself.

 

[Medikit]

I thought my O chem lab made what I was learning more tangible and I thought recrystallization was fun

 

[Shredder]

I have learned very little from chem labs. Is O-Chem lab any different ? Do you actually learn anything in O-Chem lab ?

hey, i liked it. i felt like a real chemist, cooking up this and that reaction. boy i felt proud about my huge percent yield on the grignard. but maybe that was bc i always used more than i was supposed to so i would get higher yields it was cool doing your own spectra too, IR, NMR, UV

chem lab was for newbies, it wasnt serious chem

 

[fiddler]

Like in anything, you learn whatever you bring in and what you want to learn.

I learned a bunch during chem lab and orgo lab. It solidified the concepts and allow me to actually see the synthesis at work.

fiddler

 

[pip00]

no, thank god i have no more lab.

 

[jhstuck]

All of organic chemistry is useless for medical school, both within it and in getting in (ie, the MCAT). Organic is used to weed out biology majors who can't hack very intensive coursework. If your are in a very difficult major (engineering/chemistry/physics), dont worry about it, just pass the organic classes, admission committees know that you have a lot tougher courses than these. If you are a nontraditoinal applicant (liberal arts) or your are from the less strenuous sciences (biology, biomed, micro, molecular), then organic is likely to be viewed by admissions committees as your most difficult courses and you need to perform well in these (including labwork). So do your best. You should always remember that organic is useless in medical school, and pratty much useless on the MCAT.

 

[Twitch]

All of organic chemistry is useless for medical school, both within it and in getting in (ie, the MCAT). Organic is used to weed out biology majors who can't hack very intensive coursework. If your are in a very difficult major (engineering/chemistry/physics), dont worry about it, just pass the organic classes, admission committees know that you have a lot tougher courses than these. If you are a nontraditoinal applicant (liberal arts) or your are from the less strenuous sciences (biology, biomed, micro, molecular), then organic is likely to be viewed by admissions committees as your most difficult courses and you need to perform well in these (including labwork). So do your best. You should always remember that organic is useless in medical school, and pratty much useless on the MCAT.

Makes sense why some schools are letting you sub BioChem for one of the organics.

 

[deuist]

I absolutely hated going to lab. I never really understood the concepts; I just went through the motions each week. I found that actually working as a research assistant was much more enjoyable.

 

[dr.z]

I didn't learn anything from O-chem lab.

 

[IgweEmeka]

I didn't learn anything from O-chem lab.

Seriously man, all these people are posting comments on how they loved o chem labs and how they loved to increase their yeilds....bulls**t....I wanted to be out of that lab as soon as I walked in there. It was such a misery and so was all other labs most especially physics. One day, I had some douchebag nerd who was in the bench across from me shaking his septic flask (not sure if thats what its called) with a reaction mixture with the opening pointing directly at me. I yelled at him and threatened to kick his a$$ if he ever tried that again. That lab was hell. I do have an anatomy course this semester and I am sure that this would be much fun.

 

[ChiSnowman]

Yeah I learned you can get 200% yield.

 

[undecided05]

The answer is no...
Never used it in med school or residency, but it helped me get in

 

[BooMed]

I learned a lot in lab. During the hour (or three) that we spent stirring our tiny flasks of white fluid, I went through my MCAT flash cards. I would've liked orgo lab better if the prof would have explained what we were doing instead of talking on his cell phone and checking election results the whole time.

 

[Law2Doc]

I have learned very little from chem labs. Is O-Chem lab any different ? Do you actually learn anything in O-Chem lab ?

Well, if there's ever a shortage of lidocaine at the hospital I end up at, I'm set...

 

[MrDocNYU]

hey. orgo + lab is definitely helpful. I think it will help you become a better doctor. If you are prescribing a medication to your patient for instance, you better know the chemical composition of that drug and how it is going to react in the patient's body. Thinking like this can actually make your job much more efficient. Orgo lab is more helpful for people plan to do research but it's definitely helpful also for just M.D.'s.
Just my opinion.

 

[redclover]

it taught me how to get high off ether and how to hit on my TA to get an A in the class

 

[IgweEmeka]

hey. orgo + lab is definitely helpful. I think it will help you become a better doctor. If you are prescribing a medication to your patient for instance, you better know the chemical composition of that drug and how it is going to react in the patient's body. Thinking like this can actually make your job much more efficient. Orgo lab is more helpful for people plan to do research but it's definitely helpful also for just M.D.'s.
Just my opinion.

LOL.....you are really funny. Know what composition of drug and how it is going to react in the patients body....try doing that for all the drugs you are going to prescribe through your 25+ years of practice. I am definitely not saying it can be done, but we do have professionals...clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists, chemists, whose job it is to figure this out. We follow their recommendations and prescribe. Sure we have to know what the hell we are prescribing and its effects on our patients body, but undergrad O-chem lab helping us with that is bulls**t. You need another degree to truly understand that stuff.

 

[MrDocNYU]

LOL.....you are really funny. Know what composition of drug and how it is going to react in the patients body....try doing that for all the drugs you are going to prescribe through your 25+ years of practice. I am definitely not saying it can be done, but we do have professionals...clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists, chemists, whose job it is to figure this out. We follow their recommendations and prescribe. Sure we have to know what the hell we are prescribing and its effects on our patients body, but undergrad O-chem lab helping us with that is bulls**t. You need another degree to truly understand that stuff.

lol. You definitely need more knowledge than what's taught in organic chemistry courses, however, I am just saying that it would help in the long run to know your basic orgo stuffs. For example, as a doctor you will run into a lot of drug (as in medications, just to be clear) companies that want to sell their stuffs and the one that you prescribe to your patient should not be the one with the best commercial, but the one you decide that will be best for your patient...Again, I am not saying that just undergraduate orgo will help you do that, but that it will help in the long run.