Pushing Electrons vs. Org Chem as a 2nd Language

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Pushing Electrons vs. Organic Chemistry as a Second Language

  • Pushing Electrons

    Votes: 14 33.3%

  • Organic Chemistry as a Second Language

    Votes: 28 66.7%
  • Total voters
    42
M

meliora27

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I have two weeks until I start Organic Chemistry. Which would be a better preview?
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You mean watching 'Scrubs' is not an option?

This poll sucks. :thumbdown:
 
Phillykid162 said:
You mean watching 'Scrubs' is not an option?

This poll sucks. :thumbdown:
Click to expand...

2nd that.

Never used either book during orgo, but I have flipped through pushing electrons and recommend it to students I tutor in orgo.
 
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I'm in the same boat, I start in 3.5 weeks though. I have the second language series. Although I haven't been through much of it yet, as I just finished my 3rd of 4 finals, but I bought it because it's got the best reviews.

It's in its 2nd edition. That counts for something.
 
meliora27 said:
I have two weeks until I start Organic Chemistry. Which would be a better preview?
Click to expand...
Is the "second language" book by Klein? If so, it was awesome.
 
I've gone through both books in their entireties, more or less. Although Pushing Electrons is OK practice, Organic Chemistry as a Second Language blows it away in terms of teaching the fundamental concepts of O-Chem. Learn these basics (electronic effects, steric effects, how to think in 3D) well and the rest falls into place with sufficient time spent studying.
 
2nd language was recommended when I took orgo. Never heard of pushing electrons. In any case, I'd be blown away if your choice of supplementary materials made any significant difference in your final grade. Relax and enjoy your downtime before class starts.
 
How about just reading your textbook? Unless your textbook is notably bad, you should do well just by reading it and working a lot of problems.
 
After having Klein as a teacher, I say get his damn book. There is nothing that man cannot teach (in O-Chem).
 
Electron Flow in Organic Chemistry by Scudder is an excellent book for learning the foundation of organic chemistry as well as how to write mechanisms (correctly).
 
IceMan0824 said:
After having Klein as a teacher, I say get his damn book. There is nothing that man cannot teach (in O-Chem).
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Klein was actually your professor!? That would be amazing. I love his dry sense of humor in "second language." Where did you go to undergrad?
 
new to posting on SDN here, I thought I would comment because I also had Klein as my Orgo 1 professor and I highly recommend his Second Language book. It really helped me get a good understanding of the fundamentals of Orgo which will help you in Orgo II as well. I was intimidated with beginning Orgo so I began doing the problems before the course began and it really helped me get a head start!
 
IceMan0824 said:
After having Klein as a teacher, I say get his damn book. There is nothing that man cannot teach (in O-Chem).
Click to expand...


assuming klein is still teaching at the same school, we go to the same undergad :cool:

yea i hear klein, and his organic professor while he was in college (principe), are both really good lecturers. but i hear klein only teaches summers now..?
 
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My organic chem teacher reccomended pushing electrons... i thought it was pretty good 2.
 
My friend got "Pushing Electrons", it was recommended by my professor as well. He said it worked great.
 
Tbickle said:
new to posting on SDN here, I thought I would comment because I also had Klein as my Orgo 1 professor and I highly recommend his Second Language book. It really helped me get a good understanding of the fundamentals of Orgo which will help you in Orgo II as well. I was intimidated with beginning Orgo so I began doing the problems before the course began and it really helped me get a head start!
Click to expand...

is it true that he doesn't curve tests?
 
i honestly don't remember because i took it four years ago...but i remember he would let the final exam count for your entire grade if you did well, which was nice :)
 
I'm having total déjà vu.

Anyway, my vote's for Second Language. Very clear explanations with a "you can do this" attitude. The books also make it so that you understand the concepts as opposed to doing rote memorization.

But I've never done Pushing, so I can't speak of it's worth
 
I've done all the exercises in Pushing electrons. Never heard of the other book. I got a very good sense for where the electrons move when two species get close to each other. This was a lot of help in figuring out what species was going to be formed by what mechanism. This is a huge leg up in ochem.

Also suggest getting a study group for o chem. Each partner gets a different text and solutions manual and brings them to meetings...

The biggest help for me was to do all the problems in the textbook before the lecture, again on thursday night before the weekly quiz and again before the test and again before the final. It sounds like a lot of time but every time you do them, they take less time.
 
Duderator said:
I've done all the exercises in Pushing electrons. Never heard of the other book. I got a very good sense for where the electrons move when two species get close to each other. This was a lot of help in figuring out what species was going to be formed by what mechanism. This is a huge leg up in ochem.

Also suggest getting a study group for o chem. Each partner gets a different text and solutions manual and brings them to meetings...

The biggest help for me was to do all the problems in the textbook before the lecture, again on thursday night before the weekly quiz and again before the test and again before the final. It sounds like a lot of time but every time you do them, they take less time.
Click to expand...
You replied to someone who's probably a resident by now..
 
As a second language was better than pushing electrons for me. However both were significantly better than textbooks.
 
2nd language was a life saver when i was taking orgo 2. it breaks complicated concepts into very easily managed parts. definitely recommend.
 
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