Alkenes, Learn it or Leave it?

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PhysicsFailure

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Hey, I tried searching some recent threads about the MCAT leaving off the alkenes from their topics tested. So, I pose the question: Alkenes, learn it or leave it?

I have never written the test before, but am in my content review now, so if you have any advice (or can redirect me to a *recent* post regarding this, please post! 🙂

Thanks!
 
I say it depends on how thorough you want to be and how much time you have until your MCAT, and also how comfortable you are with orgo. It is possible to spend endless time on just content review. I know that I felt pretty good with orgo and thus only spent maybe like a week on orgo compared with 10 weeks for bio and physics. Further, imo, orgo is really just about understanding where the electrons go, nucleophile/electrophile, etc. If you are srong with the fundamentals of orgo and are quick on your feet - skip it. If you are weaker with orgo and don't know words like markovnikov and hoffman eliminiation, then you may want to refresh yourself. These both assume you have ample time.

If time is an issue, just skip it. There is normally not too much orgo and the orgo that is there can be reasoned out. Whatever you would need to know about alkenes to answer the question will be given to you in the passage info. The only time where knowing how alkenes working would help you would be to eliminate wrong answers, in my opinion.

So, if time and weak in orgo = learn it. If no time and/or strong in orgo = skip it. Hope that helps and let me know what you end up doing.
 
Orgo = super weak and my test is not until Nov. 7th.

That being said, I will learn it!

The only reason I know why a Markovnikov even relates to orgo is because the amount of times my professor said it and I went to class habitually. lol.
 
@HinduHammer It is like throwing a rock into the ocean when it comes to strong bases and weak bases and strong acids and weak acids. Do you have any suggestions on like a video or anything I can watch to catch myself back up??
 
@HinduHammer It is like throwing a rock into the ocean when it comes to strong bases and weak bases and strong acids and weak acids. Do you have any suggestions on like a video or anything I can watch to catch myself back up??

If your talking about strong acids/weak acids/bases for orgo only, then I would suggest you refer back to your gen chem review. If your talking about acid-base stuff for gen chem as well as orgo, then you have your work cut out for you. khan's academy is really good, and you have time which is good because khan's academy takes time to watch all the videos. google khan's academy and acid bases, and that will give you a good start.

that being said, for acids-bases in particular, one must have both a conceptual understanding and also a mathematical understanding, calculating the equilibrium values, solving for x, etc. For this refer back to your gen chem textbook and do the example problems in the chapter, then the practice problems at the end of the book. As a chemistry TA, I can assure you that acids-bases are extremely important and also take time to learn both conceptually and with cold-hard-numbers. Lastly, be sure to study acid-base titration curves and understand for polyprotic acids where equivalence and have equivalence points are, what half-equivalence points mean (acidic or basic?), and also when it comes to orgo/bio, how amino acids look depending on the concentration of the solution... on the first equivalence point which group on the amino acid is protonated, etc.

Acid-base is the second hardest part of MCAT chem after electrochem, in my opinion. So, to summarize: khan's academy --> conceptual understanding --> example problems -->understand the math --> many, many practice problems --> mastery --> start looking at amino acids/zwitterions --> understand and practice with acid-base titration curve graphs
 
Awesome! Thank you so much! I am still pretty early on in my content review, so I will definitely take your advice!
 
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