Anyone take organic chem? Do people really cry in lab?

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Forgot to mention: she cried after the professor laughed. 🙂

Plus she got a really bad grade overall.
 
pedro4199 said:
Me and some of my friends had a good laugh when a girl in our class told us how our professor laughed at her when she asked for points back on a test after she attempted to answer a question by drawing the 3D version (i.e. http://www.bact.wisc.edu/Microtextbook/images/book_4/chapter_2/2-69.gif) of a fatty acid rather than the stick/line version.
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hah, if she actually did a decent job at modeling the space each CH3, CH2, CH etc cluster occupies and correct bond angles, etc, I say she should get credit! 😀 a lot of extra work though!
 
ryserr21 said:
amen brotha. i could have cared less about lab. half the time i never even got a product (exaggeration). part of the reason is at my school you dont even get a credit let alone a grade. the course is worth 4 units and the labs ZERO. they just incorporate the points in lab into your final grade in the class, which really doesnt do anything at all. lame huh?
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lucky you. i have 2 different grades on my transcript. one for lab (which actually has a lecture once a week also), and one for lecture. for those of you who are wondering what ochem i took, its the chem 128 series for lecture and 129 series for labs(for students that major in chem or chemical and biochemical engineering...etc).
 
coldweatherblue said:
hah, if she actually did a decent job at modeling the space each CH3, CH2, CH etc cluster occupies and correct bond angles, etc, I say she should get credit! 😀 a lot of extra work though!
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Haha yah. But she didn't. That was the funny part.

She was trying to argue that she drew what was on the ppt slide (only a pic of the 3D) and that the question asked for what it "looks like" but he just laughed. And so did we.
 
Nah, organic lab was pretty easy. Analytical chem (quantitative analysis) - now THAT was a tough lab. I repeated one experiment three times, and it took 2-3 hours each time. Your answers had to be within a standard deviation of the class mean, and you had to rinse and wash your equipment constantly.
 
spilledmilk said:
Am I the only one here who had an orgo lab that was counted as its own individual class with its own grade? (it was only 1 credit though)
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Mine is this way, but it's 3 credits. Should be more.
 
I also had a seperate grade for lab (it was 2 credits though). I did my homework ahead of time and made sure I got this one dude (difficult since his class filled up immediately and i had to constantly check the registration site for anyone who dropped so i could add) but it sure paid off. Only two labs that i can think of where we stayed longer than 1.5 hours. Minimal quizzes and only a handful of one page lab reports on top of that! It was great, but i was smart enough not to tell my classmates with different lab instructors for fear that they would surely kill me. 🙂
 
😱 As a freshman who has yet to take organic chemistry, this thread makes me want to cry...

Someone please put a disclaimer before you share all your organic chem horror stories. Please...for the freshman.
 
I'm pretty sure at UF there is only one lab for Organic 1&2. And all labs are seperate from the lecture (for gen chem atleast).
 
TheProwler said:
Nah, organic lab was pretty easy. Analytical chem (quantitative analysis) - now THAT was a tough lab. I repeated one experiment three times, and it took 2-3 hours each time. Your answers had to be within a standard deviation of the class mean, and you had to rinse and wash your equipment constantly.
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God I still shudder when I think of all of the propagated error, maximum experimental error, etc. calculations I did.
 
i dunno how labs are in medical school...

but undergrad labs (physics, gen chem, biology) all suck @$$,
I am taking Orgo lab right now, we've had 2 experiements and so far so good, they are a "little" frustrating, but nothing too bad...

I am also taking Gen Chem II lab... THIS ONE MAKES ME WANNA CRY, i hate this lab... its soooooo hard, 40 students, and more than 90% of us don't know what wer doing... and the TAs are real hard graders....Im lucky if I squeeze out a 3.0 in this crap (how shamefull, Im doing soo well in my chemistry classes and a freaking 3.0 in lab)
 
why is organic chemistry so dreaded?
 
TheProwler said:
Nah, organic lab was pretty easy. Analytical chem (quantitative analysis) - now THAT was a tough lab. I repeated one experiment three times, and it took 2-3 hours each time. Your answers had to be within a standard deviation of the class mean, and you had to rinse and wash your equipment constantly.
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I feel your pain. I had to go back and redo a calibration lab for my glassware. It turned out that the buret I used had a defect for its upper 10mLs. I redid the entire lab (which took another 3 hours).

Buffer lab was horrible. Our calculations, though correct, didn't work. So we all just started dumping crap in to lower or raise the pH.
 
Saw one girl cry, but it was understandable. She was doing an extraction, had some equipment crack or something and she got sprayed with ether. She was okay, it was just a quick release of emotion and frustration.
 
seraph524 said:
why is organic chemistry so dreaded?
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I often wonder the same thing.

In my experience, organic chem was not that bad, I skipped class all the time, just studied well before the exams and did just fine.

There are pre-med classes that are a lot harder, for example, electricity and magnetism was a huge pain. Seriously, when sub-50 test averages are the norm, its time to cry and pick up the shattered pieces of your dignity.

MolBio/Genetics is also another class that is much more irritating than organic.
 
al112987 said:
I often wonder the same thing.

In my experience, organic chem was not that bad, I skipped class all the time, just studied well before the exams and did just fine.

There are pre-med classes that are a lot harder, for example, electricity and magnetism was a huge pain. Seriously, when sub-50 test averages are the norm, its time to cry and pick up the shattered pieces of your dignity.

MolBio/Genetics is also another class that is much more irritating than organic.
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You must have had an easy as hell orgo teacher.
 
mgmmacau said:
a student told me that today. After struggling for 4 hours some people (likely girls) start crying.
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I didn't see anybody cry in orgo lab because I had tears in my eyes and my vision was blurred. But I don't think anybody cries in organic lab.
 
GoldShadow said:
You must have had an easy as hell orgo teacher.
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Maybe, but I've always thought that orgo is a subject where you can do well if you study effectively.

Me? I may have never gone to lecture, but I did just about every single problem I could get my hands on before exams.

I really don't see how its worse than other pre-reqs, in my experience, genetics, E+M, are both harder.
 
i liked orgo lab. i sucked at it, but i liked it regardless. the most frustrating part was pleasing the damn lady who was in charge of the lab. she sent me home twice for "inappropriate" attire. haggard ol' -----!
 
analytical chemistry is an abomination, beating out physical chemistry and molecular genetics for the most annoying laboratory experience.
 
Organic 1 lab is easy, Organic 2 lab is a million times worse. If I never have to do another IR in my life, I'll die a happy man.
 
VoiceofReason said:
analytical chemistry is an abomination, beating out physical chemistry and molecular genetics for the most annoying laboratory experience.
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I'll have to say no. In my program everyone abhors pchem lab. Analytical lab, looking back, was not that bad. Pchem lab is 2 credits. Its the only 2 credit lab I'll ever have. I am not looking forward to it by any means.
 
seraph524 said:
why is organic chemistry so dreaded?
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The average college student has no idea what heavy duty studying actually is, so they put in their 2 hours of cramming for an organic exam, and they get crushed. A few of my friends and I studied more than probably anyone else in the class for our organic 2 final - probably 30 hours over four days. We thought that was a lot. Then three of us went to med school, and we haven't studied less than 30 hours for an exam yet. If you keep up with the material in organic chem, you won't have a problem. It'll take a decent effort, but you'd better get used to it.
 
VoiceofReason said:
analytical chemistry is an abomination, beating out physical chemistry and molecular genetics for the most annoying laboratory experience.
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I hated molecular genetics the most, but that was just because of the terrible instructors. I literally got into a shouting match with the TA once :laugh: Maybe that's why she "lost" 2 of my 3 lab reports that I handed in (I handed in all three at once - how do you lose two of them??) and made me re-do them. Ugh.
 
So far, O cHm lab is kinda relaxed. We did this lab this week involving recrystallization and the process of choosing the right solvent was kinda annoying. However, noone cried.
 
My orgo lab was worth 4 credits. only a small amount of points were given for percent yield and purity. But at the end of the semester the prof came around and checked the vials for people that had unusually good numbers. A few ppl got reprimanded but nothing serious.
 
I'm in organic chem right now, actually I don't find it way to horrible yet. It's ussaully only a 3 hr lab, and the writeup isn't that formal. My physics lab seems way worse sometimes!
 
mgmmacau said:
a student told me that today. After struggling for 4 hours some people (likely girls) start crying.
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Oh good lord.

Orgo is orgo. Varies greatly by institution and professor, but generally, it's hard. It's f*ckin' organic chemistry.

I have As in orgo 1 and 2. Granted, it was with a good bit of studying (more than most other classes I have taken in my years in college), but it's not a nightmare like some would like you to believe.

Your mileage, of course, will vary.
 
Personally I didn't think Organic was all that bad- I go to a large school (about 30,000 students) and there is only one Organic Series. Undergrad students from Chemistry, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemical & Bimolecular engineering majors all take the same series. In addition to these undergrads, graduate students (both M.S. and Ph.D.) in various engineering fields such as Polymer and Biomedical, and any Chemistry grad students who received a B or less in their ugrad O-chem class also take this class. Granted they have extra work like term papers and presentations, but they still take the same exams and are factored into the average, thus ruining any chance of a curve. To make the class worse, O1 is only offered in fall, O2 only in spring, and both are at 7:45 in the morning, so its a miracle if you can make it class everyday without the use of IV injected caffeine. Even with 250+ students in the lecture, no powepoint use (good old writing on the dry erase board), and a 17 page final (where no partial credit was awarded), I have only seen 2 people ever cry. One cried because it was her second time retaking the class and she still got a D in organic 2 so she couldn't graduate. The other cried because she was in the BS/MD program and got a C- which was gonna blow her GPA to shreds and she wouldn't get promoted to med school in 2 years, because she would have to retake it. I ended up getting a B+ both semesters in lecture, and A's both semesters in lab, which was 2 credits with its own lecture once a week. After a year (10 credits) of OChem, I'm glad its over, but in hindsight it wasn't that bad. I usually started studying for lecture exams (4 of them a semester) by studying 2 hours a night on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then studied about 5 hours on Thursday. A good hint is to bring your notes to lab with you so you can study while you're waiting on reactions to run, or make flashcards you can put in your lab drawer (we didn't have lab groups - it was all individual so you had your own hood and drawer space). You'll be fine I'm sure... if organic makes you cry, I'm afraid of the breakdown you'll have when it comes to harder material in Med school.
 
Orgo Lab is orgo lab. Yes it can be frustrating, but it is totally manageable if you go into it with the right attitude. Just get your work done and be prepared when you go into lab.
I'm currently a TA for Orgo Lab and took it myself last year so know how it goes from both perspectives. No one has broken down that i have ever seen, the only thing close to it was last week when we caught a guy cheating. He however only lost credit for this weeks lab and has no other consequences.

In lab we really want people to succeed. Yes you have a lot of work, but we don't want you to fail. I do everything in my power to get everyone's experiment to work and help them out at much as I can.
 
In my orgo lab class, the lab reports didn't actually count for much (10% of the grade for the class). The other 90% of the grade was composed of 2 practicals and a written test. On my first practical, I didn't put enough stopcock grease on the stopcock or something cuz when I turned the flask over to shake, some of my reagents spilled out. Such a silly mistake. I had the option to a) start the practical over and take a 1/2 grade penalty or b) proceed. I chose to just proceed and ended up with 10% less yield (1 std. dev) than the class mean. I did well above the mean on the other two tests but ended up with a B+ (class was curved to a B).
 
BigRedPremed said:
In my orgo lab class, the lab reports didn't actually count for much (10% of the grade for the class). The other 90% of the grade was composed of 2 practicals and a written test. On my first practical, I didn't put enough stopcock grease on the stopcock or something cuz when I turned the flask over to shake, some of my reagents spilled out. Such a silly mistake. I had the option to a) start the practical over and take a 1/2 grade penalty or b) proceed. I chose to just proceed and ended up with 10% less yield (1 std. dev) than the class mean. I did well above the mean on the other two tests but ended up with a B+ (class was curved to a B).
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Well at least the comedy of lab lecture made the class worthwhile.
 
Ive seen people cry, but usually after doing something like washing the graduated cylinder that they measured some bromine in with acetone. (It makes tear gas)
 
Well, my experience was not with orgo but with physics. In lecture, I would ace every exam. But I would fail the lab miserably. I think I was the only one that had no clue what was going on. In the end I got an A- in the class because the lab is integrated with the lecture and was only worth 10%.
 
I never minded orgo lab, now physics lab..uggghh.
They took forever and I believe my TAs were the living dead. (or Vampires..they were a married couple from Romania..very little English..so creepy).
My lab partner for Physic one also told me 1/2 during the semester, she was transferring schools to become an interior designer.
 
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