book for ORGO

[supernareg]

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i havent taken OCHEM yet, and i will not have taken it at school until AFTER my MCAT in april....

i'm relying on studying heavily by kaplan's books (i'm enrolled in their classroom) and also, is this a good book?

does it explain everything??

Organic Chemistry 1 as a Second Language: Translating the Basic Concepts by David Klein....

is that a good book for a beginner with NO ochem background? or does it just review stuff u'r supposed to know?

 

[staticsoliloquy]

I LOVE KLEIN. I recommend it to everyone I know. I even have has 2nd semester book. It's quite insightful and HILARIOUS.

This is what he said about resonance structure: "In this chapter, you will learn the tools that you need to draw resonance structures with proficiency. I cannot adequately stress the importance of this skill. Resonance is the one topic that permeates the entire subject matter from start to finish. It finds its way into every chapter, into every reaction, and into your nightmares." Which is SO TRUE. Carboxylic acids, benzene.

The analogies he comes up with will make you . Klein writes, "Arrow pushing is much like riding a bike. If you have never done it before, watching someone else will not make you an expert. You have to learn how to balance yourself. Watching someone else is a good start, but you have to get on the bike if you want to learn. You will probably fall a few times, but that's part of the learning process. The same is true with arrow pushing. The only way to learn is practice."

 

[supernareg]

how bout "organic chemistry for dummies"?

i have NO ochem classes, so either one of these books + kaplan's book will be my ONLY ochem i'll have for the MCAT....

and the OCHEM for dummies is 10 bux cheaper...

 

[staticsoliloquy]

i don't know if it'll be quite as witty. You need humor in an orgo book to get you through it. 😉

 

[MadHopsMD]

i don't know if it'll be quite as witty. You need humor in an orgo book to get you through it. 😉

I thought EK book was funny (Well if you like that type of humour anyways). Kaplan and PR are pretty condensed. Either one of them is ALL you require. Do not spend money for extra textbooks 😀

 

[The Trembler]

I took the MCAT without any OChem, Chem or Bio. I also took the Kaplan class (which was a life saver, btw). The Kaplan materials were great but lacking on the OChem side so I picked up OChem for Dummies. Overall, the book was very helpful and a great compliment to the Kaplan stuff. My only complaint was that it was almost too basic in some regards and failed to define some very important concepts (Kaplan teacher was able to clear these up). Do what I did and get it from the public library...free.