Can a person who is bad at math be good in organic chem?

[Ronald Kris]

While I'm studying something rather math intensive, truth is I'm not that good at math, altho I'm not terrible. I got 730 on the V part of the SAT, but a 640 on the M. Currently, I'm struggling, and its not the operations themselves, but its not getting confused with all the letters and numbers, etc. However, I am very good at memorizing random and non-random things, including graphs. Given this situation, can I do well in organic chem? Sometimes it seems easy to lump math and science, but if the answer to my question is yes, then I think society, them, whatever you wanna call it, is really out of the know.

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[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Organic contains essentially zero math aside from yield calculations in lab which are just simple arithmetic

 

[HCHopeful]

Yes.

 

[boxer0011]

Possibly, but very unlikely.

 

[boxer0011]

Organic contains essentially zero math aside from yield calculations in lab which are just simple arithmetic

Math tests spatial reasoning, memorization of formulas, logic and problem-solving. All these are important to OC.

 

[HCHopeful]

I mean, I'm "good" at math, but the highest level I've seen is pre-calc/trig and my lowest test grade in Organic thus far is a 96, and I'm now in Orgo II with one test down. So, you most definitely can be good at it without being great at math. But I would imagine those strong in math probably excel in Orgo as well.

 

[dacas]

I don't consider myself to be good at math, I've never excelled in a math class and I got A's on orgo I and II. So I'd say yeah, you can do well in orgo but it's not easy, you gotta work for it.

 

[ConfusedChemist]

YES 🙂
I am living proof
Got the highest grade in every organic course I have ever taken...and...
Calculus was the lowest grade of my life (B, like scraping by. I think I got a 51 on a test )

 

[Eppur Si Muove]

I can barely do algebra and organic was second nature to me. They don't correlate.

 

[WingedOx]

The reason why Orgo eats people alive it's because it's difficult. It's because it tests abstract spatial skills, which for the vast vast majority of students, have never been academically important.

 

[Rikkibot]

Absolutely.

 

[teambert]

OChem is a math break between Gen Chem (which requires more) and Biochem (which requires more).

640 isn't bad on SAT math, either, I don't think. Good luck.

 

[tiedyeddog]

As others have said, they aren't related. I had extreme difficulties with calculus (had to drop it multiple times before finally getting by) while I breezed through O-Chem, often getting the highest score on exams. They test two different abilities.

However, if you're bad at math because you're lazy then you will also be bad at O-chem, and everything else for that matter.

 

[Syndicate101]

Well if you get bad grades in math that might be related to bad study habits which might influence your Orgo grade also. But assuming you're a hardworking student math and ORGO have almost no similarities other than yields, simple arithmetic.

 

[caffeinemia]

As long as you don't struggle figuring out pKa/pKb, Michaelis Menton curves, concentrations of dissociated acid-base pairs 🙂.

Otherwise, it's all just making carbon rings happy.

 

[toastytoastie]

As my orgo prof said, you only need to be able to count to 4.

 

[Syndicate101]

If you ever find yourself counting to 5, keep your paper away from your professor. It'll burn their eyes.

 

[medic86]

Math? What math? Lol.