Can't learn OC... please help me

[0rgansm]

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I'm getting extremely discouraged when it comes to mechanisms in organic chemistry.
I went through Chads, and it seemed like every video was "okay, so this reacts with this using this and yields this. don't worry about the mechanism." How the **** do you remember each reagents behavior with each molecule without any idea of the mechanism? I understand when somethings a nucleophile and how it might attack an electrophile, but that doesn't get me very far....

I have Destroyer and looking at the road maps, it just looks like a bunch of lines going in a million directions. If the roadmaps had a brief description on what was going on i'd be ecstatic. I'm scared to even start working problems since nothings really clicked for me past SN1/SN2/E1/E2..

I took a BC exam to gauge myself, and.. well..
BIO: 23 GC: 21 OC: 15 PAT: 24 RC: 21 QR: 20

My mistakes all came from mechanisms
I have 5 weeks, please someone save me..

 

[rdub]

If you want to know the mechanisms you should watch Khan Academy. Look at Chad's outlines to see all of the possible types of reactions they could ask, and then find those on Khan Academy or even just search them on YouTube and there will usually be something!

 

[juandhy]

Don't sweat it, most people have an area of struggle. I know its super discouraging to see a score like that, but the tests are designed to expose areas that you can become better at. Go over each bootcamp explanation of the problems. Right now it might seem like nothing makes sense, but its just some topic areas that are generalized throughout orgo that you need to get down. Once you get them down, you'll be golden. You're going to look back and say, "huh wasn't that bad, its easy now." Its going to be hard getting over that initial hump, but get the ball rolling and you'll build more and more confidence (until you take the next BC 😛). You have time, you got this.

 

[tommyngu]

Sounds like you're having trouble because of some of the fundamentals of organic chemistry. Have you taken the classes, yet?
I would suggest looking at each mechanism from your organic chemistry textbook. You don't have to read the entire chapters. Just read the subsections on each reaction along with anything else you need to help you understand what's going on. I like the organic chemistry textbook by Wade.
Once you understand the mechanics of the reactions, you'll start seeing underlying patterns that apply to all reactions. This will help tremendously in figuring out what happens when you're given a set of reagents instead of simply memorizing each mechanism.

 

[kimball]

I would highly suggest Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein his books saved me in my organic classes


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[ncide]

I would highly suggest Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein

This x1000. The professor who wrote this book really does make organic chemistry seem like another language that you can pick up and understand.

 

[Donchacka]

I do have some websites to share

http://crab.rutgers.edu/~alroche/organic1.html
http://crab.rutgers.edu/~alroche/organic2.html

Couple them with chads video you'll be unstoppable!

 

[htorres89]

I am glad to see you posting this because I seriously was starting to feel like the only out here with Orgo just not clicking for me! It drives me nuts because I put in the time to learn it with chads, etc. and for the life of me I feel like I will never fully understand mechanisms. It got to the point where I just made flash cards out of everything in the roadmaps and just memorized them. It's still not as good but I'm hoping it can get me by cuz I have the DAT in less than 2 weeks


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[0rgansm]

Thanks for everyone who replied!