DAT Roadmap Strategy

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free99

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EDIT: sorry the title was supposed to be "DAT Destroyer Roadmap Strategy"

So I have general concepts from Ochem down solidly (intermolecular forces, isomers, nomenclature, sn1/sn2/e1/e2, etc etc), but I'm having trouble remembering specific reactions...

I remember reading in someone's breakdown that they copied the roadmaps and whited out the reagents on one sheet and the products on another, then used the blank templates as a worksheet. Has anyone tried this approach to memorizing the roadmaps? I'm a creature of habit and repetition, and if I fill out the "worksheet" like 30 times :)laugh:) I'll engrain them to memory.

Will I be wasting my time? How useful/important are these things?

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EDIT: sorry the title was supposed to be "DAT Destroyer Roadmap Strategy"

So I have general concepts from Ochem down solidly (intermolecular forces, isomers, nomenclature, sn1/sn2/e1/e2, etc etc), but I'm having trouble remembering specific reactions...

I remember reading in someone's breakdown that they copied the roadmaps and whited out the reagents on one sheet and the products on another, then used the blank templates as a worksheet. Has anyone tried this approach to memorizing the roadmaps? I'm a creature of habit and repetition, and if I fill out the "worksheet" like 30 times :)laugh:) I'll engrain them to memory.

Will I be wasting my time? How useful/important are these things?

What worked for me was knowing the mechanism of each rxn and how each element "behaves". Curved arrow mechanisms were very useful and made it a whole lot more fun to do b/c its no longer just rote memorization but also a fun little puzzle.

The cheap way to learn it is to simply rewrite it many times and force it all into your brain.

Both ways work. The first makes you really understand thus remember the rxns and the second way may be faster to do.
 
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What worked for me was knowing the mechanism of each rxn and how each element "behaves". Curved arrow mechanisms were very useful and made it a whole lot more fun to do b/c its no longer just rote memorization but also a fun little puzzle.

The cheap way to learn it is to simply rewrite it many times and force it all into your brain.

Both ways work. The first makes you really understand thus remember the rxns and the second way may be faster to do.

Haha I don't think it's "cheap" to simply memorize the reagents and products. I'm all for having a deep understanding of the why for a lot of things, I just don't think it would be an efficient use of time for me to memorize mechanisms. Based on your scores, it seemed to have certainly worked for you, though!
 
Haha I don't think it's "cheap" to simply memorize the reagents and products. I'm all for having a deep understanding of the why for a lot of things, I just don't think it would be an efficient use of time for me to memorize mechanisms. Based on your scores, it seemed to have certainly worked for you, though!

I call it cheap b/c I see it as an easy shortcut or the lazy man's way. But it works and that's all that matters at the end of the day. Curved arrows made it easier for me to learn but I don't think its necessary. For the exam I got it was really basic and dare I say even obvious when specific rxns were mentioned in a question. Good luck :thumbup:
 
EDIT: sorry the title was supposed to be "DAT Destroyer Roadmap Strategy"

So I have general concepts from Ochem down solidly (intermolecular forces, isomers, nomenclature, sn1/sn2/e1/e2, etc etc), but I'm having trouble remembering specific reactions...

I remember reading in someone's breakdown that they copied the roadmaps and whited out the reagents on one sheet and the products on another, then used the blank templates as a worksheet. Has anyone tried this approach to memorizing the roadmaps? I'm a creature of habit and repetition, and if I fill out the "worksheet" like 30 times :)laugh:) I'll engrain them to memory.

Will I be wasting my time? How useful/important are these things?

Here is what you need to do basically :
I am just gonna give you one example then you can figure out rest...
Go to Road maps and see in how many different ways is alcohol group is added to alkyl halide. Now which reagents gives markinikoff and which antimark? So in exam if you see an alky halide or alcohol being produced you know what the hell is going on. Once done with alkyl halides switch to alkenes and the rings so on
Hope this helps. Road maps shows you how same products can be achieved in many different ways. So use that to your advantage. Also give practice test to see how much you have actually memorized instead of doing fill up or some crap. Practice tests, really help you in gazillion ways. Wish I had some more time during my DAT. Practice practice practice.
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Did you memorize everything from all six or seven roadmaps?

Yep. But I actually didn't even know about the roadmaps until after I had already memorized most of it. I started memorizing reactions right after finishing Chad's videos before starting on the Destroyer. When I got to the roadmap section of the Destroyer I realized I already knew most of it from Chad's videos, with the exception of a few oddball reactions.
 
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