Getting Destroyed by Orgo Destroyer

[wizkidz]

OK, so as the title says, I went from Chad's review into the orgo DAT destroyer and it.....hasnt been going too well so far haha. Do you all who have taken it have any suggestions? I reviewed the material fairly well with Chad, but once it got into combining everything in question form, it has been a struggle.

Should I look to memorize reactions? If so, what is the best place to start for a rxn list (something like the Destroyer roadmaps or something else) ?

Any help/guidance is much appreciated!

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[asdf99]

Haha.

I found destroyer biology and organic to be really hard. You're not alone I presume

You can't memorize everything on the DAT (unless you study like crazy). When I saw some trippy shlt on the organic destroyer I didn't drill it into my head every single day to make sure I remembered, but I did try to have an understanding of the logic/basics of the reaction so that hopefully I could logic my way through it if I saw it on the exam.

Like for example, trying to understand why something got protonated, or attacked or whatever (probably sounding like an idiot right now I completely forgot my organic chemistry aahhaha).

I think the road maps and notes from chad's are good things to jog your memory. For me, bootcamp was more representative of the organic on test day. Although obviously there are many different versions of the exam.

 

[minionphil]

Felt the same at first. It'll get better. Try to memorize the reactions in every problem that you got wrong, they all add up in the end

 

[super frank]

Continue the grind! Try to get through it as many times as possible while trying to really understand the concepts and material.

 

[acemason]

I was doing horribly at first too, felt like I was getting every other question wrong in Destroyer. I did the following:

As I was doing Destroyer, I would identify which types of problems I was missing. For example, if I missed the E2/SN2 problems, I went back to my notes in Chad's and made sure I understood them. I also used Organic Chemistry as A Second Language. This book was SO helpful and you can get through it quickly since it's not dense. I had not taken OC in 6 years but going through this book in addition to Chads helped me immensely.

I did end up memorizing the Roadmaps in Destroyer. I used to just sit and copy down each page a couple of times and after a day or two it just stuck.

Good luck!

 

[predental21250]

Keep at it. I was getting atleast 70% of Orgo destroyer wrong, no surprise since I got Cs in both Orgos. I ended up with a 29 in Orgo on the DAT. The destroyer has hundreds of problems, once you get halfway through you tend to realize that most problems are very similar.

First make sure you understand Chad videos 100%. If you don't understand ONE thing, rewind and watch it until you do. Do the Quizzes at the end of the video, make sure you understand what problems you get wrong. When you finish all of Chad's videos, go through all the quizzes again and make sure you again get 100%.

Then start working on destroyer. Keep chugging, take your time, and make sure you understand what you are doing wrong. If you don't get the concept, look up the chad videos. Start memorizing the reaction roadmaps ASAP. Do this by writing the ENTIRE roadmap from scratch until you get it down perfectly. Have flash cards too.

The real DAT will seem super easy if you can get through all of this.

 

[wizkidz]

Thank you all for the insight! Definitely feeling a lot better after hearing that. As far as conceptual questions go-did yall feel it was fairly similar to destroyer? (boiling point comparisons, most acidic/basic) etc on the test, or was it substantially different?

 

[asdf99]

Thank you all for the insight! Definitely feeling a lot better after hearing that. As far as conceptual questions go-did yall feel it was fairly similar to destroyer? (boiling point comparisons, most acidic/basic) etc on the test, or was it substantially different?

For my test, the same concepts/principles applied, but less grey area type questions if that makes sense

 

[tyjacobs]

OK, so as the title says, I went from Chad's review into the orgo DAT destroyer and it.....hasnt been going too well so far haha. Do you all who have taken it have any suggestions? I reviewed the material fairly well with Chad, but once it got into combining everything in question form, it has been a struggle.

Should I look to memorize reactions? If so, what is the best place to start for a rxn list (something like the Destroyer roadmaps or something else) ?

Any help/guidance is much appreciated!

so the way i studied for orgo was:
i fully memorized all the reactions and "rules"
then i did DAT ochem odyssey and i learned new things that i previously didnt learn from getting questions wrong then i incorporated those facts into my knowledge bank
then i did dat destroyer ochem section and it start to come together nicely -- followed same strategy as dat ochem destroyer
when i was doing dat bootcamp orgo practice tests i was ready to go