How hard is second semester organic chemistry?

[MattF]

I took first semester organic chemistry last semester and honestly rarely studied for it and ended up with a B without really trying that hard. I'm working as a tutor for the university for that class this semester. Is second semester organic chemistry really that much harder?

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[Relax!]

I actually found the second semester of Organic Chem to be easier. There's more memorization but most of it is based on concepts of Organic Chem I.

 

[Aubrey Graham]

I got a b in ochem 1 and an a in ochem 2. Go figure lol





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[amazing tekkers]

I didn't to class often, but I studied out of the text and did practice problems consistently. I'm not sure if it was easier, but the material felt more manageable than ochem 1.

 

[Lamel]

Similar to orgo 1.

 

[jd989898]

Essentially, you're expected to know the fundamental concepts of how molecules interact with each other from ochem 1. Then, you apply that to an ENDLESS number of reactions. You memorize all of these ENDLESS reactions, how they can be modified, and how they can be used together to get to a product.

 

[Pholaffle]

Dont forget NMR and the like. I honestly thought organic chem 2 to be harder than the first half. I'm all about spacial organization, which I believe was much more emphasized in organic 1, so it came much more naturally to me. The second half of the class is heavily memorizing reactions and drilling mechanisms and synthesis problems for the most part, but even still it builds off of major concepts learned in organic chem 1 such as stereochemical outcomes and thermodynamic/kinematic considerations. Nevertheless I still did well in both, just a different style of learning i think.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Organic Chemistry TA here 🙂

Orgo 2 (at my UG anyway...) is very reaction, mechanistic, and electron-pushing focused. Whereas Orgo 1 focused on introductory things such as axial/equatorial, drawing compounds, and the basic reactions, Orgo 2 focuses on a lot more "fancy" reactions. As previous posters said, Orgo 2 is usually a little better than orgo 1-not easier- just better cause the reactions always produce certain products, and if you learn how to handle them, you'll be fine.

 

[The_Sunny_Doc]

Equally miserable! 😛

 

[Styrene]

At my school, organic 1 taught the basic basics, the basic reaction mechanisms (SN1, SN2, E1, E2, etc.), and filled in the gaps with a bunch of useless stuff.

Organic 2 was essentially JUST problem-solving and mechanisms, but my professor put 10 A + B = X, find X with no mechanism so people that couldn't show electrons could get points. Organic 2 demonstrates how the distributions of electron density in molecules, along with basic thermodynamic principles, determine the most likely pathways.

Don't take notes, especially color-coded ones. Just solve every problem in the book.

 

[Lannister]

I enjoyed ochem 2 a lot more than ochem 1, but then again, the ochem I took was kind of weird. In ochem 1, the first thing I learned was NMR (literally day 1 we started NMR, didn't even learn how to name/draw molecules. I didn't know what a carbonyl was until I learned about it in bio six months later). Ochem 2 was just learning a lot of different types of reactions, which required a good understand of the material presented in ochem 1. If you have that foundation, you'll probably be fine. Also, make sure you do a lot of synthesis practice problems. Half of our exams in ochem 2 were basically "You want this molecule as your final product. Make it."

 

[z_maverica]

If you can imagine nails punching holes in your head, and then cockroaches being introduced to eat your brains, then you've imagined 0.00000000000001% of organic chemistry.