How I felt on my ACS final for o chem 2

[Fedekz]

This about sums it up. I got in the 90th percentile last semester. Got raped today.

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[Hospitalized]

What was difficult about it? Did you use the ACS prep book?

Taking mine on Thursday.

 

[Fedekz]

What was difficult about it? Did you use the ACS prep book?

Taking mine on Thursday.

Yep, I used the ACS prep book and read all of it. Had an A coming into the final and hadn't had any issues grasping concepts throughout the semester.

It asked a lot of questions about reagents I've never seen before. Know which reagents will take a primary alcohol to aldehyde (PCC), had one about the wittig reagent, I couldn't even tell you - it's a blur now lol. All I can say is I literally had 1 naming question which was a give me, and ONLY ONE spectroscopy problem (H NMR), so I wasted a ton of time studying IR, UV, NMR, etc. Had one problem "which of the following molecules is (R) - Molecule - (S) - Molecule... And I forgot my model and my head was a cloud visualizing turning the Molecule lol. But I would say 90% of mine was which reagent will accomplish this reaction, or given this reactant and reagent what will the product be.

If I had to pick the highest yield topic for my particular exam, I would say knowing which reducing/oxidizing agents reduce/oxidize what (PCC takes a primary alcohol to an aldehyde, where most take it to a carboxylic acid), what is safe on alkenes, and how to make and react esters. Holy **** was there esters on my exam.

Anyways, good luck. I hope my advice helps and you don't get raped as bad as me

 

[Hospitalized]

Yep, I used the ACS prep book and read all of it. Had an A coming into the final and hadn't had any issues grasping concepts throughout the semester.

It asked a lot of questions about reagents I've never seen before. Know which reagents will take a primary alcohol to aldehyde (PCC), had one about the wittig reagent, I couldn't even tell you - it's a blur now lol. All I can say is I literally had 1 naming question which was a give me, and ONLY ONE spectroscopy problem (H NMR), so I wasted a ton of time studying IR, UV, NMR, etc. Had one problem "which of the following molecules is (R) - Molecule - (S) - Molecule... And I forgot my model and my head was a cloud visualizing turning the Molecule lol. But I would say 90% of mine was which reagent will accomplish this reaction, or given this reactant and reagent what will the product be.

If I had to pick the highest yield topic for my particular exam, I would say knowing which reducing/oxidizing agents reduce/oxidize what (PCC takes a primary alcohol to an aldehyde, where most take it to a carboxylic acid), what is safe on alkenes, and how to make and react esters. Holy **** was there esters on my exam.

Anyways, good luck. I hope my advice helps and you don't get raped as bad as me

Interesting. It sounds like your exam plays exactly to my strengths. My class was catered to mass amounts of reactions and less mechanisms, so I know a ton about reagents. I'm the worst at spectroscopy and the chiral stuff takes me forever. We'll see! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[king_kwame]

Hey guys, I have a question about the orgo ACS test. Is the orgo 2 ACS essentially the same as the orgo 1 ACS exam, content-wise? Or are they basically separate tests completely (ex. orgo 1 only orgo 1 material, orgo 2 = orgo 1 + orgo 2)? I'm asking because when I took the gen. chem 1 and chem 2 ACS exams, both exams covered all the material (chem 1 + chem 2). Just wondering if it'll be the same way for the orgo exams

 

[justadream]

This about sums it up. I got in the 90th percentile last semester. Got raped today.

Also sums up my entire undergraduate experience well.

 

[deleted577188]

I would be careful throwing that "rape" word around. Very insensitive to use that word on a forum in such context.

 

[Fedekz]

Hey guys, I have a question about the orgo ACS test. Is the orgo 2 ACS essentially the same as the orgo 1 ACS exam, content-wise? Or are they basically separate tests completely (ex. orgo 1 only orgo 1 material, orgo 2 = orgo 1 + orgo 2)? I'm asking because when I took the gen. chem 1 and chem 2 ACS exams, both exams covered all the material (chem 1 + chem 2). Just wondering if it'll be the same way for the orgo exams

The o chem I ACS exam was a lot easier in terms of complexity compared to the o chem II final. With the O chem I final you could kind of reason your way through stuff and just pick the most stable molecule when in doubt. The O chem II final covered all of both semesters. It's a lot of just knowing what reagents do, not necessarily how they do it. My final was not mechanistic in the least, I had one question asking which was the most likely intermediate for this reaction, but that was it. Just know which reagents form what type of products, what KMNO4 does, ozonylsis (had one question on that), etc. etc. just hammer flash cards with reagents.

Oh, there were three of four biochemistry questions. All but one were easy - like at pH 1 which of the following is the most likely form of X amino acid... what type of bonds hold the two strands of DNA together ... and the hard one was some polypeptide is reacted with something like 1,4 dinitrocholorbenzane or some **** like that, and which of the following products would form, and it basically split the 3 amino acids and you had to pick the products. No clue.

Ah, and two amide chemistry questions, like how would you form this amide from an ester, and a few amine chemistry ones.

Three or four questions about which is the most basic or most acidic, and had a few nitrobenzenes with other substituents, aniline...

Maybe I'll think of some more 😛

Also sums up my entire undergraduate experience well.

Yeah for real

 

[Fedekz]

I would be careful throwing that "rape" word around. Very insensitive to use that word on a forum in such context.

I'll be sure to wash my mouth with soap, onyisraw. I'm actually researching insensitivity training courses online as we speak. Thank you so much for your feedback.

 

[deleted577188]

I'll be sure to wash my mouth with soap, onyisraw. I'm actually researching insensitivity training courses online as we speak. Thank you so much for your feedback.

Lol don't be sarcastic, Fedekz.

 

[king_kwame]

The o chem I ACS exam was a lot easier in terms of complexity compared to the o chem II final. With the O chem I final you could kind of reason your way through stuff and just pick the most stable molecule when in doubt. The O chem II final covered all of both semesters.

Much appreciated!

 

[efle]

Lol don't be sarcastic, Fedekz.

Lol you get triggered by sarcasm too?

 

[wondergirl3]

There's separate ACS exams for Orgo 1 and 2?? My professor told us that we have one ACS test that covers the all of organic chemistry

 

[TooMuchPressure]

Yep, I used the ACS prep book and read all of it. Had an A coming into the final and hadn't had any issues grasping concepts throughout the semester.

It asked a lot of questions about reagents I've never seen before. Know which reagents will take a primary alcohol to aldehyde (PCC), had one about the wittig reagent, I couldn't even tell you - it's a blur now lol. All I can say is I literally had 1 naming question which was a give me, and ONLY ONE spectroscopy problem (H NMR), so I wasted a ton of time studying IR, UV, NMR, etc. Had one problem "which of the following molecules is (R) - Molecule - (S) - Molecule... And I forgot my model and my head was a cloud visualizing turning the Molecule lol. But I would say 90% of mine was which reagent will accomplish this reaction, or given this reactant and reagent what will the product be.

If I had to pick the highest yield topic for my particular exam, I would say knowing which reducing/oxidizing agents reduce/oxidize what (PCC takes a primary alcohol to an aldehyde, where most take it to a carboxylic acid), what is safe on alkenes, and how to make and react esters. Holy **** was there esters on my exam.

Anyways, good luck. I hope my advice helps and you don't get raped as bad as me

I took it last week and I can say this is pretty much accurate. A lot of predict the product and synthesis. A couple H NMR, IR, and C NMR. A couple of acids and bases. A couple sterioisomers questions. It was harder than I thought but my class average was a 31/70 and the highest was a 60/70. It's like when you know the answer there is another answer that you never encountered that could be the possible answer as well. Mind tricks.

 

[ResQRN144]

Organic almost killed me but I rocked the final and saved my entire future with the final ACS test. I'm no expert by any means, but I went through the exam and selected the most stable product. Generally this was always the right answer. Take it for what it's worth. Definitely not recommending doing the exam this way tho.

 

[ZombieDante]

I just finished taking mine and oh my gosh did that thing kick my butt. I went through the study guide for weeks and I still had no idea for a lot of the questions. No way I did good on that, oh well at least it's over 🙂

 

[Jplewis002]

Got raped today.

Try using a word other than "raped." A bit insensitive.

 

[Avicenna]

I swear to god thats the same joke i sent to my friend one week ago when I took the ACS orgo ii exam

 

[Tintinnabula]

This about sums it up. I got in the 90th percentile last semester.

FWIW I had the same experience but by the time the exam rolled around I was brain-fried enough that I didn't care. Last exam of the week, prof brought us donuts, and by then I was just delighted to be done. As a bonus: you never have to take undergrad Organic again!