How much emphasis is there on a second semester of organic chemistry

[Heatherxo91]

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I am required to take my MCAT by May 1st of next year to enter a certain program. I however, will not be taking my second semester of organic chemistry until the following fall semester. How bad will this ruin my chances of doing good on the MCAT? I will have all the rest of my chemistry done.

 

[Jepstein30]

I am required to take my MCAT by May 1st of next year to enter a certain program. I however, will not be taking my second semester of organic chemistry until the following fall semester. How bad will this ruin my chances of doing good on the MCAT? I will have all the rest of my chemistry done.

Very little.

Most of the Orgo you will see is from the first semester.

Go on the official AAMC site and look at the official topic list.

Here are the major headings
-> The Covalent Bond (stuff you learn in the first week: hybridization, stereochemistry)
-> Molecular Structure and Spectra (spectroscopy and spectrometry)
-> Separation and Purification (lab stuff but also 1st semester)

Then it goes one by one through all the different functional groups. Some of those you may not have hit yet but overall, very little Orgo on the test and very little of that is from the second semester.

Definitely try to learn it on your own but don't sweat it. It's not complicated stuff and it's not going to absolutely destroy your score, if it affects it at all.

 

[Mehd School]

There's enough of 2nd semester material to wreck your score. I dot know about your school, but I learned my spectroscopy/NMR 2nd semester. My content base would feel like there was a huge hole in it had I not taken and understood orgo 2.

 

[Jepstein30]

There's enough of 2nd semester material to wreck your score. I dot know about your school, but I learned my spectroscopy/NMR 2nd semester. My content base would feel like there was a huge hole in it had I not taken and understood orgo 2.

Oh, that's pretty important then.

Most courses have spec/NMR 1st semester, which would make the 2nd semester much less important for the MCAT.

So yea, depends on your specific course. Does it cover NMR 1st semester? You can probably even send the topic list over to the professor that normally teaches 1st semester orgo and ask him what topics it doesn't cover..

 

[BABSstudent]

There's enough of 2nd semester material to wreck your score. I dot know about your school, but I learned my spectroscopy/NMR 2nd semester. My content base would feel like there was a huge hole in it had I not taken and understood orgo 2.

We are not even taught that at my school. This was all self taught for my MCAT.

I think the OP question is school specific. Check the AAMC topics that they test on and see if your 1 class covers all of it. I think a majority is covered in the first semester and anything else can be learned by reading a review book.

 

[kmp0410]

We are not even taught that at my school. This was all self taught for my MCAT.

I think the OP question is school specific. Check the AAMC topics that they test on and see if your 1 class covers all of it. I think a majority is covered in the first semester and anything else can be learned by reading a review book.

This, there might be some things you didn't cover but I think a MCAT book can help you with anything you haven't learned yet.