How to do well in Organic Chemistry?

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TigerLilies

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Any tips on how to do well in Organic Chemistry?

Thanks so much!

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Don't just do the assigned problems at the end of the chapter -- do all of them. So yeah...just read the entire chap and do all the problems -- you can't go wrong. Maybe flash cards here and there for some things you have to straight up memorize, but by the time you finish the problems that's usually a cinch.
 
1. Open your book, study it, do homework.
2. Go to class.
3. Get help if necessary.
4. Repeat daily.
Note: Reading the book chaps before class is given first. (ie. read ahead!)
 
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the white dry erase boards help alot because you write out so many reactions...plus you save paper and if you get a big one you can see them in their entirety
 
I agree with everything Q said: that's how I studied O. Chem. and I did really well and didn't have to "cram" at all for tests.

One added piece of advice: get a good study buddy and find a study room with a white board a day or two before tests. Then make-up really complicated organic molecules and have your study-buddy name functional groups, or make up your own detailed reaction mechanism and have a study-budy figure it out. :idea: Going through many complex problems after you've learned the fundamentals will help you ace both the easy and the hard problems on tests. And, make sure you can do everything in multiple ways. For example, you should be able to name a molecule when it is shown and you should be able to draw a molecule when it is named.

I know some students only used flash cards to study (i.e. simply memorized reactions), but from what I know these students didn't do too well on exams because they couldn't integrate what they had learned. I never used flashcards except for nomenclature.

Good luck! :luck: :luck:
 
White boards are awesome. I have a huge one hanging in my room. I have my to do list and ample space for doing phys/math/chem problems
 
you also might want to consider getting the molecular building blocks set to visualize the stereochemistry of the molecules.
 
i had to buy two of those sets, because i made a heroin molecule that used up all my little carbons and refused to take it apart. it took me forever to get the stereochemistry right. as much of a joke as it was, it actually did help me in the class a little bit. so yeah, buy one of those sets if you don't have one already, and build some molecules in your spare time. mostly, focus on getting the A in the class above anything else.. there isn't a lot of ochem on the MCATs (something like 10% overall?)
 
Jon Davis said:
Reading the book chaps before class is given first. (ie. read ahead!)

Absolutely.....and this is true for all other sciences as well (but I was never able to manage doing it :rolleyes: )
When I took Organic,I used to leave every lecture dazed and confused but thankfully our text book-Organic Chemistry by John Mcmurry was a life saver.....
I highly recommend the book(except for chapter 9 and a couple of other troubling spots)....some guys in my class hated it but I LOVED the freakin book....so try borrowing it and see if it helps....

and of course the models for the streochem are higly important....I got real good ones for a bargain at this web site(not an endorsement ;) )(They look cheap but they get the job done very effectively.)

http://www.indigo.com/models/gphmodel/orbit-chemistry-model-student-set-68827W.html
 
I think I've seen this mentioned on SDN before, but I may be hallucinating....but that book "Pushing Electrons" by Weeks is really good, especially for first quarter orgo. If you buy it used, its usually only like 8 bucks.
 
TigerLilies said:
Any tips on how to do well in Organic Chemistry?

Thanks so much!
Personally I think organic chemistry is one of those subjects you either grasp or you don't. That being said even if you do grasp it the best way to do well is to work problems and recognize trends in the reactions. My teacher had a habit of using large complicated molecules but if you knew the basic simple trend in reaction you quickly realized that the problem was easy...just learn to recognize the key aspects of a reaction and solving any problem involving that reaction will be very straight forward.
 
TSisk23 said:
Personally I think organic chemistry is one of those subjects you either grasp or you don't.

No, this isn't true. Anyone of at least normal intelligence can learn organic chemistry, but it requires a lot of effort and discipline for most students, and not everyone is willing to do what is necessary to learn the material. To the OP, and anyone else out there in SDN-land who is intimidated by organic chemistry: yes, you *can* learn organic chemistry and do well in the class if you work hard, but no, you *can't* cram or memorize your way through and expect to be successful come exam-time.
 
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Here's my 2 cents. Do some orgo every day. Seriously. Even on the weekend. Like qoq says, it's like a language. Or you might say, like a performance skill. Miss a day, and you're on your way to getting rusty.
 
QofQuimica,
dbhvt,
Yeash!!!
I agree on practice and being rusty!!

Can you believe I took the august MCAT, and my scores are not in yet, still I practice the organic chemistry every weekend, so it does not get rusty. :laugh: :laugh: Actually, I don’t study it....but it was a joke.

But the point was that I would practice enough to be prepared for the next MCAT if I need to re-take it.

Everyday practice, little bit of concentration, and having passion to learn would help you do well on organic chemistry.
 
QofQuimica said:
No, this isn't true. Anyone of at least normal intelligence can learn organic chemistry, but it requires a lot of effort and discipline for most students, and not everyone is willing to do what is necessary to learn the material. To the OP, and anyone else out there in SDN-land who is intimidated by organic chemistry: yes, you *can* learn organic chemistry and do well in the class if you work hard, but no, you *can't* cram or memorize your way through and expect to be successful come exam-time.
How do you know it isn't true...surely you know someone who studies a certain subject and for whatever reason just isnt able to get it...like math for example...I dunno maybe not, but i have run into a few. Anyways it is completely possible to do well in organic chemistry with minimal understanding...like i said just memorize the certain aspects to a reaction and most questions asked will be answered with ease.
 
Well I'd say definitely write and take notes while you read the book. (Since sometimes you can boil down paragraphs to a sentence or two. My book had loads of notes in the margins and also additions to the index so I could find things. Of course a lot of my notes were insulting, pointed out how things were in the wrong order, etc. It gave me a fun release and enjoying the class even through this made me learn a little better.) Oh, definitely try to link stuff to earlier concepts.(I thought my book was terrible about pointing this out but often new stuff was just an application of a concept earlier in the book and was absolutely not new at all. What's good about doing this is that you'll strengthen the old concept and learn the new one more easily.) Definitely try to do the homework(get the solution manual!) and also write down the reactions on flash cards as you come across them so you'll have a nice rolodex that's easy to memorize.(Oddly enough our syllabus gave the impression you could actually just know some properties of elements and get the reactions from that. This is of course BS, to do those reactions you will need to memorize.) Also get used to the fact orgo has very little to do with gen chem.(Seriously, when you take it you'll be surprised like I was but Organic is more graphical, gen chem was algebraic.)

Oh and don't try to cram but this is true of most courses.(You're better off finding 45 minutes to study every day and making a habit of it then trying to make up by studying 5 hours since if you're like me you'd procrastinate if it wasn't a habit.) Guess I haven't said much that anybody else hasn't said.

Actually I will disagree with one thing; organic is not like a foreign language. Well except that both can be difficult.(To be blunt I find language courses to be vastly harder than organic. Yes, really.) Language is an auditory thing generally(at least at my school they were) where orgo is definitely visual. (Which for some of us is a HUGE difference.) Also I know I tend to rip on people that teach orgo but even they've got nothing on the vast incompetence that some people running foreign language classes have.(I always found it funny that supposedly languages were SO important that they had to shove loads of it down everybody's throat yet the real professors were too important to teach more than a handful of classes and nothing first year. It's down right pathetic that the number one mistake people make when taking a language, translating everything to english, was revealed to me in a math class. Apparently my math prof knew more about teaching a language than some twenty something girl. Go fig) As I've said, I'm bitter about that:) (It's rather ironic that the end result of my foreign language education is that I absolutely hate it and refuse to take any language courses ever again. Well that and I won't take trips to certain countries but that's a tome for another time. Unintended consequences can be a b*tch at times)
 
How to do well in organic chemistry?


Memorize.

Thats it. If you can memorize every single one of those damn nomenclatures, and transformations and mechanism reactions, you're golden. (unless, of course, your teacher decides to make you regurgitate the theory behind the mechanisms, as ours did...)
Ranking questions are pretty straightforward, but can be easy once you understand the gist of them.

To start, MAKE SURE that you understand the basic nomenclature behind organic chemistry. Orgo is a language in itself, and just like any other language, make sure you understand the basic vocabulary b/c it quickly builds on itself...

g/l.
 
It really helped me to read the chapters and to make flashcards of the reaction mechanisms. Whenever I had a few minutes at work the cards came out... flip-flip-flip.
 
I created review sheets with all of the important reactions. I would draw out the whole mechanism, electron pushing, then write any important hallmarks of the reaction, cis/trans etc. It sounds like a lot of work, but writing out all of the mechanisms helped me to really understand them. That really paid off on exams where I would see new molecules and could work through the mechanism to see the product. If you know a few types of mechinisms, you really don't have to memorize any more than you would a your typical science class.

~Kim
 
my opinion: take notes on a sheet of paper as you read the chapters. Even if you feel like you don't use the notes too much later...the writing of the notes makes sure you understand the information as you read!
 
I'm in Orgo I now.

I've found that reading before the Chapter is covered helps, as it lets you aborb the info better.

See if your School offers Supplimental Instruction, a seperate free class usually taught by a graduate student who had to have gotten an A in the class (this is a national program and many colleges have these classes for the more difficult classes).

JUST OUT: Organic Chemistry for Dummies. I've found the book to be very helpful thus far... study adjucts always, I find, give new views on the same subject for better understanding.

And, for audio/visual learners, another great adjunct... The Standard Deviants: Organic Chemistry 3 Video set.

Another good text adjunct: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by David Klein, again, fills in the gaps.

One book to avoid: Organic Chemisty Edge 2nd ed by Kaplan. This text is horribly written. A page into it I had to ask myself if it was even edited... and not to my supprise, it wasn't. Obviously, the professor who wrote this spent too much time in Organic, and none in English.... a very poorly written text (Almost a High-shool level of writing).

Hope that helps.

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