How to prep for ochem

[random1234]

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I'm seeing a lot of "how much ochem is on the test" threads but I haven't really seen any proposed methods for sufficiently reviewing ochem other than berkeley review. Berkeley review is great for someone who knows nothing, but for someone who has a decent idea (and did well in their ochem class or relatively well), would other materials suffice? Can anyone with practice test or real mcat experience chime in? What would you recommend? Examkrackers, princeton review, kaplan, videos online, what? I have decided to make this a poll but also please elaborate in a post!

Thanks 🙂

 

[gettheleadout]

I took 10 total hours of Honors Organic Chemistry and Lab and a good deal of the material in TBR was never even mentioned in my courses. I performed very strongly in both semesters and I am still pleased with TBR.

 

[Neuroglia]

I'm seeing a lot of "how much ochem is on the test" threads but I haven't really seen any proposed methods for sufficiently reviewing ochem other than berkeley review. Berkeley review is great for someone who knows nothing, but for someone who has a decent idea (and did well in their ochem class or relatively well), would other materials suffice? Can anyone with practice test or real mcat experience chime in? What would you recommend? Examkrackers, princeton review, kaplan, videos online, what? I have decided to make this a poll but also please elaborate in a post!

Thanks 🙂

I used a combination of EK + Kaplan, and I honestly did not make studying organic a priority, and still found the only passage on my MCAT to be extremely easy.

 

[mcloaf]

i took 10 total hours of honors organic chemistry and lab and a good deal of the material in tbr was never even mentioned in my courses. I performed very strongly in both semesters and i am still pleased with tbr.

+1.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

I took 10 total hours of Honors Organic Chemistry and Lab and a good deal of the material in TBR was never even mentioned in my courses. I performed very strongly in both semesters and I am still pleased with TBR.

I agree but I believe that they could have covered most of these stuff in one book--not 2 (6 lectures or sections at most). I must say that people who do not study O-chem for the mcat are making a big mistake. My test had two passages and 3+ discretes of O-chem.

 

[gettheleadout]

I used a combination of EK + Kaplan, and I honestly did not make studying organic a priority, and still found the only passage on my MCAT to be extremely easy.

You got lucky. Inferring anything further from your experience is just asking for trouble.

 

[Neuroglia]

You got lucky. Inferring anything further from your experience is just asking for trouble.

Yup you are absolutely correct, I did get lucky, though even from the AAMC FL's the orgo was fairly straight forward for the most part. I'd recommend downloading the AAMC study guide and studying all the topics on there until you know them cold.

 

[Mehd School]

I know the basic mechanisms down pat as well as the reactivities of different functional groups. Along with knowing the basic info such as NMR, stereochemistry, and Isomerism, there isn't much orgo that gets past me. I found TBR to be a huge time sink for this.

 

[Jepstein30]

I know the basic mechanisms down pat as well as the reactivities of different functional groups. Along with knowing the basic info such as NMR, stereochemistry, and Isomerism, there isn't much orgo that gets past me. I found TBR to be a huge time sink for this.

TBR is overkill for Orgo. I blame that on AAMC changing the MCAT a few years ago to take out a large chunk of Orgo. The old TBR books needed to have two books for Orgo because A LOT of material was tested. Probably didn't want to shift back to one book for $$$ purposes.

EK has it right. They're book is light as air because only the most general topics are tested.

TBR still great for practice questions though. No reason to not get every single Orgo question right considering they are easy points relative to the rest of the section.