I'm seriously considering dropping pre-med because of Orgo

[paul411]

IR is the best. The answer is always 3500 nm, 1700 nm, or both.

I especially love the spectroscopy stuff on the MCAT -- basically a giveaway.

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[carlogu]

I had a friend of mine come with me to lecture for a week when he came to visit us. He's the TA for ochem at his school, and even he found out lectures wildly confusing and full of errors (when learning carbonyl chemistry, the first day of lecture our prof. accidentally explained to us why the carbon acted as the nucleophile). It's no wonder I used to walk out of that class every day shaking my head in confusion.

Am I the only one that shuddered after reading that? lol......it is kinda important not to F that one up......




BTW.....digging the update/necro-bump

 

[orthomyxo]

I actually found NMR to be among the easier/more interesting topics in ochem. Like others noted, the multi-step backwards synthesis problems were more annoying.

I didn't understand NMR until I actually did one in the lab. It's actually pretty amazing stuff.

 

[UnclePhil]

I hate NMR, I worked in synthetic chemistry for a year after graduation and have read enough NMRs that I never want to see another one again for the rest of my life.

 

[CodeBlu]

I didn't understand NMR until I actually did one in the lab. It's actually pretty amazing stuff.

true. needs to be taught better tho!

I hate NMR, I worked in synthetic chemistry for a year after graduation and have read enough NMRs that I never want to see another one again for the rest of my life.

hahaha, that bad?

 

[Gnomes]

Um...you realize that this thread is from a year ago, right? OP just commented like 5 posts ago and said that they were done with it...

Pfft. My advice is timeless

Seriously though, I just didn't notice; the last several posts were from the same day.

 

[235788]

organic was not that hard people. Christ.

 

[Ride Big Sky]

organic was not that hard people. Christ.

Agreed. There are much harder classes, but for some reason everyone gets all worked up about organic.

 

[Medicine4Bruhs]

We choose to [take orgo]. We choose to [take orgo] in this [semester] and do the other [EC] things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Still unanswered: Why does Rice play Texas? lulz.

 

[paul411]

Other classes are hard but interesting. Maybe people find organic chemistry especially difficult because it's kinda boring.

 

[NightGod]

Agreed. There are much harder classes, but for some reason everyone gets all worked up about organic.

Maybe because it's usually the first 'hard' class most people take?

 

[Medicine4Bruhs]

You take orgo because it is a difficult class at most universities that requires continual effort over the entire course of the semester, rather than a few long hours a couple of nights before the test as you may get away with for other classes. This is predicated on the belief that if you do well in the class, you most likely put in consistent effort over the entire length of the course instead of just cramming the night before, as cramming for orgo doesn't help as much as it can in other classes.

Medical school is very much about taking fairly basic and easy rules you learned (SN1, etc) and using these building blocks to solve more difficult problems (synthesis problems). Orgo also encapsulates much of the memorization that medical school requires. Again, the reason you take orgo is precisely because it is hard.

In another vein, the idea behind taking physics, a class that is widely unrelated to medicine and biology but is very puzzlingly mandated as a med school prereq, is that this class is generally more conceptually difficult than other classes many students take and if they do well in the class, they can likely tackle the hardest of any concept they will encounter in medical school. It is also relatively boring, and if you really want to go to med school, you will put in effort in this "relatively boring" class to do well in it or otherwise you were probably not very serious about medicine in the first place.

These are the best reasons why orgo and physics are prereqs and you need to do well in them for entrance to medical school. They are meant to be difficult and test your mettle. Choose what you want to believe.

 

[circulus vitios]

organic was not that hard people. Christ.

I had little trouble making an A in calculus I-III but I struggled to get a curved B-/B in organic I and II. Some people learn differently.

 

[CuttingCorneas]

Pfft. My advice is timeless

Seriously though, I just didn't notice; the last several posts were from the same day.

Haha, no sweat. Just giving you a hard time

 

[TribalSeeds]

well no wonder you wound up with a C. You only studied three hours for one section?

 

[UnclePhil]

true. needs to be taught better tho!



hahaha, that bad?

It's not really THAT bad, it's more just that you have to do them almost every day. On giant compounds. And unlike the stuff you make in orgo lab or do on an exam, the NMRs don't usually turn out perfect because you usually have a small amount of pure product, and there are a ton of other random impurities that you may not be able to get out with HPLC. But I did maybe 3-4 NMRs a week, so I suppose it wasn't really that bad. Preparing a sample, running across campus to the machine, taking the spectra, and reading it gets very old though. And nothing is worse than reading the NMR and finding out that you basically just have starting material.

 

[235788]

Yeah to each their own. I had difficulty with Calc, but no problem with A's in orgo lol

 

[GooseWing]

It's not really THAT bad, it's more just that you have to do them almost every day. On giant compounds. And unlike the stuff you make in orgo lab or do on an exam, the NMRs don't usually turn out perfect because you usually have a small amount of pure product, and there are a ton of other random impurities that you may not be able to get out with HPLC. But I did maybe 3-4 NMRs a week, so I suppose it wasn't really that bad. Preparing a sample, running across campus to the machine, taking the spectra, and reading it gets very old though. And nothing is worse than reading the NMR and finding out that you basically just have starting material.

Oh man oh man, my research is in organic synthesis too. It's really amazing how ochem lab can run so smoothly; reactions have high yields, NMRs are exquisite and void of interfering peaks, and you always know exactly what is what on your TLC plates.
Once you step into a research lab it's like everything you liked about ochem lab disappears and there you are, running a column for over an hour only to get an NMR and realize you don't have your product...

 

[pfaction]

In our organic chemistry we never did NMR's.

 

[235788]

In our organic chemistry we never did NMR's.

Did you go to a Community college or something? NMR's are basic orgo II. Did you not do SN1/SN2 either?

 

[GooseWing]

Did you go to a Community college or something? NMR's are basic orgo II. Did you not do SN1/SN2 either?

Hah!

 

[pfaction]

Did you go to a Community college or something? NMR's are basic orgo II. Did you not do SN1/SN2 either?

Nope, I'm in a 4 year institution. We never did a single lick of NMR's.

 

[Wolfman89]

Nope, I'm in a 4 year institution. We never did a single lick of NMR's.

Thats strange. I thought everyone did NMR during orgo I.

 

[Frazier]

Thats strange. I thought everyone did NMR during orgo I.

NMR and spectroscopy was the last chapter we covered in Ochem 1.

Subsequently, every chapter in Ochem 2 had questions concerning the interpretation of NMRs.

 

[Wolfman89]

NMR and spectroscopy was the last chapter we covered in Ochem 1.

Subsequently, every chapter in Ochem 2 had questions concerning the interpretation of NMRs.

We used the McMurray text in Ochem 1. We did NMR midway through the semester and then did chirality and then reactions involving chirality, the Diels-Alder reaction and a couple other things.

Regardless NMR is a large part of NMR.

 

[Frazier]

We used the McMurray text in Ochem 1. We did NMR midway through the semester and then did chirality and then reactions involving chirality, the Diels-Alder reaction and a couple other things.

Regardless NMR is a large part of NMR.

This is true. lol

 

[orthomyxo]

In our organic chemistry we never did NMR's.

weird

 

[paul411]

In our organic chemistry we never did NMR's.

Do you mean in lab or in the lecture?

 

[pfaction]

Do you mean in lab or in the lecture?

I have literally done 0 NMR. We skipped that chapter. I don't even know what NMR is besides the small bit I did in research.

 

[Wolfman89]

I have literally done 0 NMR. We skipped that chapter. I don't even know what NMR is besides the small bit I did in research.

Wow, no offense to you pfaction, but I honestly don't quite know what to make of that.

I thought NMR was what one did in Orgo I, like SN1 reactions.