I'm taking Organic Chem 1 over the summer- Advice?

[asigna]

Hey guys I'm taking organic chem 1 over the summer at my university.

I wanted to ask for some helpful tips, notes, advice, etc: anything that will help me do good in the class. Maybe how you guys study, work out problems, take notes?

Anything will help and I would really appreciate it.


Thank you!

-P.S sorry for the other posts of mine that had the exact same thing as this (I kept clicking submit because my connection ran out).

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[Fuji Diamond]

Buy the book: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, first semester topics. Do the first two or three chapters before starting class.

Videos helped me tremendously (I got A's in both Ochem I & II):
Check out www.crackochem.com (the first few are free) and www.freelance-teacher.com (he is the best!)

Understand the concepts rather than rote memorization. Understand acids/bases, electronegativity, nucleophilicity vs electrophilicity. When you get to the reactions and mechanisms, it's frequently about who has electrons and who wants them. If you understand that, you'll be ahead of the game.

I found my teachers and textbooks fairly useless for understanding OChem. The best approach for me was to skim the text (or read chapter summary if your text has one) to get a sense of objectives for the chapter, then watch freelance-teacher.com's videos on the subject, then go to the problems in the back of the book. Doing problems, a little every day, is important. You can't cram Ochem.

If it wasn't for freelance-teacher.com and reading Ochem as a 2nd language in first semester, I wouldn't have done as well.

Good luck!

 

[Guero]

Buy the book: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, first semester topics. Do the first two or three chapters before starting class.

Videos helped me tremendously (I got A's in both Ochem I & II):
Check out www.crackochem.com (the first few are free) and www.freelance-teacher.com (he is the best!)

Understand the concepts rather than rote memorization. Understand acids/bases, electronegativity, nucleophilicity vs electrophilicity. When you get to the reactions and mechanisms, it's frequently about who has electrons and who wants them. If you understand that, you'll be ahead of the game.

I found my teachers and textbooks fairly useless for understanding OChem. The best approach for me was to skim the text (or read chapter summary if your text has one) to get a sense of objectives for the chapter, then watch freelance-teacher.com's videos on the subject, then go to the problems in the back of the book. Doing problems, a little every day, is important. You can't cram Ochem.

If it wasn't for freelance-teacher.com and reading Ochem as a 2nd language in first semester, I wouldn't have done as well.

Good luck!

That was some great advice and some good resources. The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry is another useful book for an introduction to the basics of OChem. I took it over the summer, too. I strongly advise good time management and studying in blocks of 50 minutes with 10 minute breaks. Extended, uninterrupted study sessions are counterproductive.