Is Orgo II much harder than Orgo I?

[wahoo2010]

The question says it all.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[cruz21]

i thought it was actually easier.

 

[146233]

Kudos to cruz21 for having an easier time in orgo II. I, for one, thought it was more difficult than orgo I, since it's virtually all mechanisms and whatnot, where orgo I had a healthy review of gen chem for almost the first half of the course. Regardless, if you study and practice your mechanisms/syntheses, you should do well. Good luck!

 

[h0bbes]

Hard to say. Some people try a lot harder in Orgo II after a bad grade in Orgo I, and they often get much better grades. It might be because they figure out how to more efficiently study for the course. I don't think we can look purely at how hard the subject matter is, if you want to look at students' grades in the courses.

 

[Deepa100]

No. Less interesting may be but not harder.

 

[OncDoc19]

If you learned the concepts in Orgo I well then it will probably be easier. Otherwise, not.

 

[AnthonyNY]

no

 

[PreMed4Dummies]

i found orgo 2 to be much more difficult. i felt like the whole purpose of orgo 1 was to give you the fundamentals for orgo 2

 

[Dave_D]

i found orgo 2 to be much more difficult. i felt like the whole purpose of orgo 1 was to give you the fundamentals for orgo 2

I'll second this as well. I found the Orgo II to be pretty much Orgo I concepts applied to some "new" reactions.(Ok, there was a few new things like aromatics but that wasn't too bad.) Actually I kind of always give this next piece of advice.(It's also a test of your Orgo I knowledge.) When you read the sections in Orgo II much of the time you should think to you self is this really just some Orgo I concept. Try to predict where they're going and what the end result really is. I mean much of the time when I was doing Orgo II and I was reading I'd say to myself "Hey, this looks like concept X from Orgo I." I write down in the margin what I was thinking and what concept I thought it was. A surprising large portion of the time when I'd get to the end of the section the book would mention that it was an old concept. (So keep thinking, if you got the concepts in Orgo I then Orgo II is largely applying that.)

 

[tae1703]

if you learned the concepts in orgo 1 and can apply them to orgo 2 it may be easier, at least for me

 

[Decicco]

Yes. Much harder. The people who say it isnt probably had a different layout than the rest of us. First semester was all alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes naming and reactions. Second was NMR, mass and IR spec, carbonyl compunds, alcohols, Sn1 Sn2 E1 E2, and multistep synthesis. Much more difficult.

 

[skinnylindsay]

Yes. Much harder. The people who say it isnt probably had a different layout than the rest of us. First semester was all alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes naming and reactions. Second was NMR, mass and IR spec, carbonyl compunds, alcohols, Sn1 Sn2 E1 E2, and multistep synthesis. Much more difficult.

My Orgo I class actually did cover NMR, IR, SN1/2 and E1/2 in addition to all the basic stuff like naming. I thought the second semester was much easier because we mainly focused on carbonyl compounds and then biological stuff like carbohydrates, proteins, DNA, etc... Stuff that actually made sense to me as a bio major. I guess it just depends on the order that your professor teaches the material.

 

[powerful_squib]

If you really learn orgo I... like pound the concepts into your head until the cows come home... then Orgo II will be easier, because you will know how the mechanisms will work without have to draw all the arrows out. So I suggest spending alot of time with the concepts or orgo I, especially the mechanisms.

I find that I am working alot less then I did for orgoI. I'm finishing up orgo II now... wooot... but good luck

 

[TheRealMD]

Do people really just have evil ochem teachers? I breezed through my ochem II course without much difficulty and came out #17 out of 480. I know for a fact though that there were some people in my course who flat-out failed.

Maybe I just got it easy or people hype it WAY too much. I didn't even know they were weed-out classes until after i finished taking them! 😱

 

[rgm05031]

I found Orgo 2 to be more difficult but not by much.

 

[Meatwad]

My Orgo I class actually did cover NMR, IR, SN1/2 and E1/2 in addition to all the basic stuff like naming. I thought the second semester was much easier because we mainly focused on carbonyl compounds and then biological stuff like carbohydrates, proteins, DNA, etc... Stuff that actually made sense to me as a bio major. I guess it just depends on the order that your professor teaches the material.

Same here; we covered IR, NMR, mass spec, SN1/2, E1/2, alcohols, and ethers/sulfides/epoxides (in addition to the basic alkanes, alkenes, alkynes, haloalkanes, radical reactions blah blah blah). Supposedly Orgo II will have a more biological feel to it, and looks to be all mechanistic stuff (depending on your strengths and weaknesses, could be a positive or negative). I'm taking the class now, though, so I guess I'll ring in how hard I thought it was in mid-August.

 

[medguy83]

I found Orgo2 to be a little easier than orgo 1. I think Organic chemistry is perhaps the most difficult of the premed subjects. Physics, bio, gen chem aren't that bad. Organic is the make or break point as to whether you can understand, assimilate, and utilize complex information. I know you're probably thinking abstract math or linear algebra probably makes orgo look like a walk in the park, but as far as premed courses are concerned it's the litmus test. I just don't find subjects like cell bio, biochem, or genetics to be that difficult to understand. The pathways and cellular mechanics may be complex, but not difficult to imagine and comprehend. I guess in med school, when you've got to learn volumes of it, it gets a lot harder.
After organic 1 you've pretty much gotten used to the new "language" of organic chemistry and can now learn about more complex reactions and principles with little difficulty. It's still hard, but I found orgo2 to be a tad bit easier.

 

[bane84]

Yes. Much harder. The people who say it isnt probably had a different layout than the rest of us. First semester was all alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes naming and reactions. Second was NMR, mass and IR spec, carbonyl compunds, alcohols, Sn1 Sn2 E1 E2, and multistep synthesis. Much more difficult.

I had all this, plus a lot of EAS (electrophilic aromatic substitution) and mounds of work with benzene derivatives and retro-synthesis.

But, like another poster mentioned above, I got my butt whooped in Orgo 1 so I dedicated lots of time to Orgo 2-- I wasnt going to get slammed by orgo again.

So, if you are dedicated, it wont be harder. It'll be hard, but you can do it if you give it time and want it bad enough.

 

[Turtle01]

I personally thought it was much easier becasue it was all learning reactions of the groups and some spectroscopy stuff... Maybe it's just me but I always hated steroisomers / cyclohexane stuff, etc.

 

[jjmack]

I enjoyed orgo I learning the new stuff and just found orgo II very boring. It ended up being my worst grade in college.

 

[UCDavisdude]

i dont know if it was really harder, but ver very different. 1st half was stereochem, enantiomers and such, and secon half is all reaction mechanisms.

 

[Meatwad]

To the OP:

Post up the course description that tells what topics it covers, since it seems there isn't even a consensus on what Organic Chemistry II really is (for some, its spectroscopy + mechanisms, for others its just mechanisms, etc)

 

[phospho]

Do people really just have evil ochem teachers? I breezed through my ochem II course without much difficulty and came out #17 out of 480. I know for a fact though that there were some people in my course who flat-out failed.

Maybe I just got it easy or people hype it WAY too much. I didn't even know they were weed-out classes until after i finished taking them! 😱

wow! you're so smart! you came out #17 ? there is NO way you could've gotten it easy... that definitely takes brains... not only were they a breeze, but they turned out to be weed-out courses!!! you know, some people were just born to be doctors...😍


btw, are you quoting yourself?

 

[DrReo]

If you learn good habits of mechanisms, reactions, ect from orgo I, orgo II will be easy.

 

[TheRealMD]

wow! you're so smart! you came out #17 ? there is NO way you could've gotten it easy... that definitely takes brains... not only were they a breeze, but they turned out to be weed-out courses!!! you know, some people were just born to be doctors...😍


btw, are you quoting yourself?

I was like an ochem demi-god or something. People had trouble learning it, but I thought it was pretty easy. Eventually it got to the point in the semester where I went up to my prof and said he was basically repeating the same thing with a little twist on each reaction. His response was: "I think you've mastered ochem better than I did when I took this course!". I'm also pretty pimp at physics, but bio is kinda bleh. Anyway, enough gloating! 😛

I quote myself in my sig so that other people don't take it or think it's just an anonymous quote. It's a pretty good one too, I think. 😀

 

[Meatwad]

I was like an ochem demi-god or something. People had trouble learning it, but I thought it was pretty easy. Eventually it got to the point in the semester where I went up to my prof and said he was basically repeating the same thing with a little twist on each reaction. His response was: "I think you've mastered ochem better than I did when I took this course!". I'm also pretty pimp at physics, but bio is kinda bleh. Anyway, enough gloating! 😛

I quote myself in my sig so that other people don't take it or think it's just an anonymous quote. It's a pretty good one too, I think. 😀

[/sarcasm], right?

 

[TheRealMD]

[/sarcasm], right?

Uh.... no, I really did go up to him and do that, not to gloat or anything. That's why I keep wondering if everyone else has hellish ochem profs or something. I even had a different prof for ochem I and didn't find it that bad either. I'm just clueless. 😕

 

[cruz21]

Kudos to cruz21 for having an easier time in orgo II. I, for one, thought it was more difficult than orgo I, since it's virtually all mechanisms and whatnot, where orgo I had a healthy review of gen chem for almost the first half of the course. Regardless, if you study and practice your mechanisms/syntheses, you should do well. Good luck!

haha, well thank you! i think the reason it was easier for me was because it just made more sense: orgo I seemed to be a lot of memerization about stupid nomanclature that goes right out the window in orgo II and other random memerization like mass spec numbers, splitting, etc. orgo II was all straight-up mechanisms, so it was the sort of thing where if you understand the concept of what's going on you can handle most problems they throw your way, and it actually ends up being kind of fun, a bit like a puzzle...


...or i'm just a bit of a loser

 

[stat3113]

Assume Organic II covers the following chapters. People who have taken both, given this is Organic II, is it harder or easier than Organic I?

NMR
Ethers, Epoxides, Sulfides
Conjugated systems, orbital symmetry
Aromatic compounds and rxns
Ketones, Aldehydes
Amines
Carboxylic Acids and derivatives
Addition/Condensation of Enolate ions
Carbohydrates/nucleic acids
Amino acids, proteins, peptides
Lipids

 

[EagerToBeMD]

Assume Organic II covers the following chapters. People who have taken both, given this is Organic II, is it harder or easier than Organic I?

NMR
Ethers, Epoxides, Sulfides
Conjugated systems, orbital symmetry
Aromatic compounds and rxns
Ketones, Aldehydes
Amines
Carboxylic Acids and derivatives
Addition/Condensation of Enolate ions
Carbohydrates/nucleic acids
Amino acids, proteins, peptides
Lipids

This was pretty much what we covered in Orgo II, except for the Lipids. We didn't get that far. NMR we started in Orgo I, then continued throughout Orgo II especially in Lab. Every lab report had NMR, IR, and Mass Spectra.

Also, am I the only one who had nomenclature throughout both Orgo I AND Orgo II?

As for difficulty, Orgo II took more work as far as doing mechanisms over and over and over and over until they were drilled into my head, but I got A's in both with substantially less effort than I put into Gen Chem. I think for some people, Orgo just clicks and for others, it takes a little more effort. The key to Orgo II is to practice, practice, practice. When you think you're done, practice some more.

 

[StringTheorist]

I was pre-pharm last year, so I had to take both....

orgo I is all new to you. or it was to me, at least. and because of that reason, it is harder to get into the groove of organic.

orgo II is much harder, but since you are well-acquainted with the subject, and know it will be difficult, you usually end up taking it very seriously, and it seems easier because of this.

I made a better grade in orgo II than orgo I. but orgo II is def. more difficult.

 

[bigman43]

taking orgo II is a lot like the first time you have sex. You have absolutely no idea what you are doing, but it is exciting, and one way or another, it's over way too fast.

 

[vincikai]

hm...........yes orgo II was more fun tho 😍