Memorize/Understanding issues =[[[

[ilovemedi]

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I'm about to finish content review, and I'm having issues with remembering/knowing everything. For example, the o-chem carbonly chemistry chapter has a trillion reactons (wittig, claisen, aldol condensation.. ETC), and i read around here that it's good to know the basics of each. Even then, it's a lot of information (and this is just ONE TBR o-chem chapter).
When I remember one reaction, then I forget stuff in the bio section, or say, certain physics equations.

My question for anyone who has already taken the MCAT or has did well on FL's - how did you deal w/ this much information? Memorize, or just learn? The thing is, some rxns (like aldol) require a bit memorization in terms of knowing what molecules and such it involves. Oh, and bio is another topic that's memorization-heavy. How did you deal with this?

 

[V5RED]

You didn't learn English in a single day. Keep reviewing the stuff every day or so and it will stick.

Don't try to memorize it all at once either. That is just going to frustrate you. It would be like trying to clean an entire floor of a school in one day(former janitor 🙂 )

Mnemonics are your friend.

For example:

Anterior Pituitary Hormones:
FSH, LH, ACTH, HGH, TSH, Prolactin

Friendly Lovers Are Happy To Procreate

 

[pathologyDO]

I'm not scoring 30+ on the Kaplan FL or AAMC exams YET, but I am doing above 80% on the organic questions. Honestly, so far I havn't seen any questions which you must have the reaction memorized. You could really deduce what happens in a given reaction with the passages, for example, what happens when a Beta-Ketone Ester is formed in a intramolecular reaction could be the question, and they might tell you one of the reactants was acetone. See what I mean? That makes it really easy to come up with what the reactants were.

Just focus on how carbonyl groups react with nucleophiles or electrophiles, and definitely be able to understand how protonation of the carbonyl compound works in the reactions. Additionally, for things such as the Wittig just remember that C=O becomes C=C... easy things, don't go overboard thinking you must know every part of these reactions, your brain will implode since the juices will be moving at such a high velocity that the pressure inside your brain will be lesser than the outside

 

[azntonyking]

@OP: You're stressing too much lol. Take a breather. Honestly, you don't to know any more details than what the reaction does. But do focus on substitution and elimination reaction and know what constitutes one from the other. Really nail THOSE details down (such as which works better in acidic solvent and etc), as for the rest, just the general "Oh this is what it does" will suffice.

 

[ilovemedi]

FML. Carbohydrates have other sets of reactions I forgot - osazone, benedict, tollen. f*****. how did you guys do it??????????????????????????????????????????? 😡

 

[nerdswagger]

i know i'm a little late on this...but pathologyDO is on the money. I felt extremely frustrated studying too but when I stopped memorizing and focused on breaking down the reactions into groups like nucleophilic substitution vs nucleophilic addition, electrophilic addition and so on, it made it a lot easier to predict mechanistic steps and products. I went from missing almost all the o-chem questions on practice exams to getting them almost all right.

 

[shaboobly]

partial charges and charges of reactants usually tells you whats reacts together. if you know electronegativity you can usually figure out charges and pick out the right answer (normally wrong choices will involve adding like charges). just memorize the facts about each type of reaction not specific reactions. they usually provide you with the reactions and conditions as well.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Carbonyls have a partial positive charge on the carbon and are thus good electrophiles. In addition, the alpha hydrogen is more acidic than normal and with a strong base it's possible to abstract it.

There, now that you know those two things you now know enough carbonyl chemistry for the MCAT. Congrats.

 

[chrisharimlee]

Carbonyls have a partial positive charge on the carbon and are thus good electrophiles. In addition, the alpha hydrogen is more acidic than normal and with a strong base it's possible to abstract it.

There, now that you know those two things you now know enough carbonyl chemistry for the MCAT. Congrats.

Haha word. I think with that info alone you'll be able to figure out most of the carbonyls problems on the mcat. Also knowledge on leaving groups will help too.

 

[chrisharimlee]

don't go overboard thinking you must know every part of these reactions, your brain will implode since the juices will be moving at such a high velocity that the pressure inside your brain will be lesser than the outside

Haha great use of bernoulli's principle. 👍

 

[argama]

talking about carbonyl rxns, is it essential to know the mechanisms? I understand the general mech and I can use all the reactions easily in synthesis but how well should I know the specific mechanisms? Like say the wittig or the acetal/ketal formation?

 

[shaboobly]

talking about carbonyl rxns, is it essential to know the mechanisms? I understand the general mech and I can use all the reactions easily in synthesis but how well should I know the specific mechanisms? Like say the wittig or the acetal/ketal formation?

the mechanism is all generally the same for carbonyls, carb acid derivs, aromatic substitutions, etc.. this is because the functional groups usually behave similarly under similar conditions, regardless of what the molecule is

 

[argama]

the mechanism is all generally the same for carbonyls, carb acid derivs, aromatic substitutions, etc.. this is because the functional groups usually behave similarly under similar conditions, regardless of what the molecule is

so it's prob not too important to know say the intermediate in the wittig rxn is four membered oxaphosphetane (i googled it...)? Like just recognize it's a box-looking thing is good enough?

Or should I just know that wittig rxn is only to create (Z) & (E) alkenes from a ketone/aldehyde + P(Ph)3? Thanks

 

[shaboobly]

so it's prob not too important to know say the intermediate in the wittig rxn is four membered oxaphosphetane (i googled it...)? Like just recognize it's a box-looking thing is good enough?

Or should I just know that wittig rxn is only to create (Z) & (E) alkenes from a ketone/aldehyde + P(Ph)3? Thanks

the necessary reactions and mechanisms will be provided in the passage, but there will most definitely have a question that will have you analyze the mechanism; probably in the form of another molecule (for instance they might give you a reaction sequence and ask what the 3rd product of it is, so it's good to know the mechanism to follow what's happening in your head).

edit: i never found myself having to know specifics about specific named reactions

 

[BABSstudent]

I'm about to finish content review, and I'm having issues with remembering/knowing everything. For example, the o-chem carbonly chemistry chapter has a trillion reactons (wittig, claisen, aldol condensation.. ETC), and i read around here that it's good to know the basics of each. Even then, it's a lot of information (and this is just ONE TBR o-chem chapter).
When I remember one reaction, then I forget stuff in the bio section, or say, certain physics equations.

My question for anyone who has already taken the MCAT or has did well on FL's - how did you deal w/ this much information? Memorize, or just learn? The thing is, some rxns (like aldol) require a bit memorization in terms of knowing what molecules and such it involves. Oh, and bio is another topic that's memorization-heavy. How did you deal with this?

I just read, read and reread. The key is to not put the stuff into short-term memory like you are doing but to put it into long-term memory. That is the only way you are going to remember everything. For me, I just had to break my book down into managible sections.

For TPR, I had physics into three sections, chemistry and organic chemistry into four sections, and biology into five.

For studying, I would read one section from each of the four topics a day. I would just repeat it until I felt confident in my abilities and could do all the practice problems. Then I moved to FL tests and then addressed my weaknesses from there. I averaged a 35 by the time I took the real thing.

All of this was done in a 2 month period (1 month just content review like I said, 1 month combination of content review, practice problems and FL).