Most Annoying Ochem Topic

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So my final for organic chemistry is this Tuesday after which I will never have to look at it again (at least until biochem). I actually really liked most of ochem 1 and 2, I certainly didn't hate it as much as people typically seem to hate it, but with that said there were more than a few concepts that made me want to set fire to my textbook on more than one occasion.

What are your thoughts? I voted for intramolecular aldol condensations; those stink.

 

[docelh]

Redox can be challenging.

 

[taylormade2006]

It's a tough choice between E1, etc and spectroscopy.

 

[loveoforganic]

Retrosynthesis with aldols, da's, Robinson annulations and what not were tricky for me

 

[rafflecopter]

Reading NMR sucks, especially when you have to guess the compound with nothing but the NMR chart.

 

[IH8ColdWeath3r]

No, I liked all the mechanisms. I actually thought ochem was alot of fun...much more fun than all of the bio classes which involve rote memorization. With that being said, STEREOCHEMISTRY was def the most hated.

 

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Retrosynthesis with aldols, da's, Robinson annulations and what not were tricky for me

Yep, for both semesters of ochem I've gotten every single synthesis problem I've done right. The only one I've ever missed was a 3-ringed molecule that involved a robinson annulation and several other fairly horrible things.

 

[rxlea]

Naming. Completely useless.

 

[rafflecopter]

No, I liked all the mechanisms. I actually thought ochem was alot of fun...much more fun than all of the bio classes which involve rote memorization.

I agree, actually. I think the key to ochem is that while nothing in the class is ever really that hard, the vast amount of material and need to constantly practice to excel means an incredible time commitment most people don't want to make for a 3 unit class.

With that being said, STEREOCHEMISTRY was def the most hated.

Haha, true, and if we're picking out the worst example of stereochemistry, my answer has got to be sugars...

 

[rHinO1]

naming hands down. Everything else on the list is cool, with spectroscopy being borderline uncool.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Wait, what's organic chemistry? 😕

 

[deleted307836]

Naming. Completely useless.

I love naming questions... they're the only freebies for me 😀

 

[Danlee07]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

R/S and naming had to be the most annoying thing ever!!!!!! R/S took up all my stupid time while naming and there were other sections.

I would breeze through synthesis and mechanisms and then have to sit there and visualize the stupid things for the rest of the time...

 

[Dial71]

Can I vote for sterics vs. electronics arguments?

Organic I and II students loooove sterics and will seek to justify every mechanism with an sterics argument, which is typically wrong. In reality, electronic arguments are generally more compelling, though more elusive.

If you need an illustration, think about the anomeric effect. While sterics suggest that pyranose sugars would form beta-gylcosides, electronics favor alpha-glycosides.

It kills me to hear someone answer a question posed by the prof with "sterics," without even thinking. Its the classic undergrad cop-out.

 

[randombetch]

Naming is by far the most annoying and confusing part of orgo.

 

[WhizoMD]

R/S and naming had to be the most annoying thing ever!!!!!! R/S took up all my stupid time while naming and there were other sections.

+1, trying to visualize flat pictures in three dimensions was very annoying.

 

[eablackwell]

NMRs were my favorite. I actually presented NMR research at the end of Orgo II. However, I hated everything else in those classes outside of naming. I took a 7 day mind vacation from the world after I got an A in orgo II. No orgo ever again, yay! I'll take biochem over orgo any day 🙂

 

[Quaero]

Retrosynthesis with aldols, da's, Robinson annulations and what not were tricky for me

Exactly what I thought! Retrosynthesis, although is the most fun, can be quite tricky. 😛

 

[afugazzi]

Most of Ochem can be solved by memorization and logic, which anyone can figure out if they study enough. Stereochemistry requires spatial intelligence, so 👎

 

[dw2158]

i loved organic chemistry. but naming was such a waste of my time... only used it for 1 or 2 questions on the MCAT. otherwise totally useless.

Naming. Completely useless.

Naming is by far the most annoying and confusing part of orgo.

👍

 

[boaz]

Sn1 etc. It's all dogma.

 

[teddy bear doc]

I voted SN1 and all that junk, but only because my real choice wasn't listed. I was terrible at molecular orbital theory and the filling diagrams, HOMO, LUMO, how many orbitals, blah blah blah. Everything else was fine, but that stuff gave me nightmares. Thankfully we only did that for about half a second at the end of orgo 2

 

[Tots]

Retrosynthesis with aldols, da's, Robinson annulations and what not were tricky for me

👍 yup probably the most tricky part of Ochem for me.

 

[TTigers70]

Naming. Completely useless.

+1. I can't tell you how many times ridiculous nomenclature came up on my exams. We would be taught and told to use IUPAC and then common names would show up on the exam...

 

[afugazzi]

+1. I can't tell you how many times ridiculous nomenclature came up on my exams. We would be taught and told to use IUPAC and then common names would show up on the exam...

I agree that having to memorize common names sucks, but what's so bad about having to memorize IUPAC naming? It's just a few pretty simple rules and then you can apply it to any relatively simple compound.

 

[ILikeDrugs]

I'm surprised nomenclature is the top choice. Naming a compound was never difficult for me. **** spectroscopy.

 

[rxlea]

Naming isn't difficult. It is just useless and a complete waste of time.

 

[vickpick]

if it were an option, I would say mechanisms..

we had one every test start test 2 o-chem 1.. till the final of o-chem 2. I got an average of 2 points out of 10 on them.. lol

 

[dw2158]

I'm surprised nomenclature is the top choice. Naming a compound was never difficult for me. **** spectroscopy.

naming's not difficult... but it is annoying. which is what the OP asked 😉

 

[anbuitachi]

super long synthesis problems always get me. reading IRs was a pain... esp when the compounds have the same groups with IR peaks of slightly different intensity... so hard to tell which is which

 

[FuturaDocta]

the exceptions are the annoying thing about ochem... otherwise, it would be easy.

 

[scalab]

naming naming naming. Common names, IUPAC? Biggest waste of time.

 

[Jrsharp70]

+1, trying to visualize flat pictures in three dimensions was very annoying.

?? Then someone didn't explain it right. Those and naming should all be gimmies.

NMR got my vote by far, though now that I think about it, I really hated turning chain sugars into rings... Probably for the same reason as I just said, never got a solid tutorial on it.

 

[snorlax]

Figuring out the stereochemistry of the intramolecular aldol's was my biggest challenge. The HOMO/LUMO made sense in theory but was so hard to apply to the rxns.

 

[JBudege]

Spectroscopy and lab. What a nightmare.

 

[rmaj79]

Sorry if this is a repost, couldn't resist....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekc1Xt6gMLs

 

[addo]

Im surprised nobody has said anything about sugars. They can be annoyingly difficult. But then again most of the difficulties i have encountered with sugars have been in more biochem oriented classes.

 

[mirarle]

Had to memorize pKa table. Hated it.
And...personally did not like anything aldol related...

 

[SilentSoldier]

I actually thought NMR was pretty easy. I absolutely hated the SN1 and SN2 crap, and stereochemistry definitely gave me nightmares during ochem.

 

[rafflecopter]

Im surprised nobody has said anything about sugars. They can be annoyingly difficult. But then again most of the difficulties i have encountered with sugars have been in more biochem oriented classes.

I just hate converting from chair---> hayworth-->fisher projections.

Spectroscopy and lab. What a nightmare.

Lab is a whole other can of worms. If I had to take one more melting point, do one more extraction, or get one more 20% yield product I would have held a match to the bottle of ether and ended our whole lab's misery 😛

 

[metallica81788]

I voted SN2, SN1, E2, E1 because that was what kicked my ass.

It was tough between that and stereochemistry, though. The only reason I didn't vote stereochemistry is because I did well on that part for some unknown lucky reason.

 

[jj6vcb]

For me it was nitrogen-containing compounds... came at the end of the year when I was burnt out and seemed like it took twice as long as it should have to understand

 

[TakeMe]

I HATED stereochemistry. Still don't get it. Everything else was pretty simple.

I would say, however, more than I hated anything in O-chem class, I hated the lab 1,000,000x more!!!!!!

 

[justinbaily]

There isn't a "it's all awesome" option. This disappoints me.

 

[Fakesmile]

No, I liked all the mechanisms. I actually thought ochem was alot of fun...much more fun than all of the bio classes which involve rote memorization. With that being said, STEREOCHEMISTRY was def the most hated.

What you said doesn't make much sense, because if you liked mechanisms, then you wouldn't likely hate stereochemistry. After all, stereochemistry is contained in the mechanisms.

 

[justinbaily]

He probably means determining the relationship between constitutionally identical molecules with multiple stereocenters.

 

[MedicineMike]

this class is not difficult, to be quite honest! I would say the stereochemistry can give people the most trouble though...unless you know the easy tricks 🙂

 

[MedicineMike]

What you said doesn't make much sense, because if you liked mechanisms, then you wouldn't likely hate stereochemistry. After all, stereochemistry is contained in the mechanisms.

stereochemistry is not contained in all mechanisms. Only ones which are stereoselective...

 

[insane]

Anything with nitrogen nucleophiles

 

[traitorman]

definitely naming