Nomenclature on mcat

[deleted647690]

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In TBR, I've found that they use compound names in their questions such as "tetrahydrofuran" and "ethyl formate". I'm not familiar with "furan", "formate", or "acetamide". Are these common IUPAC names? Would these be on the mcat? If so, is there a list of related groups that have names like these?
Are these functional groups?

 

[aldol16]

I don't believe you will encounter something like this on the MCAT - even if you do, it's very low yield. For your information, tetrahydrofuran (THF) is a very common organic solvent - that's why you should know it but again, it's not very high yield. A furan ring is a 5-membered heterocyclic diene ring with oxygen as the heteroatom. Tetrahydrofuran is the furan ring with four hydrogens added - or, another way of looking at it, with both "-enes" reduced.

 

[Skydive Fox]

I'm not gonna divulge anything specific from my exam per the confidentiality agreement, but yes, you definitely need to know that sort of terminology and jargon.

If you're solid on your organic and biochemistry content review, you should be able to derive the meaning, structure, and even function from those names.

Acetamide is just a derivative of acetate/acetic acid where the carboxylic acid is now an amide. Furanoses are finger membered rings (4 C, 1 O), and you should recognize THF from organic chemistry. Formate is just a derivative of formaldehyde, which you should recognize from organic chemistry as well. Since you (should) know what formyl- means and structure of formaldehyde, it should be easy to infer that the "-aldehyde" being replaced with "-ate" just means one of the aldehyde groups is now a deprotonated carboxylic acid since that's what "-ate" stands for (hence glutamic acid vs glutamate, aspartic acid vs aspartate, acetic acid vs acetate, etc.).

Hope this was helpful!

 

[salemstein]

@skydivefox If you took it 6/2, I think we had the same exam lol. Anyways back to OP: On my exam I saw things that I really didn't give a second thought about during review because I thought "Oh THAT topic? No way we're gonna get tested on that, its so random" Yea, it actually came up on the real deal- not only once, but multiple times. Miraculously I still remembered that knowledge from class like ~3-4 years ago, but it was quite unexpected.

 

[deleted647690]

I don't believe you will encounter something like this on the MCAT - even if you do, it's very low yield. For your information, tetrahydrofuran (THF) is a very common organic solvent - that's why you should know it but again, it's not very high yield. A furan ring is a 5-membered heterocyclic diene ring with oxygen as the heteroatom. Tetrahydrofuran is the furan ring with four hydrogens added - or, another way of looking at it, with both "-enes" reduced.

I'm not gonna divulge anything specific from my exam per the confidentiality agreement, but yes, you definitely need to know that sort of terminology and jargon.

If you're solid on your organic and biochemistry content review, you should be able to derive the meaning, structure, and even function from those names.

Acetamide is just a derivative of acetate/acetic acid where the carboxylic acid is now an amide. Furanoses are finger membered rings (4 C, 1 O), and you should recognize THF from organic chemistry. Formate is just a derivative of formaldehyde, which you should recognize from organic chemistry as well. Since you (should) know what formyl- means and structure of formaldehyde, it should be easy to infer that the "-aldehyde" being replaced with "-ate" just means one of the aldehyde groups is now a deprotonated carboxylic acid since that's what "-ate" stands for (hence glutamic acid vs glutamate, aspartic acid vs aspartate, acetic acid vs acetate, etc.).

Hope this was helpful!

@skydivefox If you took it 6/2, I think we had the same exam lol. Anyways back to OP: On my exam I saw things that I really didn't give a second thought about during review because I thought "Oh THAT topic? No way we're gonna get tested on that, its so random" Yea, it actually came up on the real deal- not only once, but multiple times. Miraculously I still remembered that knowledge from class like ~3-4 years ago, but it was quite unexpected.

Thank you guys for your answers. So, I'm not familiar with this jargon. I recall coming across THF, furan, and some of the other terms, but I do not remember the structures. Is there a good resource that provides common names and structures? Is a furan a functional group?

 

[aldol16]

Thank you guys for your answers. So, I'm not familiar with this jargon. I recall coming across THF, furan, and some of the other terms, but I do not remember the structures. Is there a good resource that provides common names and structures? Is a furan a functional group?

The furan ring is a motif - just like indoles, pyridines, pyrroles, etc. - but not a functional group. That is, it's relatively inert - that's why you can use it as an organic solvent in many cases.