O-chem Reactions!

[hoylematt]

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So I have been going through the Kaplan Blue Book and got to some of the reactions lists. I had this crazy chill run down my back and then slowly looked over at my massive stack of O-Chem Flashcards from second semester.

My Question, Do we have to know every reaction inside and out to be successful on the ochem section, like are there questions as specific as the KBB is making it out to be?

For example for Alkenes and Alkynes it has 22 VERY specific reactions listed. Should i just shuttup and memorize them all?

Any input would be awesome!

 

[Troyvdg]

So I have been going through the Kaplan Blue Book and got to some of the reactions lists. I had this crazy chill run down my back and then slowly looked over at my massive stack of O-Chem Flashcards from second semester.

My Question, Do we have to know every reaction inside and out to be successful on the ochem section, like are there questions as specific as the KBB is making it out to be?

For example for Alkenes and Alkynes it has 22 VERY specific reactions listed. Should i just shuttup and memorize them all?

Any input would be awesome!

better safe than sorry. every test is different, prepare for the worst 👍

 

[CANgnome]

I currently have about a 50 card stack of flashcards crammed into every corner with reactions!

 

[Ibraiz]

Instead of memorizing the reactions, try memorizing the mechanisms. In case, if you get a question in your DAT that is not the same as you have previously encountered, you may still be able to predict the answer if you are familiar with the mechanism.
Also try to know the reagents, if you know what the reagents can do, you most likely be able to predict the product.

 

[Div2388]

Although there are many different reactions, many of them have similar patterns. For example, esters often have the same leaving group when being attacked by a nucleophile. Thus if you are unfamiliar with a reaction and it involves an ester and a nucleophile, simply replace the leaving group with the nucleophile.

The first time I looked at KBB I thought "oh ****". But after watching Chad's videos, he pointed out alot of patterns that make it MUCH simpler to figure out what probably happens. I strongly suggest Chad's videos to supplement KBB.

 

[hoylematt]

The first time I looked at KBB I thought "oh ****". But after watching Chad's videos, he pointed out alot of patterns that make it MUCH simpler to figure out what probably happens. I strongly suggest Chad's videos to supplement KBB.

Yeah Chad's videos are awesome. I watched them like 6 months ago and skimming through O-chem 3_part_1 I know what i gotta do now. When chad throws down a mechanism, with reagents, before and end products...I just need to memorize the crap out of it.

Thanks guys for the input. I am not going to worry about memorizing as many as I did for O-chem semester 2 because from what people say most of the reactions are not as heavily tested as those in 1st semester.