Can someone tell me about what percent of the chem section is o chem? And how detailed are the questions? O chem is not really my forte so I want to know how I should study. Thanks!
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Dr. Collins and the O chem section
Started by DreaMeRgrL18
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40%? man, that's a lot. i guess i can't neglect ochem like i was planning to. thanks for letting me know! =]
so if you're taking o-chem 1 in the fall and planned to take the october test it'd be better to wait until januray '11 right?
Yeah it's something like that. I took the PCAT in January 2009 and it seemed about half the chem questions were organic chem, or maybe a little less. They don't separate out the inorganic from the organic though, they're all mixed in together.
The o-chem portion is mostly o-chem from the first semester ochem class (that was my experience). You can take it before finishing ochem II and if you do poorly, you can always take it again, but the level of ochem in the kaplan study guides gives you an idea of what you need to focus on....mostly sn1, sn2, naming, some alkene stuff, the orbitals, general trends...etc. I only had like 3 "synthesis" type problems but it would be good to know the major reagents anyway.
Thanks a lot!! I've been stressing the past few days on the ochem section because I'm not really sure what I should focus on. Now I have a better idea of what to study. Thanks!
I took o-chem about 3 years ago and I don't remember much about it right now. For those of you who used Dr. Collin's and took the PCAT, do you think if I just study Dr. Collin's ochem section I'll be alright? Are there other ochem topics that appear on the PCAT but are not discussed in Dr. Collin's packets? Do you have any suggestions on how to study the ochem part? Please help meee!!
So Organic is 40% of the chemistry section?
I'm taking the pcat in June...the thing is.....I take Organic I this fall!
I'm confident in the other sections...but I know know ANY organic...
Anyone know a good cram guide? or should I just study from Dr. Collins?
I'm taking the pcat in June...the thing is.....I take Organic I this fall!
I'm confident in the other sections...but I know know ANY organic...
Anyone know a good cram guide? or should I just study from Dr. Collins?
For those who are taking the PCAT without taking Organic Chemistry (Why you would do this is rather stupid, IMVHO ...), Dr. Collins will put you in solid shape. However, I wouldn't expect to ACE every Organic Question on the exam without taking the class. There are questions regarding SN1, SN2, E1, E2 that aren't really covered in any study guide to any great extent. Taking the exam without taking the class is a crap shoot; You'll either get layman questions that you can answer easily or you'll get a question where you needed specific knowledge from the class in order to answer the questions.
Nick (99th percentile on the Chemistry section of PCAT)
Nick (99th percentile on the Chemistry section of PCAT)
I'm also unsure what to expect on the Ochem portion. The study guides all seem to disagree.
Dr Collins has a bunch of pages of different reactions but more quick summaries of a few concepts.
The Hill-McGraw guide has 17 🙂scared🙂 pages just of reactions & catalysts, which is my nightmare. I swear a lot of that has to be Orgo II.
My Kaplan 2010-2011 guide has 14 pages TOTAL on organic chem, with no reactions or even mention of SN & E reactions. That can't possibly cover 40% of the Chem test. And I thought Kaplan would be the most comprehensive.
I'm thinking I will buy the practice tests and just use the first one as a guide to what to study 😕
Dr Collins has a bunch of pages of different reactions but more quick summaries of a few concepts.
The Hill-McGraw guide has 17 🙂scared🙂 pages just of reactions & catalysts, which is my nightmare. I swear a lot of that has to be Orgo II.
My Kaplan 2010-2011 guide has 14 pages TOTAL on organic chem, with no reactions or even mention of SN & E reactions. That can't possibly cover 40% of the Chem test. And I thought Kaplan would be the most comprehensive.
I'm thinking I will buy the practice tests and just use the first one as a guide to what to study 😕
Kaplan is a MASSIVE joke regarding the entire chemistry section on the PCAT. You shouldn't use it as your basis for PCAT studying for anyting other than the Reading Comprehension (the questions are of good quality) and the Biology (due to the amount of material included in that section, although it does go overboard). Chemistry and Quantitative are sorely lacking.
Dr. Collins is definitely the way to go because the questions, IMO, are on point with what you will see on the exam. I wish that there were a few more calculations in Dr. Collins, but that's just being nit-picky. As I stated above, you need to be familiar with the SN1 vs. SN2 vs. E1 vs. E2, although I think that Dr. Collins does it better than most.
I never used Hill-McGraw, but most of the reactions were from Organic I aside from a few Benzene and Oxidation/Reduction reactions. You should be familiar with Markovnikov's rule for alkenes + alkyl halides or alkenes + alcohols and what conditions give you anti-Markovnikov reactions. If there are 17 pages of reactions, it is overkill times twenty.
I think that purchasing the practice tests from Pearson is a great idea because it really showed me my deficiencies before taking the exam. I scored well in Chemistry on the practice tests, so I didn't put as much of an effort in that section. However, Dr. Collins exposed me to concepts that I never would have thought to study for the PCAT. Good luck with your studying!
Dr. Collins is definitely the way to go because the questions, IMO, are on point with what you will see on the exam. I wish that there were a few more calculations in Dr. Collins, but that's just being nit-picky. As I stated above, you need to be familiar with the SN1 vs. SN2 vs. E1 vs. E2, although I think that Dr. Collins does it better than most.
I never used Hill-McGraw, but most of the reactions were from Organic I aside from a few Benzene and Oxidation/Reduction reactions. You should be familiar with Markovnikov's rule for alkenes + alkyl halides or alkenes + alcohols and what conditions give you anti-Markovnikov reactions. If there are 17 pages of reactions, it is overkill times twenty.
I think that purchasing the practice tests from Pearson is a great idea because it really showed me my deficiencies before taking the exam. I scored well in Chemistry on the practice tests, so I didn't put as much of an effort in that section. However, Dr. Collins exposed me to concepts that I never would have thought to study for the PCAT. Good luck with your studying!
Thanks ChemGuy, that's the kind of info I was looking for. I took Orgo1 in 2002 & Orgo2 in 2004 so they were obviously a long time ago... I can't really remember what was covered in each. And I'm basically re-learning.
I think I'm going to focus on SN-E reactions, Markovnikov, & Redox in the short term and see what I'm missing after the June test.
I think I'm going to focus on SN-E reactions, Markovnikov, & Redox in the short term and see what I'm missing after the June test.
The other section that I would put some effort towards is naming. It's not THAT hard to do, but http://www.chem.ucalgary.ca/courses/351/orgnom/index.html I would do some practice problems from this site to keep your knowledge base sharp. The JAVA can be difficult to handle and occasionally, there is a mistake or two, but there is more practice than one would ever need there.
Thanks, the naming is the first part I've tackled because I knew that would be on for sure. And it was the easiest to dive into. Good to have a lot of practice problems too... Getting just one example of a methyl or ethyl version of each substituent group is not adequate.
