OChem...in pharmacy

[TC714]

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Hi guys,
I just have a quick question here..Just wondering if OChem is used a lot in pharmacy school? The problem is I am taking O-Chem at a JC now and surprisingly this teacher is a killer! I just had a final exam of 9 pages in 4 hours, with 10 mechanisms problems and a bunch of predicting products, pKa, you name it...That isn' t the majority problem...The problem is he doesn't teach!!!! In fact, he never did! He just shows up in lecture, pass the handouts and spits a bunch of mechanisms, without writing anything on the board.....

Crazy.....I even feel JC is way harder than UC...!!!
So, I plan to take the second O-Chem at another JC. But I heard from my friend is that the other OChem teacher at another JC is way too easy and like 50% class gets A! So now....what's your suggestion, pharmD students?
THanks.
PS: MY writing is kind unorganized due to 3 final exams i had today...so please excuse me.

 

[Samoa]

Yes. Organic chemistry is the foundation of pharmacy. The vast majority of drugs are organic compounds, and knowing the reactions of various functional groups is an important part of understand what they do and how they're metabolized.

If you learn it well, your time will be well spent.

 

[dgroulx]

Originally posted by TC714
That isn' t the majority problem...The problem is he doesn't teach!!!! In fact, he never did! He just shows up in lecture, pass the handouts and spits a bunch of mechanisms, without writing anything on the board.....

Sounds like most of my teachers in pharmacy school. They are researchers who are forced to teach. I do have a couple who actually like students, try to explain the concept and care if you pass the class. But, that is not the norm.

As for O-Chem--- Learn your functional groups. Your teacher has you pointed in the right direction with predicting pKAs. You need to understand those mechanisms. The only thing from organic that I haven't applied so far is synthesis problems. My school doesn't get heavily into chemistry until year 2, so that might be down the road.

 

[SteveL]

O-chem is pretty boring (frustrating) and many of the things won't be needed/applied down the road. The only thing you will need for classes down the road is to know functional groups and pKA's. You'll need to understand basic things like "nucleophilic attack" and other basic concetpts like dipoles, etc (which are a basis for nucleophilic attack). Other than that, I haven't used any of the concepts too much. Just wait until you have to take the standerized O.chem final at the end of the year....that was a treat 🙄 . If you're worried about having to know it in your career than don't, you won't need to. Anything you really need to know about a drug can be looked up fairly easily. Reading pharmacy literature isn't too bad either, providing you understand basic concepts/terms. Many times, they are re-taught as that particular drug is taught.

To be honest, I've forgotten most of my ochem (don't remember ANY MECHANISMS) and proabably will never need to know it.

 

[Oneday_9]

I see your dilemma...I had a similiar teacher...he assigned HW and the HW was on the test, but his style was so boring and inarticulate...most of the clas failed.

Some schools look at where you actually took your classes, and gauge how rigorous the class might be (I believe UCSD stresses this on their website).
IN my opinion, I would rather have a bomb teacher with a hard class, where I actually learn...then a bad teacher that's easy.

Anyways, that's my input

 

[baggywrinkle]

Originally posted by SteveL
To be honest, I've forgotten most of my ochem (don't remember ANY MECHANISMS) and proabably will never need to know it.

I think that is the rule rather than the exception. It bit my crowd in the butt in medicinal chemistry. One of the profs loved organic
and always made it a point to include one or two classic organic
reactions using drugs highlighted in lecture for that exam. Yes, you were actually flipping bonds around to find an end product.
There was an "optional" organic review offered on Saturday mornings. Woe onto those that slept in.

Thankfully, he is long since retired and there aren't many like him
running loose. The moral is just because you are done don't assume you are done. It would be a wise move to keep your lecture notes and book just in case....

 

[jason UCSD2000]

next quarter at UCSF...Advanced O-chem😱

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I just bought my books for next semester, the Medicinal Chemistry book looks like it has TONS of conceptual and applied Organic Chemistry involved.

I liked Organic Chemistry though, so I"m looking forward to it.

 

[Triangulation]

Yeah if you didn't know your o-chem in pharmaceutics you were sunk. You gotta know inductive effects on pKa especially in terms of solubility and stability (one of our profs is from allergan, so he beats the crap out of delivery and absorption effects and that's all about carboxylic acids, amines, amides, esters and their cyclic forms.

What is interesting is how much experience doing calculations actually pays off. It's the little things like know how log scales work and such that'll get you through a lot of the p-chem.