OChem MCAT Reactions

[Determined!]

How important is it know Ochem reactions on the MCAT? Is it worth spending the time to have them memorized and know all the mechanisms? Or is just knowing the products good enough?

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[Ad2b]

if it is listed on the official MCAT topics guide, then it is testable.

One common misperception I often see is that all test are the same. They are not. The tests will vary between centers, dates, etc.

One person could get the heavy ochem section and another heavy physics.

On my exam, there was exactly 1 ochem specific passage. However, in B/B there could be many ochem questions buried as biochem (think: amides, amines, carbos, protein synthesis, etc).

For me, it would not have been enough to memorize the products and reagents. Good thing I never did for class either, I learned electron movement.

That's true here as well, or was last year.

 

[Determined!]

if it is listed on the official MCAT topics guide, then it is testable.

One common misperception I often see is that all test are the same. They are not. The tests will vary between centers, dates, etc.

One person could get the heavy ochem section and another heavy physics.

On my exam, there was exactly 1 ochem specific passage. However, in B/B there could be many ochem questions buried as biochem (think: amides, amines, carbos, protein synthesis, etc).

For me, it would not have been enough to memorize the products and reagents. Good thing I never did for class either, I learned electron movement.

That's true here as well, or was last year.

Good point, it just seems in general most people aren't putting much emphasize on Ochem so I just wanted to get some opinions.

 

[Ad2b]

I would encourage you to search that topic here and on the subreddit MCAT forum.

A few people last summer were royally forked by not knowing ochem. I just don't think, given what I saw, that any topic can be "easily" pushed aside if it's listed on the official topic list.

Good luck!

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

Ad2b, you posted a great message that hopefully people gearing up for the exam take to heart. Random assembly means no two exams are alike, and as such, there is no exact layout and the latest exam does not necessarily represent an edict in the design of future MCATs.

 

[aldol16]

You don't have to memorize esoteric reagents but know the common reagents we use (e.g. the hydride sources, the oxidants, etc.) and understand mechanisms. What I mean is if I give you the substrate and product separated by one or a few steps, be able to understand how the reagents work to to get you from substrate to product. High yield mechanisms are the ones involving nucleophilic attacks on carbonyls or imines.