Ochem..Remembering Reactions

[Muscles00GT]

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Anyone have any tips on remembering the reactions from Ochem I? I know the OChem curriculums vary depending upon the school..I have a final Monday and am having some difficulty remembering all the reactions. We have about 40 or so to remember..from simple H-X addition to pi bonds all the way up through Sn1, Sn2, E1, E2, and alcohol synthesis. Any tips or advice would be appreciated! Thanks

 

[craniotomy30]

Anyone have any tips on remembering the reactions from Ochem I? I know the OChem curriculums vary depending upon the school..I have a final Monday and am having some difficulty remembering all the reactions. We have about 40 or so to remember..from simple H-X addition to pi bonds all the way up through Sn1, Sn2, E1, E2, and alcohol synthesis. Any tips or advice would be appreciated! Thanks

This may be too late for you now, but you can at least keep it in mind for ochem 2. When I took Ochem, I bought a composition notebook and wrote every single reaction in it. I organized it by functional groups. It's compact and easy to take anywhere; therefore, you can study your rxns at anytime. It was also convenient because when finals rolled around, I had all my reactions organized into one little notebook. Just a thought! Good luck on the exam.

 

[Muscles00GT]

This may be too late for you now, but you can at least keep it in mind for ochem 2. When I took Ochem, I bought a composition notebook and wrote every single reaction in it. I organized it by functional groups. It's compact and easy to take anywhere; therefore, you can study your rxns at anytime. It was also convenient because when finals rolled around, I had all my reactions organized into one little notebook. Just a thought! Good luck on the exam.

Thanks..that's a good idea 👍 . I'll definitely do that for Ochem II. I procrastinated too much in Ochem I and now it's catching up to me. I guess all I can do now is copy and rewrite the reactions and keep reading them over.

 

[art4vandalay]

just do practice problems. I got A's in both orgos because i did every problem in the book. Honestly, to get an A in orgo you dont have to be a genius, just put in the F*&KN work

 

[tdjn]

just do practice problems. I got A's in both orgos because i did every problem in the book. Honestly, to get an A in orgo you dont have to be a genius, just put in the F*&KN work

Agreed. For the entire year, I did all the problems in the book, and I pulled A-'s throughout. You should have stacks of scratch paper with mechanisms all over them before the end of the final.

 

[craniotomy30]

Oh yea....and for synthesis problems, just practice as much as possible. Synthesis requires memorization of the necessary reactions, but also requires a degree of critical thinking, which can only be developed through practicing.

 

[unsung]

This may be too late for you now, but you can at least keep it in mind for ochem 2. When I took Ochem, I bought a composition notebook and wrote every single reaction in it. I organized it by functional groups. It's compact and easy to take anywhere; therefore, you can study your rxns at anytime. It was also convenient because when finals rolled around, I had all my reactions organized into one little notebook. Just a thought! Good luck on the exam.

I did the same. I used a lab book and kept sections on "making alcohols", or "making alkyl halides", etc. Then as we learned different methods/mechs, I would write each new reaction in the appropriate category. It's pretty helpful for complex synthesis problems to have a list of all the ways we've learned so far for tackling the problem.

Of course, the textbook we use has the same categorizations "alcohol syntheses summary", etc... but I found it helpful to write my own list, in the order in which we learned about it in class. Plus I could write down my own hints/notes on stereochemistry of the reaction, etc.

 

[Muscles00GT]

Now that I know what I'm in for for Ochem II, I'll definitely do that this upcoming semester.

Bad news is it looks like I'm going to have to retake Ochem I again over the summer sometime..😡

 

[0Complications]

Now that I know what I'm in for for Ochem II, I'll definitely do that this upcoming semester.

Bad news is it looks like I'm going to have to retake Ochem I again over the summer sometime..😡

I pity da foo!!

Sorry, couldn't resist.


I like the notebook suggestion as well and will definitely incorporate it for Ochem 2.

 

[Isoprop]

what i did was fold a piece of paper in 3 columns.

column 1 = reactant(s)
column 2 = arrow with reagent(s)
column 3 = product(s)

then i would take another piece of paper and cover 1 or 2 columns and fill in the blanks. works very well for last minute cramming.

 

[mulletmudbogger]

I have been using this method since i was in nursing school and without it in organic chemistry i would have been in trouble.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTIM_06.htm

I put a different type of reaction in each of the "houses" I knew. with the curve i came out of organic chemistry one and two with OVER a 100 average. Its the highest grade i have ever made in a class and I only started studying a week before each test. And i never showed up to class because i would study the material on my own. my class mates were shocked at my grades, especially because of my test scores and how i never showed up.

It uses the concept of visual spacial skills to memorized enormous amounts of information. I cannot recommend this method enough for organic chemistry.

 

[Muscles00GT]

Isoprop- Great idea. I'll definitely try that out for Ochem2...I'm not the most organized when it comes to notes and whatnot, but I'm going to make a legit attempt to keep an organized binder with notes, reactions, and so forth for the second Ochem.

Mulletmudbogger- Thanks for the tip. I'm going to try that out!