OChem

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Deepa100

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Hi all,
After a string of 4 A's in pre-reqs, I think I am gonna' get a bad grade in Ochem-I. I just had a horrible experience and did not do well in the final. I decided that I would repeat it if the grade is <B and move on to Ochem II if it is atleast a B. Our professor for Ochem I was harsh and we were given 50 min. for 4 mid terms and 2-hr for the final. I constantly ran out of time-knew the material but just did not have time to complete. What do you think about my plan? I mean, I feel that I should have a solid background in OChem I before taking Ochem II.
Deepa
 
Just finished up Org. II, and was fortunate enough to get A's in both semesters.

If it's lower than a B, I'd go back and re-take...so I agree with your take.

My experience in the tests was that I always had plenty of time during the second semester, because once you get the basic concepts down, you're good to go for the most part.

What were your study habits like for the course? I did problems and mechanisms out the wazzoo...and read every page of every chapter.
 
I studied hard, I did all problems in the book twice. I would say I spent 3/4 th of mytime on Ochem.
 
Don't necessarily re-take the class. If it facillitates your understanding for the MCAT, then that may be a valid reason to do so. If you are planning on the DO route where the new grade will replace the old one, then that may be a valid reason to do so. Otherwise, you will likely see a greater advantage in taking a higher level science class instead.

What is the reason you wish to re-take the class anyway?
 
Wanting to get an A in Ochem II and Ochem lab.
 
will you have the same instructor? asking about both retaking and ochem ii

If the instructor was a different person, maybe you'd learn more the 2nd time round, and if the same, you might be in trouble for II.

I think a lot of ochem I requires time to cook -but maybe I feel that way because I took it in a condensed course over the summer. During the course, I did problems over and over again, and I found the best way to ruin an exam was to not completely work the question before answering.

I wouldn't retake unless you were sure of the A the 2nd time.
 
Deepa100 said:
Hi all,
After a string of 4 A's in pre-reqs, I think I am gonna' get a bad grade in Ochem-I. I just had a horrible experience and did not do well in the final. I decided that I would repeat it if the grade is <B and move on to Ochem II if it is atleast a B. Our professor for Ochem I was harsh and we were given 50 min. for 4 mid terms and 2-hr for the final. I constantly ran out of time-knew the material but just did not have time to complete. What do you think about my plan? I mean, I feel that I should have a solid background in OChem I before taking Ochem II.
Deepa
Click to expand...
I think your plan is reasonable.
 
montessori2md said:
will you have the same instructor? asking about both retaking and ochem ii

If the instructor was a different person, maybe you'd learn more the 2nd time round, and if the same, you might be in trouble for II.

I think a lot of ochem I requires time to cook -but maybe I feel that way because I took it in a condensed course over the summer. During the course, I did problems over and over again, and I found the best way to ruin an exam was to not completely work the question before answering.

I wouldn't retake unless you were sure of the A the 2nd time.
Click to expand...

Hey I had a quick question. I was going to sign up for OCHEM this summer. Do you think it is a mistake to take OCHEM in the summer since it is more condensed? I wanted to take I and II this summer so I had them back to back even closer. I always did pretty well in the summer schedule as an undergrad, but none of those classes were anything like OCHEM is I'm sure. Would you take a Physics or a Bio in the summer and save the OCHEM for a Fall and Spring semester? If I did take OCHEM this summer it would be my only class, since it is four days a week. What are your thoughts? Thanks.
 
Maybe if you plan on doing nothing but studying Organic about 8-12 hours per day...then I could see taking it in the summer.

It would be brutal.

It's a very consuming course...that you have to spend a ton of time on even in a regular semester.

My labs with it might have actually been worse than the lecture stuff...just because it was a bunch of busy work that I found pointless, but I've felt that way about nearly ever Chemistry lab I've ever participated in.
 
Ahhh, running out of time. 90% of the people in my orgo class did poorly for that reason. The trick is to make/get old tests and run through them over and over and over. We were given 55 minutes for our 3 tests and 2 hours for the final. I finished in less than 30-50 every test, usually on the early side. It was not that I knew the material THAT much better than my classmates, but that I had gave myself WAYYYY too many problems to do, and then made myself do the test with a stop watch. Anal? Sure, but I left the dreaded orgo with an A and the ability to transformations and spot reactions faster than I can write.
Remember this for orgo II, and besides that, I like your assessment. B or higher, move on.
 
Faze2 said:
Hey I had a quick question. I was going to sign up for OCHEM this summer. Do you think it is a mistake to take OCHEM in the summer since it is more condensed? I wanted to take I and II this summer so I had them back to back even closer. I always did pretty well in the summer schedule as an undergrad, but none of those classes were anything like OCHEM is I'm sure. Would you take a Physics or a Bio in the summer and save the OCHEM for a Fall and Spring semester? If I did take OCHEM this summer it would be my only class, since it is four days a week. What are your thoughts? Thanks.
Click to expand...


My friend who did this got a B and an A doing them in summer, and in turn I tutor him for MCAT organic. Why? Because despite staying up all night every night all summer with pots of coffee and sometimes sleepign at school, he didn't retain it. It went from learning concepts to memorizing for a 2 week period.
I do NOT suggest you take 2 prereqs during the summer unless they are freshman level, and even then I thinkthe summer is better left for nonmajor classes.
 
Do you think it would be better to take BIO or PHYSICS this summer instead? I pretty much have to complete one of my pre reqs this summer, and I am already completing the CHEM this spring, so that's out. I know BIO and PHYSICS are not easy by any stretch, but I heard they are more managable than OCHEM. I cannot really take any non-major classes this summer cause any of the upper level BIO classes (i.e. Genetics, BioCHem, etc.) you need the BIO as a pre req, and it would be tough to take BIO, PHYS, and OCHEM next fall and spring because of my work and EC schedule, which leads me to believe that Bio might be the way to go this summer. Any thoughts would be very appreciated.

Is taking Bio and OCHEM in the same semester a bad idea?
 
I'm going to defer to the more experienced that post on this board...but my 2 pennies is...I wouldn't try to take Orgo during the summer, unless you have stellar study habits and won't get a little lazy with it being summer. It's a subject that can and probably would eat you alive if you let yourself get behind a few days during the summer.

Again, just my take.

Definitely not a class you can slide on, then cram at the last minute and still do well in my experience.
 
Wow! I didn't realize the thread got so long!
Anyways, that was an A- I got, just found out. Not bad, eh? Sorry about being a chicken little and thanks for all the advise. I am changing the professor and hope tot get an A in Ochem II.👍
Deepa
 
Deepa100 said:
Wow! I didn't realize the thread got so long!
Anyways, that was an A- I got, just found out. Not bad, eh? Sorry about being a chicken little and thanks for all the advise. I am changing the professor and hope tot get an A in Ochem II.👍
Deepa
Click to expand...

Congrats on your A! See, you didn't have anything to worry about!

I just found out for sure this morning that I got my 5 hours of A in Org. II this fall...so I'm happy.
 
Deepa100 said:
I studied hard, I did all problems in the book twice. I would say I spent 3/4 th of mytime on Ochem.
Click to expand...

How were the grades for the people in the rest of your class?
 
There were some people that were at the top but a lot of students flunked out too. There were very few that were in between. It is because of the way the paperes were graded. Apparently you either get the points or you don't. No partial credit was given. Also, the class was not curved. Thee professor just had a scale and a range for each grade. Also, I was one of the few that had other hard sciences classes w/ labs (I had Bio and Physics) and naturally, it was harder for us than those "premeds" that are economics/Liberal Arts majors and only took one science class per semester (I have run into a few of those).
 
Just a note about retakes... I just talked to my advisor about retaking a lower level BIO class that I got a C in to try to up my gpa (I was slacking off when I took it 6 years ago!), and he told me that if I retake a class that I got a C or better in it will NOT remove the C, the grade will be counted in addition, so really of no benefit to retake at my school. Now, he did say that DO schools will consider the most recent grade if you retake classes, so if you are going to apply to a DO school, and don't care what your institutional grade is, then go right ahead and re-take it. I'd just talk to an advisor first to make sure that you're not wasting money/time on a class that won't really have an effect.

A sidenote, I got a C in my Orgo I class (90th percentile for the class!) and I would not retake it again even if you could promise me an A!
 
I feel for you. I just missed an A in OChem by 15 points. If I had done better on just one test (the one I got a C on), I would have gotten an A. Now my science GPA is 3.2, and it will take years worth of classes to overcome this. And, it looks like I'm going to get a B in physics as well.

In looking over my performance in this course, I did well on everything but the tests. I could do the homework without help, but on the tests, I kept forgetting things. Test anxiety? Perhaps. Doing practice tests helped somewhat, but not enough. Doing problems over and over again helped, but not enough.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to do better next time?
 
eccles1214 said:
I feel for you. I just missed an A in OChem by 15 points. If I had done better on just one test (the one I got a C on), I would have gotten an A. Now my science GPA is 3.2, and it will take years worth of classes to overcome this. And, it looks like I'm going to get a B in physics as well.

In looking over my performance in this course, I did well on everything but the tests. I could do the homework without help, but on the tests, I kept forgetting things. Test anxiety? Perhaps. Doing practice tests helped somewhat, but not enough. Doing problems over and over again helped, but not enough.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to do better next time?
Click to expand...

We have the same situation! I got a B on my orgo final giving me a B in the class. I think next semester I'm going to do more problems from the textbook in addition to the homework given out. We were given practice exams for all our tests, but they were not representative of the real thing. The same goes for physics too. It's hard sometimes to get an A when you are mostly graded by exam performance and homework doesn't count for much. Plus no curve for us.
 
megboo,
I hear you.
Ours did not have any other component to the class other than a total of 5 exams. No quizzes/homework/labs. It does get tricky because you realize you got the concept wrong after you goof up the exam. And with 5 exams, we were having a test pretty much every other week...
 
Yeah, our class was somewhat misled with "group-work" points that added up to a total of 4 extra credit points for all the exams. We had quizzes, but they came from the homework (which wasn't graded) and counted for a very small percentage of the class. The lab work was not really graded either - only attendance was taken and the concepts were included in exams. So basically, to get an A you had to have excellent attendance (which most people had anyway for the sheer volume of the material) and do well on the exams. There were 30 questions on the exams, so if you missed 4 you got a B. So when you look at it that way, it makes sense that most of the class got C's. Only 3 got B's and one got an A. I also did an honor's project that was not extremely hard, but VERY time consuming.

I feel lucky on that end, but then I come to SDN and it's like the end of the world to get a B in ochem!

Physics was actually a little better - our lab grades counted for 1/5 of the entire grade, and we were allowed to replace our lowest grade with our highest grade. We also got a formula sheet, but the questions were pretty hard. I got a B there, too, and feel lucky since again, most students got a C, and I know of 3 who got B's besides me and only 1 A (same guy from Orgo). I know I slacked a little bit in Physics to study more for Orgo, but I have a better feeling about next semester since I'm much more familiar with waves, sound, optics, and electricity than work and energy.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that 95% of the people on SDN are gunners and are going to be extremely critical of B's. Since my other pre-reqs are A's, I feel confident that 2 B's are not going to hurt my application, especially by doing well next semester. Hopefully you see that you are more than a sum of your grades!
 
Faze2 said:
Hey I had a quick question. I was going to sign up for OCHEM this summer. Do you think it is a mistake to take OCHEM in the summer since it is more condensed? I wanted to take I and II this summer so I had them back to back even closer. I always did pretty well in the summer schedule as an undergrad, but none of those classes were anything like OCHEM is I'm sure. Would you take a Physics or a Bio in the summer and save the OCHEM for a Fall and Spring semester? If I did take OCHEM this summer it would be my only class, since it is four days a week. What are your thoughts? Thanks.
Click to expand...
I took both Organic Chem 1 & 2 in the summer, along with OChem Lab, and Bio 1 & 2 (There are actually 2 summer semesters at the school where I took these classes, so I took Ochem 1 and Bio 1 during the first and Ochem 2 and Bio 2 during the second. OChem lab spanned both.) I also worked full-time, but had a lot of vacation saved up, so I took a lot of vacation during the course of that summer. I got As in everything, and it was really nice to get rid of all these prerequisites in one fell swoop.

That schedule as I took it was insane (and many might argue that I, myself am insane for even undertaking it,) but I think that if you have approx. 4 hrs/day to invest, taking Ochem 1 & 2 in the summer is very doable. You MUST, MUST, MUST keep up, because with the accelerated pace of the class, falling behind even a little bit is deadly, so you must be able to invest a reasonable amount of time each day to reading/studying/doing problems.
 
Deepa100 said:
Wow! I didn't realize the thread got so long!
Anyways, that was an A- I got, just found out. Not bad, eh? Sorry about being a chicken little and thanks for all the advise. I am changing the professor and hope tot get an A in Ochem II.👍
Deepa
Click to expand...
WTG, Deepa. :clap: Keep up the good work. 🙂
 
Thanks, Q of Q,
I just got my two other science class grades. Physics 5 credits (A), Boiology 4 credits (A). Ochem was only 3 cr. I can breathe easy now. My class size at the Univ. of Minnesota is 250 which kinda' makes it more challenging sometimes...
 
Okay, another question here about classes.
1) I posted earlier that I was planning on taking OCHEM this summer, and many of you, and my pre med advisor, suggested against that. She told me that if I absolutely had to take a summer class, which I kinda do, I should take Physics. I am not that concerned that a condensed class will be more difficult, because I took many of my 400 level Economics courses for my degree in the summer and did well in them. I am more concerned that such a quick pace will not be condusive to actually retaining the material for the MCAT. I am planning to take a KAPLAN class so I was wondering if that would help to "make up" for any lacking Physics knowledge that some say a summer class might cause.

2) Also, I have thought about some of the advice I got to take BIO I this spring along with CHEM II, and then BIO II during the summer, that way I will only have one summer session class to take instead of two. This would be ideal, and then I could take ORGO and PHYSICS next year along with a higher science maybe, and then take the MCAT after I finish. But the school I am taking BIO I at may not offer BIO II this summer, cause they didn't last summer. If that happens, I would have to take BIO II next fall with ORGO I and PHYSICS I and basically I couldn't do that becuase in order to do well I could not work enough to support myself. Would it be a bad idea to take BIO II at another school if they offered it in summer? It would only be that one class, but would switching between schools be a bad idea? I am going to call the BIO dept tomorrow and see if they are offering BIO II in the summer. Any advice though would help.
 
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