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OChem1 w/out GChem2 before = suicide?
Started by TriagePreMed
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No, BUT gchem 2 does help with reaction kinetics and equilibrium, but these topics are easy enough if you are paying attention.
If you do decide to do this, I would recommend that you pick up "Organic Chemistry as A Second Language" by Kleine. It will walk you through all the basics and it's a quick read.
I took OChem 1 within the past year and got a high A. I had taken Gen Chem 2 approx 5 yrs prior, so it was all a distant memory and I remembered virtually nothing. Some of the early stuff in OChem 1 is similar to Gen Chem but that quickly ends. Just don't be a bum, work hard, and you should be fine.
I can also give a 👍 to Organic Chemistry as a second language. Honestly, my teacher in organic 1 was so good that that specific book was actually more complicated than my teacher's explanations, but I found the second semester version extremely helpful for organic 2.
I can also give a 👍 to Organic Chemistry as a second language. Honestly, my teacher in organic 1 was so good that that specific book was actually more complicated than my teacher's explanations, but I found the second semester version extremely helpful for organic 2.
For me personally I hated G-chem but loved Ochem I. They are very different beasts and aren't as related as you would think. So I think you should be fine.
Honestly it depends on your school and their chemistry department. At my school, 100% sure it would have been suicide. But some schools have super easy chemistry classes, just the way it is. Im retaking OChem II at another school and its a joke compared to taking it at my university. If your school is known to have a hard chemistry department (hard is different than "good"), definitely take GChem II. Good luck Triage🙂
Edit: Should have explained that at my school we have intro to OChem in our GChem II (SN1, SN2, E1, E2 reactions...you will learn these soon enough). Im not sure if this applies to your school as curriculum varies by school
Edit: Should have explained that at my school we have intro to OChem in our GChem II (SN1, SN2, E1, E2 reactions...you will learn these soon enough). Im not sure if this applies to your school as curriculum varies by school
organic chem as a second language is a great book.
a lot of schools actually set up their chems that way. my undergrad made you take inorganic 1 them organic 1 and 2 and finished with inorganic 2 as their chem 4. its very doable and new research (according to the head of the chem dept) states that students learn better and perform better on acs exams with the classes set up this way (im not saying i agree just stating this was what was told to me). so its definitly doable. I did it this was and all of my classmates did. however im sure my school had set up their curriculumn this way and we did have rxn kinetics in chem 1. (at least thats what I remember, I think).
bottom line, I think you should be fine doing it that way.
OMG I loved Ochem also, but HATED g-chem, so much math. ugh.
uf, your taking ochem 1 and g-chem 2 at the same time? my roomate did it but he had absolutely NO LIFE that semester. Im sure its doable, but there are gonna be times where you don't remember what the sun is gonna look like.
straight from an adcoms mouth. we don't care what your course load is we just care that you succeed in your classes.
It is doable? yeah. Is it gonna be hard? yeah, but then again if you don't have to take them at the same time then i wouldn't.
but who knows. this is coming from someone who took all the prereq's, got c's in all of them sat for the mcat and bombed it. then retook all prereq's with C's and took the mcat again. so for what its worth
First, I believe it's important to say this.
I seriously struggled in Gen Chem. I think it's an abysmal subject and I was miserable the entire two semesters. I ended up coming out with A's but I loathed every minute of the course.
My organic chemistry professor is a biochemist and also my pre-med advisor. I absolutely love both her class and the subject. Organic Chemistry does fall back upon some Gen Chem topics but not as heavily as you might imagine. As long as you are comfortable with the way reactions proceed and have a very solid understanding of hybridization and other gen chem covered topics you will be OK.
Even with that said, the gen chem foundation is so limited that as long as you're disciplined enough you can teach yourself the things you need to know along the way. I would highly recommend a good supplemental gen chem text.
There's a reason organic falls under Biological sciences.. you won't be doing many calculations (we only did one [specific rotation] the entire first semester). You'll be reading, understanding, reviewing, and regurgitating. It's very much like an intro to bio course with the volume of information tripled.
Organic, for me, is 10x easier than Physics. Organic is my easiest course this semester and we have an extremely rigorous chemistry department.
You'll be fine.
I seriously struggled in Gen Chem. I think it's an abysmal subject and I was miserable the entire two semesters. I ended up coming out with A's but I loathed every minute of the course.
My organic chemistry professor is a biochemist and also my pre-med advisor. I absolutely love both her class and the subject. Organic Chemistry does fall back upon some Gen Chem topics but not as heavily as you might imagine. As long as you are comfortable with the way reactions proceed and have a very solid understanding of hybridization and other gen chem covered topics you will be OK.
Even with that said, the gen chem foundation is so limited that as long as you're disciplined enough you can teach yourself the things you need to know along the way. I would highly recommend a good supplemental gen chem text.
There's a reason organic falls under Biological sciences.. you won't be doing many calculations (we only did one [specific rotation] the entire first semester). You'll be reading, understanding, reviewing, and regurgitating. It's very much like an intro to bio course with the volume of information tripled.
Organic, for me, is 10x easier than Physics. Organic is my easiest course this semester and we have an extremely rigorous chemistry department.
You'll be fine.
i agree with this. if you are gonna take them together. the only other classes you should take are basketweaving or homec
Don't waste your break reading those books. Just wait until the semester starts. The class rolls out slowly enough to read the book/s when class starts. I would scrap organic for dummies and stick with organic chem as a second language. I checked out Organic for dummies before I picked up organic as a second language and it was pretty useless. It would say it is equivalent to Wikipedia, it just provides some basic concepts, but nothing you won't get in Organic as a Second Language.
+1. Stick with Organic as a Second Language - seriously a great book. I purchased the second semester edition before the first semester ended. It's worth it for the extra practice problems alone.
Also, regardless of what book your class uses, you should almost certainly purchase the solutions manual for your text. Much like Physics, I feel that Organic success depends a lot on understanding the concepts and then being able to apply them broadly to a wide array of topics. In other words, it doesn't matter if you know all about it if you can't work out the problems! Most Organic texts do not even have the odd solutions in the back of the book.
Don't believe the hype - organic is a very, very doable course.
