Ok miraculously my o-chem professor is letting us use a cheat sheet on the Final

[Toadesque]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Least he could do for never curving the tests 😀. So he's letting us use a full sheet of blank paper (1 side only) we can put whatever we want.

What do you suggest is the most important stuff to put down that is hard to remember or will come in handy? Honestly most of my friends are planning to put down mechanisms and stuff but there's really not that many and it's not hard to remember them (this is for O-chem I).

 

[avo]

Unless he asks a lot of theoretical questions, there's no sense in trying to put down the overarching concepts in words. Just list out all the reactions, especially the unusual cases, and be done with it. I never took an ochem exam which required anything other than memorizing a hefty list of reactions and mechanisms.

 

[IndianVercetti]

That's incredible - the hardest part of orgo for me was memorizing all those darn reagents. For synthesis involving 5+ steps, I always had trouble visualizing everything; if I had this sheet, I would've destroyed it.

No excuses if you don't get an A!

 

[boaz]

If the test is going to be about reactions/mechanisms you've never seen before, and can only solve based on creative thinking with what you already know, that cheat sheet ain't gonna help.

 

[JJMrK]

I'd just list out all the reagents and their products to start with. If you've got extra room throw some mechanisms on, but the professor is probably not going to go with an exact mechanism you've seen before.

 

[biomed1010]

Least he could do for never curving the tests 😀. So he's letting us use a full sheet of blank paper (1 side only) we can put whatever we want.

What do you suggest is the most important stuff to put down that is hard to remember or will come in handy? Honestly most of my friends are planning to put down mechanisms and stuff but there's really not that many and it's not hard to remember them (this is for O-chem I).

A little warning from me - Professors only allow this kind of stuff(whether its a cheat sheet or open book) because the exam/final will be REALLY hard..

 

[rockyDoctora]

Reagents bugged me the most! However, if you know most of the mechanisms, I'd say that you won't really have a problem remembering the reagents? Not sure, but for me I would write down the reagents and products of all the reactions. If this is cumulative, there are also some conceptual lists that you can make, like how to compare the stability of conjugate bases.

If you say you know all of the mechanisms, then you pretty much know everything! Unless you mean, you just memorized it without knowing what is really going on...

 

[UBCvan]

write all the mechanisms and reactions.

having reactions in there helps you choose faster when you need a certain product as an answer.

 

[Toadesque]

oh yeah you guys are right about the reagents part, that exam killed me because i blanked out a few times.

 

[FluffyRabbit]

A little warning from me - Professors only allow this kind of stuff(whether its a cheat sheet or open book) because the exam/final will be REALLY hard..

Agreed. I have found that all the exams I have taken that were open book pretty much required an insane mastery of the material to begin with. If one was to flip through the book the whole time to look stuff, one would not be able to finish on time or do well.

 

[TexasFight]

http://iverson.cm.utexas.edu/courses/310M/Handouts/RxnSummary/RxnSummary09.pdf

 

[ahmcadams]

Write out the important reactions that you have difficulty remembering or that are especially complex. Then make sure you're familiar with where on the page all of the information is. It won't do much good if you spend the whole test squinting at the tiny, illegible font for info you're sure is there somewhere...

 

[Aromatic Amine]

i'd put mechanisms on it

if you know what the mechanisms are you can figure out just about any reaction.

put some concepts on it and the stuff you forget the most on there. Good luck.

 

[Iso4ane]

I'd write down the reagents as well, escpecially the temp, since i can always forget which ones can be done at 25degrees, which one ae done at 0degrees, and which ones are done at -78 degrees. Additionally write down any tricky mechs, cause in Ochem I it's mostly electron pushing, you make a bond n' break a bond, that all it really is. Now which bond is broken, and which is made is the tricky part

 

[CoffeeCzar]

Thats annoying. I hate when teachers let us have cheat sheets. That means all the girls are going to make crazy good cheat sheets and lazy people like me will suffer. Id rather not have cheat sheets and grade everything on a curve. But, then again, that's how my brain works.

 

[Toadesque]

Thats annoying. I hate when teachers let us have cheat sheets. That means all the girls are going to make crazy good cheat sheets and lazy people like me will suffer. Id rather not have cheat sheets and grade everything on a curve. But, then again, that's how my brain works.

I would too, making cheat sheets takes a lot of effort

 

[vcfor3]

Ah good old days of orgo... I was trying to help my friends study for orgo the other day, I could not remember a thing! Its like my brain completely wiped out everything I learned about orgo. Just pack as many reactions that you're assigned to know as possible on the sheet.

 

[FloatOn]

i'd put mechanisms on it

if you know what the mechanisms are you can figure out just about any reaction.

put some concepts on it and the stuff you forget the most on there. Good luck.

I think practicing the mechanisms over and over again would be more beneficial. Cheat sheets are for quick reference. You don't want to have to decipher the size 5 font mechanism you squished into a corner of the page.

 

[Evergrey]

Thats annoying. I hate when teachers let us have cheat sheets. That means all the girls are going to make crazy good cheat sheets and lazy people like me will suffer. Id rather not have cheat sheets and grade everything on a curve. But, then again, that's how my brain works.

Haha, it amuses me that you used "lazy people" as a euphemism for "guys"