Organic Chem II

[morganbmac]

Hi all,

Any tips for studying the many, many reactions of OChem II? I did pretty good in O Chem I, but for some reason, it's just not happening for this class. I'm practicing the reactions and mechanisms over and over, but when it comes time for the quiz/test, I blank. I've already bought Organic II for Dummies as a reference, but it's not really helping much either. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Aerus]

It's not just going over mechanisms and reactions over and over. You need to make sure your foundations are strong. Truly understand the behavior of electrons.

1) Start a new problem.
2) Analyze what you know about the nucleophile and the electrophile. Ask yourself: What is most likely to happen? What will be kinetically favorable and what will be thermodynamically favorable? Is one preferred over the other in this situation? If so, is it electronically driven or sterically driven?
3) Try it. If it doesn't work, try a different approach.

Do not try to do everything in your head. WRITE IT OUT and see what happens. Sometimes your brain takes shortcuts that might make you miss something crucial.

 

[aspirantmed]

It's not just going over mechanisms and reactions over and over. You need to make sure your foundations are strong. Truly understand the behavior of electrons.

1) Start a new problem.
2) Analyze what you know about the nucleophile and the electrophile. Ask yourself: What is most likely to happen? What will be kinetically favorable and what will be thermodynamically favorable? Is one preferred over the other in this situation? If so, is it electronically driven or sterically driven?
3) Try it. If it doesn't work, try a different approach.

Do not try to do everything in your head. WRITE IT OUT and see what happens. Sometimes your brain takes shortcuts that might make you miss something crucial.

This. Also, if your organic chemistry class is like mine, you should understand reactions not only in terms of their mechanisms, but the 'functional' purpose they serve. A lot of times, our exams would have questions where we had an initial and final structure, and had to use the mechanisms we knew to write in the middle steps. Know what reactions are good for certain 'tasks' (like adding/removing carbons, halogenating or de-halogenating at more/less substituted carbons). If you're able to think of things this way, it will help you reason critically much better throughout your course.

 

[allojay]

Both listed great points. To add, you have to know where the 'chemistry' is taking place. How do you improve that? Understand what you're working with. Know what makes a compound an electrophile or nucleophile. Know what a good leaving group is. Create your own problems, explore different scenarios mentally. For example, with a Diels-Alder reaction, a six member ring is formed. What happens when your diene is cyclic? Do the reaction and then you'll see that it's a bridged ring. What if the dienophile is cyclic? Then it's a fused ring. What if both are cyclic? Then a combo of fused and bridged rings.

For Orgo, I've learned that you have to really practice and let your imagination run free. To get an A, you really have to see things from different perspectives and learn what you're working with.

 

[infinitessimal]

After you do all the above, the best way I found to keep track of the reactions is flashcards. They're great for name reactions, basic mechanisms (tautomerization in acid, base), benzene para/ortho/meta additions, etc. Handwritten is better since you can draw all the arrows.