Organic Chem Lab without the Lecture

[smh1181]

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I am taking Organic Chem lab over the summer without the lecture portion of the class. I took Organic Chem lecture back in 2002 at a state university, but there were no seats left for the lab at that time, so I never took the lab. Now I have to take the lab by itself at a Community College because I work during the day. I have pretty much wiped everything that has to do with Organic Chem out of my mind, the day I passed the class with a C+. I plan to get a book like Organic chem for dummies or something to help review for the lab.

1. How difficult is the lab? Are there tests and papers or do you just do lab work?

2. Will I have a hard time in the lab without the lecture especially since it has been almost 7 years since I have taken the lecture?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

 

[PharmPhanatic]

From my Organic Chemistry experience, my professor applied things that were learned in lecture to the lab portion. However, i'm not sure if it is this way at all universities. Also, it was not impossible for students to learn the necessary material for lab without the lecture portion if it was previously taken. My lab consisted of exams, quizzes, and lab reports in addition to the actual lab work. If you are a little rusty on your organic chemistry, I would suggest telling your lab instructor the first day of lab and seeking help whenever needed. Otherwise, you should be fine.

 

[tprice108]

I am taking Organic Chem lab over the summer without the lecture portion of the class. I took Organic Chem lecture back in 2002 at a state university, but there were no seats left for the lab at that time, so I never took the lab. Now I have to take the lab by itself at a Community College because I work during the day. I have pretty much wiped everything that has to do with Organic Chem out of my mind, the day I passed the class with a C+. I plan to get a book like Organic chem for dummies or something to help review for the lab.

1. How difficult is the lab? Are there tests and papers or do you just do lab work?

2. Will I have a hard time in the lab without the lecture especially since it has been almost 7 years since I have taken the lecture?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

You should be fine. It's lab, go in there follow the lab directions, and do some good research when you're writing your lab reports. If it's organic lab I then you'll be wayyy ahead of the students in there; trust me. I did this same thing you're saying and was kind of worried like you. When I walked in kids were talking about how to name compounds (the easier stuff) etc. It just depends if your CC does exams/quizzes during lab, mine didn't although it was the only lab out of all my science courses that didn't give them.

 

[smh1181]

Thank you for your help. Any other responses would be greatly appreciated.

 

[diastole]

My CC organic labs were pretty easy. The instructor lectured on the reaction we were concentrating on that week. That usually involved just one mechanism. Then we went to work and synthesized our compounds. We had no quizzes or exams unless you missed a lab and then you had to take the final as a makeup. You should be fine. At the CC level, the instructors are more than willing to help you out if you don't understand something.

 

[slight365]

Just read through the labs before the class and think about what mechanism they could possibly be trying to point out. If you have lab exams (like I did), you will need to understand it.

 

[smh1181]

Thank you. I start lab on Wednesday so I am getting a little bit nervous.

 

[busyizzy]

I think you will be fine 🙂 Orgo lab is super easy compared to the actual class. Like people before me said, they focus on just a few key mechanisms you are experimenting with. Know those for any tests and quizes you might have. Keep on top of lap reports and you will do fine. The only thing I'd suggest brushing up on is figuring out compounds from their IR and NMR scans, as we had to do this for practically EVERY experiment, at least in our class. It might be different in yours.

 

[Jammerdez1]

The orgo lab at my university was pretty good about incorporating lecture stuff into the lab (and testing you on it). However, the lab classes I've taken at CC never test about anything you haven't done in the lab. I would imagine that you don't need to even bother buying an OChem for dummies book. Just show up and pay attention... you'll do fine.

 

[pharmacygopher]

My lab was almost as bad as lecture itself. Lab was a standalone class (4 credits). Between lab lecture, prelab writeups, notebook checks, reports, and quizzes (both practical and knowledge based), it was not fun. And they only passed out 1 A grade per section (~ 20 people per section). So, a lab of ~100 had only 5 A's even though everybody's scores were SO close to each other.