ORGANIC CHEMISTRY IS OVER!!!

[FSUMED]

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Well, after 2 semesters of complete and utter crap, I took my organic chemistry 2 final tonight. If I did as well as I thought I should get a B in there...I am glad to be done with it whatever I get. I actually feel like I might really get into a med school and stuff seeing as how organic seems to be half the battle...it is a pretty good feeling. I was bouncing off the walls and all giggly tonight. I also wanted to extend those of you with exams coming up a good luck.

 

[doctorperez]

hey there-

Although I only fiished the first section I can relate....Thumps up dude!


Dr.Perez

 

[THE instiGATOR]

INORGANIC CHEMISTRY IS OVER!!!!

Went in with what I think was an A...hoping to leave with a B.

So it's not organic. Can I celebrate with you guys anyway!?!

 

[MDGirl]

Thank the Lord that Organic I is over. I pulled a B+, which is okay, I guess. I'll be soooo happy to have it completely over with. ONE MORE SEMESTER!!!

 

[Warren P. Cheswick]

Geez-ifonly I could go back to those days when reactions were simple and not nearly as difficult as the year of Biochem I had.

COngrats y'all. Hope y'all did well on your finals and make you parents proud?

 

[USeF]

Originally posted by FSUMED:
•I actually feel like I might really get into a med school and stuff seeing as how organic seems to be half the battle...it is a pretty good feeling.•••

Congrats on making it through the sequence. Many have tried, few have succeeded.
Good observation that Orgo2 is about 1/2 through the whole process. I'd say that's a pretty good assessment. What do some of my fellow applicants think about this marking of the halfway point?

 

[akerstet2002]

I definately know how you feel. I was so happy when I finish Organic last year. But, now onto biochem. Biochem final is friday at 12...and I will be even more happy. I have finished my chemistry minor. And all my chemistry classes as an undergrad. Gotta love that feeling. 😀 😎

 

[Scooby Doo]

I LOVED OChem....

You guys are missing out 🙂

 

[leorl]

Congrats to y'all....now that that's over, you can look forward to much more complicated material 🙂 . I'm not exactly sure how Ochem got to be known as this absolutely terrifyingly difficult class...there are much more difficult bio / med classes out there. But I don't mean to be discouraging!! Now, it wasn't so bad eh?! Sounds like y'all did just fine! I liked Ochem too, both semesters went in with an A, came out with a B b/c got screwed by the final. I hate it when they change the format of the test for finals. But somehow, my ochem teacher thought I was the model student even though I openly drooled in the class. He was a dork, students blatantly made fun of him. Anyway, CONGRATS!!!!

 

[THE instiGATOR]

Any chem majors out there? Wait til P-chem! Bwa ha ha ha ha...oops, I mean good luck 😉 🙄 😉 !

 

[vixen]

god you guys are lucky you're done...next week when I am done w/my biochem final I'll probably feel the best I've felt all semester...my prof for that class is the devil herself, and it's basically a learn it yourself class....ahhhhajkjdkjfa, i can't wait till its over!!!!!!! 😡 😱 😡

 

[Atlas]

Ahhh..ORGANIC!! My all-time favorite! Seriously. 🙂

 

[Jamier2]

Originally posted by akerstet2002:
•And all my chemistry classes as an undergrad. Gotta love that feeling. 😀 😎 •••

I can still remember how happy the day was when I finished all my undergrad chem courses. 🙂

There's this little voice telling me not to admit this, but I did actually like Organic 2.

 

[NubianPrincess]

You guys are really starting to scare me with organic...should I kiss my A's in chemistry goodbye?

 

[Elysium]

I just finished Orgo I and it was (to date) the hardest course I've taken (and I've taken a lot of courses...). The thing is that it's totally different from anything else you've seen. IT has nothing at all to do with Gen Chem. It's very visual and requires a great deal of memorization. That said, it is also an elegant and truly humbling experience. Be sure to find out who the best instructors are at your school. I took this course with a bad teacher, and my grade suffered because of it. Good Luck!

 

[md2be06]

I liked Gen Chem, but I had absolutely no motivation to study Orgo. It bored me to death. It turned into one of those classes where you just do enough to get the grade you want. It's odd cause I slept through the lectures, but I absolutely loved the lab! Yeah, I know, I'm sick. I dunno, I probably just got a kick out of watching the gunners start sweating when their yields were off by a couple of percent. 😀 😀 As for whether or not it's half the process, I'd probably disagree. I mean, there's so much to this process. I'd certainly like to think that other courses, MCAT, extracurriculars, letters of rec, interviewing ability, etc constitute more than just 50% of this process. Now that I look back on it, I don't know why pre-meds freak out about orgo so much.

 

[E'01]

Lab was cool!!!! I don't know why, but I loved doing extractions with that sep. funnel. What did you guys synthesize?The best was when we did banana oil and cinammon. At the end of the course, we had a talent show (the profesor played jazz/blues guitar) and made icecream with the above compounds and liquid nitrogen....YumYum!!! I took orgo I and II in 8 weeks in the summer - I don't remember a darn thing 🙁 Ooh how can I forgot Molecular Orbital theory - we focused on that for the whole blimmin summer.

 

[GATORade]

Hey SwampMan, any suggestions on who to take for Orgo I? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

 

[md2be06]

Honestly, I don't even remember what we synthesized. It's been a couple of years, and I never paid that much attention in the first place. What made my lab so fun was my TA. He was really laid back and easy going, and we both made fun of gunners together! Even though it was six hours a week, it was the best lab I've had in college. Ah, the good old days!

 

[khristich00]

Woo-hoo, Bio Chem and Med Chem are over in 1 wk, at least the 1st semester of them. I didn't mind ochem too much, I just hated the lab, 4 hrs of complete BS. Not to mention that I always left that lab w/ a headache b/c of all the fumes and nasty stuff we had to make. 🙂

 

[THE instiGATOR]

Originally posted by GATORaid:
•Hey SwampMan, any suggestions on who to take for Orgo I? 😕 •••

I took the One-Semester Orgo/Biorganic sequence. Dr. Deyrup is a great guy (he usually teaches the organic part). My Biorganic class was taught by Dr. Richards...no comments. You probably will either like him or hate him. Deyrup grades pretty fairly, but Richards applies a normal curve. The class is usually anything BUT normal! My class of 100+ students had an average GPA of ~3.7!!! If you take the sequence, avoid Richards. That's just my advice...take it or leave it. I earned my only C in that class, and I invested more time than I have for any other class.

I haven't heard much positive talk about the traditional sequence. Battiste (sp?) didn't acquire the nickname "The Beast" for no reason! My friend's sister died, and he actually told her she needed to bring him her sister's death certificate to have an extension on an exam!!! He just sat there puffing away on his cigar while she cried! Maybe he's had students lie about that kind of thing in the past, but damn!

There really aren't any great options for organic at UF. I wish I could tell you which is the lesser of the evils, but I've only taken the accelerated sequence. Perhaps other Gators who post on this board can shed more light.

Good Luck!

 

[Amy B]

Never say never. I got done with Organic last spring and thought to myself, wow, I never have to think about organic chem again. Wrong. Over the summer my school contacted me and asked me to TA an organic lab section. I was honored cause I am the only undergraduate teaching, plus I am the only TA who is not a chem major.

It went smoothly and I had a good time but I was glad to be done. There was a lot of work in addition to the 3 hour lab class. Wellllll..... It's not over yet. I have again been asked to teach in the spring. AAAUUGGGGGGG.

So... "Just when I think I'm done, they pull me back in."

A quote from the Godfather

Happy Holiday's

Amy

 

[Coalboy]

I actually enjoyed both semesters of Organic, far more than General Chemistry. I did a lot better in it than General Chemistry too.

I guess I'm a freak, though.

 

[Hopkins2010]

I actually thought Organic (especially Organic 2) was harder than pchem.

But it depends on your strengths. I thought pchem was easier because you could use mathematics and problem solving to get the answers, whereas in organic is usually just memorization. Theres no way you can really think your way thru to a solution, you either know it or you dont which made it harder for me. Of course some organic you can think your way thru it, but in general pchem lends itself better for that purpose than ochem.

 

[Coalboy]

Theres no way you can really think your way thru to a solution••

That's not necessarily true, at least in my experience. For the synthesis problems we had in organic (make B from A, using 10 steps), while you had to memorize the individual reactions, you had to think your way through a possible pathway to get from the start to the end.

 

[Coalboy]

Of course some organic you can think your way thru it••

I neglected to read through the whole post. Sorry.

 

[THE instiGATOR]

Originally posted by baylor21:
•...whereas in organic is usually just memorization. Theres no way you can really think your way thru to a solution, you either know it or you dont...•••

I disagree completely. I don't remember memorizing a single reaction in organic. My professor taught us what we needed to approach a problem without prior experience with the reaction. That's actually one thing I found VERY helpful while taking the MCAT. Orgo wasn't much of a problem for me.

P-chem is just evil, and I'm pretty good with math. It didn't trip me up a whole lot, it just bored the snot out of me. Also, I don't believe there is a single great teacher of p-chem.

 

[DNALadder2002]

Organic Chemistry I and II rock!

 

[Hopkins2010]

Well i did overstate the memorization component of organic I admit that.

But I still strongly assert that pchem is much more of a problem-solving course than ochem is.

Yes, its true you can use mechanisms in organic like you would use math in pchem to solve a problem. But in general, mechanisms are FAR murkier than simple mathematics. For example, when you are looking at electron movements in mechanisms, there are at least several different pathways, where each pathway leads to a different end product. Usually one electron transfer pathway stands out from the others as being correct, but still the method you determine which pathway is the best is very "nonconcrete" compared to mathematical equations.

Once you set up a problem in pchem, there is generally one clear way to proceed. I just dont think thats true in ochem to the same extent.

If you dont memorize anything in organic, then you are forced to trace thru reactions by mechanisms and so forth. I think that process is much trickier than working thru a calculus derivation at worst like you would have in pchem.

 

[vixen]

I like Organic...it's fun solving puzzles...I HATE BIOCHEM!!!