Organic Chemistry Lab Advice

[AttemptingScholar]

While I'm doing acceptably poorly in my Organic Chemistry Lecture (as in, 0/10 in quizzes but people who got As in the class last year assure me that's normal), I don't think I'm keeping up on lab. I'm spending about 10 hours a week just doing the prelab and postlab. I'm not studying for (and thus failing) the lab quizzes. Poor grades on the prefabs and post labs, despite spending a day on them. And I don't have time to study for lecture or my other classes, so much time is going to basic prep. The lab counts for 25% of my Orgo grade, the vast majority comes from the prelab and poslab.

Is this common? Any advice?

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[Blanky]

This doesnt sound common at all to me. 0/10 on quizes? Even if they are difficult how arent you scoring any correct?

 

[Pavlov'sDawg]

I'm not studying for (and thus failing) the lab quizzes

This might be the problem

 

[chemdoctor]

Try to make some room. Look up stuff online. Why 0:10?! You're gonna have to start studying harder

 

[altblue]

IDK the hardest STEM quizzes I had still have averages of about 3 or 4 out of 10, your buddies might just be saying "don't let it get to you if you do badly on one", if the average is like a 0-10% your professor shouldn't be teaching. Studying hard for prelab and doing that poorly is a huuuuge red flag too. Can you provide us more details about your classes and your suspected shortcomings? it's critical information for us to help you.

 

[AttemptingScholar]

This doesnt sound common at all to me. 0/10 on quizes? Even if they are difficult how arent you scoring any correct?

Try to make some room. Look up stuff online. Why 0:10?! You're gonna have to start studying harder

It was a 1 question quiz worth 10 points, partial credit not offered. We haven't actually gotten our scores back, but I think a sizable chunk of the class did similarly on that one. It was something we aren't going to learn for two more chapters, but "should have been able to figure out" and you either got a 0 or a 10. That's why I'm not as worried about it, I just would like my lab grade to be better to be a buffer when they inevitably drag me down, if the lecture quizzes are designed to screw us over that way.

 

[AttemptingScholar]

This might be the problem

I know, but since the lab quiz weighs much less than the pre and post labs, I'm trying to divide up my time as logically as I can.

 

[AttemptingScholar]

IDK the hardest STEM quizzes I had still have averages of about 3 or 4 out of 10, your buddies might just be saying "don't let it get to you if you do badly on one", if the average is like a 0-10% your professor shouldn't be teaching. Studying hard for prelab and doing that poorly is a huuuuge red flag too. Can you provide us more details about your classes and your suspected shortcomings? it's critical information for us to help you.

We're about a month into it, first lecture midterm coming up in a week. It is 15% weekly quizzes (two get dropped), 60% exams (there are three) and 25% lab. Of the lab grade, which is overseen by a different professor, it is 15% quiz (randomly given, so far we've had one every class though), 15% notebook/safety/technique/results, 30% reports/postlab (one or the other per experiment), 10% midterm (only one), 30% final. The two exams will have both a practical and written portion.

My first solution is to get the most up-to-date textbook. The edition I'm using is supposed to be fine, but last week a key explanation was hundreds of pages away from where it was supposed to be. That will help me find what I'm supposed to be studying, but I know it must be a whole lot more my fault than the book's.

I know this shouldn't be taking 10 hours, so I guess my problem must be time management, but I've never really had a problem with that in the past. I don't feel like I'm slacking, but...

As for the lab quizzes, I'm getting the "what is the purpose of this chemical/step" stuff write, it's the "what ions will be in the solution" when the prelab and book only really talked about the beginning reactant and end product, not the stuff in between. Stuff that, given more time (and maybe a chair), I could reason out but can't in the circumstance. Perhaps this is partially a skill that will develop over the course of the semester, but I'd like to think I have the ability to do better now.

I try and work both in groups and alone. I go to office hours 2-3 times a week. I'm understanding lecture and can help my friends, and I'm doing the lab work correctly, but my grade just isn't there.

I'm gonna nose to the grindstone, but any advice on time management, prioritizing, lab reports, whatever would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sir Alanna Trebond]

I suspect your problem is that you do not understand the fundamental material, so you are struggling to pick out the important information from the pre-lab.

Listen, this might be slightly harsh but I hope it's helpful. In my experience, there are two factors that often trip students up in organic chemistry:

1) Students let organic chemistry scare them and
2) Students accept mediocrity.

Let's look at #1 for a second. Going into orgo, everyone knows that it's going to be real tough. The older pre-meds warn you that orgo is a weeder course. People build up an aura of malevolence around the entire class. That builds a defeatist attitude. Even before sitting in your first lecture, you've already accepted in your heart of hearts that you're going to fail. And then you make the prophecy true. Before looking at study methods and Anki flashcards and spinning twice counterclockwise on the night of a waxing gibbous moon, make sure your mindset is in the right place. That means deciding you're going to DESTROY organic chemistry. That means walking into lecture everyday knowing that you have the ability to master the material. That means deciding, you know what, forget the other students and how "hard" orgo allegedly is; I know I can do this.

Which takes us to #2 (hehehe). What do I mean, "students accept mediocrity"? A lot of times, students study completely wrong. They open the textbook and see a big complicated mechanism, and their brain just kind of goes 😵. They try to memorize the mechanism but it's in one ear and out the other. Rinse and repeat with new mechanisms. The student thinks, "Oh well, I studied tonight." Well sure, the student studied but did they really get anything out of banging their head against mechanisms for a couple hours? That's mediocre studying. It's a waste of your time.

I recommend focusing on identifying patterns. There are certain patterns in organic chemistry. Once you start to see these patterns, it makes it much easier to solve problems you've never seen before (think nucleophiles attacking the carbon in a carbonyl, acids make electrophiles more electrophilic, bases make nucleophiles more nucleophilic, & etc). Now, that doesn't mean you don't need to memorize mechanisms. You absolutely MUST memorize certain mechanisms. However, you should also draw connections between the different mechanisms you're taught in the class. These connections make memorizing the mechanisms much easier. And you will start to develop an instinct for how to approach problems. Even if you can't see the final solution when you first see a difficult problem, you will at least be able to see the beginning of the solution. Sometimes, that's enough to work your way slowly to a complete solution.

Also, doing well in organic chemistry is all about PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. And again, you can't be too nice to yourself while practicing. Do not accept mediocrity. Sometimes, people look at a practice problem and make a weak attempt to solve it. Then, they check the correct answer and think "That makes sense." Well duh it makes sense. It's the right answer! To do well, you need to be able to produce the right answer yourself from scratch. That means working out practice problems in full. It means looking at your wrong answers and understanding where you went wrong. It means looking at your right answers and understanding where you went right. If there's a certain kind of problem you keep on getting wrong, you need to keep doing that kind of problem until you can reliably get it right.

All of this is to say--doing well in lecture is not completely divorced from doing well in lab. If you're completely missing the point in lecture, you'll miss the point of lab. If you don't understand the WHY behind an assigned lab, you're going to take forever to write the pre-lab because you can't identify what's important. And because you're taking so long to write the pre-lab, you don't have time to study. So, my advice is this--go back to Week 1 of the material and work your way forward. It's still early in the semester so this is feasible. Make sure you understand the basics backwards, forwards, and sideways. I think that will help you with both lecture and lab. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Sir Alanna Trebond]

I'm gonna nose to the grindstone, but any advice on time management, prioritizing, lab reports, whatever would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry, I didn't see this comment until I wrote my novel of a response! Hopefully at least some of it is helpful. Have you tried looking at how other students are writing their lab reports? Maybe yours are just way too detailed.

 

[Turkishking]

.

 

[workaholic181]

This sounds a lot like me when I started O chem. It took tons of hours of just trying to wrap my head around these concepts before I was able to do anything at all. That IMO is the trick to o-chem; the barrier of entry is just really, really high. In most other classes you can pick up a few easier concepts and immediately translate them to questions. I'm not sure o chem is like that.

Point is, just keep your head up and keep your axe to the grind. You can get a good grade in o chem. Good luck OP!

 

[chemdoctor]

It was a 1 question quiz worth 10 points, partial credit not offered. We haven't actually gotten our scores back, but I think a sizable chunk of the class did similarly on that one. It was something we aren't going to learn for two more chapters, but "should have been able to figure out" and you either got a 0 or a 10. That's why I'm not as worried about it, I just would like my lab grade to be better to be a buffer when they inevitably drag me down, if the lecture quizzes are designed to screw us over that way.

Oh wow... I thought it was ten questions.

 

[Turkishking]

Oh wow... I thought it was ten questions.

Same

 

[AttemptingScholar]

Same

Yeah, that professor uses quizzes as a teaching tool--and to teach us humility! That's why I'm more worried about a 5/10 in lab quiz than 0/10 in lecture quiz.