Organic chemistry lab blues...

[youngnflyy]

I'm seriously developing a true hatred for lab. It lasts for 3 hours, of which 2 1/2 are lecture. I mean seriously, whats the point in already having to spend 1 1/2 hours twice a week in lecture class, only to have to spend another 2 1/2 in the lab being lectured. (completely bogus) I actually like the experiments, and seeing how different compounds come together on paper, but a man can only take so much organic chemistry lecturing before losing it! Anyone else hate long lab lectures?

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[foofish]

I'm seriously developing a true hatred for lab. It lasts for 3 hours, of which 2 1/2 are lecture. I mean seriously, whats the point in already having to spend 1 1/2 hours twice a week in lecture class, only to have to spend another 2 1/2 in the lab being lectured. (completely bogus) I actually like the experiments, and seeing how different compounds come together on paper, but a man can only take so much organic chemistry lecturing before losing it! Anyone else hate long lab lectures?

Holy crap....my orgo lab was 5 hours a week, with the prelab lecture and quiz being 30 minutes MAX....

 

[PugMD]

Holy crap....my orgo lab was 5 hours a week, with the prelab lecture and quiz being 30 minutes MAX....

Same. I remember spending 4+ hours in lab but if you worked your ass off you could make it out quicker. Look forward to the nitration labs. Still bored? Drop a penny in some nitric acid.

 

[Schaden Freud]

How on earth are you able to carry out an experiment in 30 minutes?

I'm seriously developing a true hatred for lab. It lasts for 3 hours, of which 2 1/2 are lecture. I mean seriously, whats the point in already having to spend 1 1/2 hours twice a week in lecture class, only to have to spend another 2 1/2 in the lab being lectured. (completely bogus) I actually like the experiments, and seeing how different compounds come together on paper, but a man can only take so much organic chemistry lecturing before losing it! Anyone else hate long lab lectures?

 

[youngnflyy]

So far all we've done is been shown how the various tests work for figuring out what an uknown compound is. We've done a lot of looking at mass spectra, IR etc... So really that has only taken a matter of minutes, its been all the lectures that get to you. I'm guessing they will take longer whenever we finally receive our unknown compounds.

 

[ssquared]

How on earth are you able to carry out an experiment in 30 minutes?

Seriously. Anyone remember seeing "distill for one hour" listed multiple times on the half-page of instructions? Ick.

 

[socal78]

melting points are the worse

 

[63768]

i actually thought orgo lab was way better than titration in gen chem lab.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Orgo lab rocked. The only thing better was genetics lab. Sweet sweet ether...

i actually thought orgo lab was way better than titration in gen chem lab.

 

[youngnflyy]

I've enjoyed orgo lab when we've done experiments...Chem 2 lab however was a beast...we would spend weeks on the same experiment...multiple hours per lab...

 

[KELA]

Seriously. Anyone remember seeing "distill for one hour" listed multiple times on the half-page of instructions? Ick.

Yes. I hated that lab!

 

[stiffany]

Yea, uh my lab is 8 hours of lab time and 1 hr of lecture time per week plus a weekly lab report and prelabs twice a week (and midterms on top of that). And that's after spending 4 hours per week for two semesters in organic lecture (separate from the lab at my school). Suck it up OP.

 

[crimsonkid85]

yea i remember when my organic lab was listed in the coursebook as:

Lectures M 1-2pm
Lab T, W, or Th 2-10pm. :O

and in actuality, it was more like 2pm-midnight. ugh.

 

[Quix]

30 minutes to an hour for each experiment, huh?

"Reflux for one hour..."

"Allow 1-2 hours for recrystallization..."

"Record the temperature for each milliliter of distillate obtained..."

"Record the fractional distillation temperature for each milliliter obtained of your unknown liquids..."

etc., etc.

I actually brought a camping stool to my orgo labs for distillations - it put me right at the proper height to observe the graduated cylinder.

 

[future_dr_house]

30 minutes to an hour for each experiment, huh?

"Reflux for one hour..."

"Allow 1-2 hours for recrystallization..."

"Record the temperature for each milliliter of distillate obtained..."

"Record the fractional distillation temperature for each milliliter obtained of your unknown liquids..."

Rub voodoo doll for good luck in clockwise circular motions 5 times as the new lunar moon arrives

etc., etc.

I actually brought a camping stool to my orgo labs for distillations - it put me right at the proper height to observe the graduated cylinder.

you forgot a step.

 

[sejin8642]

We all already know that orga lab is a waste of time, good for nothing, just motion process.

 

[novawildcat]

We all already know that orga lab is a waste of time, good for nothing, just motion process.

the funny thing is that in the real world orgo lab>> than orgo lecture. what good is knowing all the theory if you can't isolate your desired product in the real world? LOL all the orgo they teach to undergrads no one in the real world ever uses because the reagents are way too toxic/unsafe/ or simply take to long.

 

[Doc Henry]

Our orgo lab was 5 hours and we had a seperate lecture that was 2 hours. We spent at least 3hours doing experiments per week on a shorter lab. During the longer labs we were lucky to finished in 4-5hours. I don't know whats going on with the OPs school.

 

[degoo_]

Yea, uh my lab is 8 hours of lab time and 1 hr of lecture time per week plus a weekly lab report and prelabs twice a week (and midterms on top of that). And that's after spending 4 hours per week for two semesters in organic lecture (separate from the lab at my school). Suck it up OP.

This is one crazy lab. Is this second year organic chem, or the higher level organic synthesis courses?

yea i remember when my organic lab was listed in the coursebook as:

Lectures M 1-2pm
Lab T, W, or Th 2-10pm. :O

and in actuality, it was more like 2pm-midnight. ugh.

same question to you! Ours are 4 hours (if I recall correctly), and pretty much the entire time was practical.
I learned one thing from that course: glassware out of the oven is hot, really hot.

 

[Tussis]

I would agree with you, Orgo labs are getting tiring!

Nothing like watching a fractional distillation go drip, drip, drip for 2 1/2 hours on end because your TA will not let you turn the variac up past 50.

Or, column chromatography, another drip, drip, drip experiment... ugh

 

[TimeResonance]

Yes, watching the condenser slowly fill and trickle down to the receiving cylinder provides hours of free entertainment. I would say it's like watching paint dry but you dont get the exhilarating feeling of possible peroxide formation with paint.

Oh and who can forget the widely despised last line of the lab procedure. "Repeat process using XY instead of XC. "Short but nonetheless brutal.

 

[youngnflyy]

I think that the reason why the bulk of our lab is lecture is because of the fact that the professor who teaches it is fairly old, and really enjoys hearing the sound of his own voice. He also has a problem with going off on these wild tangents, and being rude to students...For instance today he mistakenly thought that one student had ignored him when he told us to grab a few watch glasses, and then he proceeded to call her trifling loudly, and then go on a tirade about how she is never working hard. He's called us crack babies before, and just last week he went into a profanity laced tirade against a student he thought had tried to lift his grade book, but actually didn't. It's amazing how once you get to a certain age you can just say whatever you want to people.

 

[Auron]

5 hours!!?? wtf?. My orgo lab is 3 hours once a week, discuss the experiment for about an hour then practical. Seriously what is up with more than three hours, that's insane.

 

[EBI831]

what schools do you guys go to. that's torture. we did orgo lab from 12:30-4:30. only 30 mins of lecture ie you learn the shiznit on your own before coming and do it all yourself. maybe these 2 hours of lecture, etc assume that the students are too lazy to learn it. also, the labs that last 5+hours probably assume you will mess up and give you time to overcome that. our lab was awful because it was 3h30 mins of lab but the lab itself with the distillation, recrystallizations, melting pts, set-up all that was designed to be done by the pros in 3h30 mins, not students and with no lecture lead in and lazy as crap TAs the hardest part was getting done before the TA kicked you out because he/she "had better things to do". the quizzes and prelabs were monstrous tho, and they had nothing to do with the lab, you had to draw the most ridiculous structures taht you never learned in teh separate 3 times a week 1 hour long lecture that was a corequisite.

 

[stiffany]

This is one crazy lab. Is this second year organic chem, or the higher level organic synthesis courses?
.

Nope, just the orgo lab course required to matriculate into medical school. After six years at my school (undergrad plus masters plus postbac) it's my last class and it's an incredible pain. I don't mind the actual lab time so much since it takes away from my work day sitting in front of a computer but on top of that I have to spend about eight hours for prelabs and lab reports (Not including "required" reading which I skim). Somehow I don't think I would have suffered in med school without this experience... I'm just hoping for whatever grade I need so as not to raise a red flag for the med school I ultimately attend this fall. I can't imagine if I was actually trying to earn an A in this class (Which our professor, who's actually nice considering the time suck nature of the class, told us is fairly improbable on the first day).

 

[chad5871]

My Orgo Lab is 1 hour pre-lab lecture and 3 hours of actual lab time per week. As for crazy labs, try taking Quantitative Analysis Lab. 2 hour pre-lab lecture + 4 hours lab time = 1 credit? Not to mention Quant lab itself sucks - try doing the same titration 5-6 different times and being exact down to 1/100 of a milliliter. Not fun!

 

[123880]

yea i remember when my organic lab was listed in the coursebook as:

Lectures M 1-2pm
Lab T, W, or Th 2-10pm. :O

and in actuality, it was more like 2pm-midnight. ugh.

I knew there was a reason I postponed that class! I now have a great summer to look forward to OChem 1 and 2 and no sleep! Thanks for the heads up!

 

[UCDavisdude]

Seriously. Anyone remember seeing "distill for one hour" listed multiple times on the half-page of instructions? Ick.

I remember having to distill for 2.5 hrs!!!! no kidding. but i took the ochem for chem and engineering majors, which is diff from bio majors. theres 3 diff levels of ochem at davis. 8 series, 118 series, and 128 series(with 129 series of labs)...brutal

 

[TerryLo]

my lab met 6 hrs/week...

man...i miss those days

 

[Hurricane95]

I don't see the point of the extra lecturing. It should be all mostly hands on time. My lab was 4 hours, once a week, of which 3:45 was experiment time, 15 minutes for quiz and blah blah.

 

[Vanguard23]

I hated how you had to, towards the end, go from one product to the next. Ie, produce Product A one week, then the next week make the trans isomer of Product B and methylate it or some such as that. Then week 3, chlorinate it and snort it up your nose.