Organic Chemistry

[Blackstars]

Fellows, I need help. I have to take organic chemistry next semester, and I've being having nightmares aready about it based on other students comments about the difficulty of the class.
I need suggestions on what to do in order to get an A, mind you I plan to studying really hard for it.
I?m interested in hearing from those that did well in O-Chem, what were your study habits, and if there is anything you did that helped you with the class.
And for the unfortunate souls that did not do so well, what do you think was the cause of your failure or what would you have done differently. Thanks

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[jjdaddy]

Do a lot of problems... My prof gave extra credit for doing problem sets, so I did them. So, I got a solid foundation, I don't have to study hardly any for my second Organic. (My org chem score on DAT was 29 )
Don't get behind... keep up, and solve a lot of problems.
Good luck!

 

[Thaxil]

Someone else asked a similar question in the 3.0 below forum, and I give the below relpy:

There is no reason to be fearful of organic chemistry.

There are some simple ways to tackle organic chem. I did well in organic and general. I would say that organic is easier.

My method of studying organic chemistry:
Most importantly read the chapters!! Do not do what a lot of other students did in my class; only focusing on the review at the need of the chapter. By only focusing on the review, one misses out on all the conceptual knowledge that is explained in the readings. By understanding subjects like nucleophilic strength, carbon cation stability, resonates stabilization of charges, and induction, one can see connections between reactions and view the list of twenty reaction at the back of the chapter as a list of different molecules using the same reaction.

I find the majority of the people who have problems with organic chem. rely on pure memorization. This is not the way to do it! I studied hard trying to understand the concepts during the first semesters, but did not even study during the second because the second semester only repeated the same concept but in a more enveloped way.

I can go on trying to convince you as I did with the students that I tutored. There are no short cuts; if you rely on memory you will have a tough time memorizing 35 reaction for each chapter and memorizing the previous chapters reactions for the synthesis problems.

 

[blankguy]

First semester Orgo from MIT
http://web.mit.edu/5.12/www/
Second semester Orgo from MIT
http://web.mit.edu/5.13/www/

Not to scare you since it's from MIT but take a peek into orgo

 

[Comet208]

One bit of advice from someone who DIDN'T do well:

Take the orgo at a CC or at an easy college. I made the mistake of taking it at my own university with 250 people in the class and a VERY hard and old professor. And my bigger mistake was that i took the second part during the summer with the same prof. For me, organic is something that has to sink in... that summer class was way too fast for me.

good luck to you

Comet

 

[ShawnOne]

Originally posted by Thaxil
Someone else asked a similar question in the 3.0 below forum, and I give the below relpy:

There is no reason to be fearful of organic chemistry.

There are some simple ways to tackle organic chem. I did well in organic and general. I would say that organic is easier.

My method of studying organic chemistry:
Most importantly read the chapters!! Do not do what a lot of other students did in my class; only focusing on the review at the need of the chapter. By only focusing on the review, one misses out on all the conceptual knowledge that is explained in the readings. By understanding subjects like nucleophilic strength, carbon cation stability, resonates stabilization of charges, and induction, one can see connections between reactions and view the list of twenty reaction at the back of the chapter as a list of different molecules using the same reaction.

I find the majority of the people who have problems with organic chem. rely on pure memorization. This is not the way to do it! I studied hard trying to understand the concepts during the first semesters, but did not even study during the second because the second semester only repeated the same concept but in a more enveloped way.

I can go on trying to convince you as I did with the students that I tutored. There are no short cuts; if you rely on memory you will have a tough time memorizing 35 reaction for each chapter and memorizing the previous chapters reactions for the synthesis problems.

I do not think I have EVER agreed with a post more. I didnt have to study either this semester for O-chem II, and scored a 25 on the DAT before I even took the 2nd semester.

I would also like to add one additional tip:

Get yourself the ACS study guide for organic chemistry. The more practice questions you do, the more everything makes sense.

One last thing, the order that some books teach organic chemistry is wacky. I used the oldschool Morrison and Boyd book and learned so much the 1st semester, that I self studied the 2nd semester for the DAT.

 

[swiminh2o]

I found that if you can grasp the idea of where the electrons want to go you can get through most reaction mechanisms. My lab prof called it "arrow pushing". My lecture prof was more into memorizing products and reactants whereas my lab prof helped me understand the mechanistics much better. A good review of the concepts found in Ochem is in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Ochem study guide for the ACS exam. Instead of breaking down reactions into functional group reactions it focuses more on reactions based on nucleophilic addition/substitution etc. I like that style better. Do a google search and you'll see how to order it online. I can't remember which site it was. I scored in the 99th percentile on the ACS exam and got a 29 ochem DAT. Good luck!

 

[swiminh2o]

BTW, I took Ochem at my local CC. My undergrad was at a major University and I felt like my CC education in Ochem was excellent. My night lab only had 5 people in it so there was plenty of time to ask questions and get help.

 

[Thaxil]

Be forewarned,

Don't be knocking on the CC, they saved my life! In addition, my two highest score (O-Chem and G-Chem) on the DAT where taken at the community college level.

That is also great advice swiminh2o aboot the acs. In my class they called it pushing electron just another way of saying resonance stabilization, which is one of four key concepts.

 

[ItsGavinC]

My method of studying for organic: I didn't. Organic was one of the easiest courses I took during my undergrad.

Inorganic, on the other hand, was a nightmare for me.

Moral of the story: don't listen to everybody else. At least BEGIN the course before you pass judgment on it.

And FYI, I'm not alone. You can find plenty of students in this forum and the pre-med forum that LOVE organic chemistry. I honestly loved it and wouldn't mind taking all the organic courses over again just for fun.

 

[critterbug]

Moral of the story. Gavin is a nerd

Just kidding buddy. I loved OCHEM also. But, I loved all my classes. I'm a nerd and I aint ashamed to admit it

 

[saman1]

Originally posted by ItsGavinC
My method of studying for organic: I didn't. Organic was one of the easiest courses I took during my undergrad.

Inorganic, on the other hand, was a nightmare for me.

Moral of the story: don't listen to everybody else. At least BEGIN the course before you pass judgment on it.

And FYI, I'm not alone. You can find plenty of students in this forum and the pre-med forum that LOVE organic chemistry. I honestly loved it and wouldn't mind taking all the organic courses over again just for fun.

Yup... for some reason O-chem was really simple for me. I don't know why a lot of people in my class found it to be hard. I didn't take it at a CC or anything like that. It was just simple. If you walk into the class with confidence you'll do well. Don't get scared.

 

[Thaxil]

Not too much confidence. It is a balance for me between confidence and fear.

Yes, I have become a nerd. They are the only ones that go to the library on weekends.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Glad to see some others followed my post by acknowledging that they liked (or at least didn't mind) organic chemistry.

I'm a very visual person, so it honestly was an excellent course for me. None of that math and crap that comes with general chemistry

 

[blankguy]

My biggest mistake when I took orgo(and failed) about a decade ago was letting the dread that everybody was talking about this course get to me.

 

[Blackstars]

Thank you very much, to each and everyone of you who offered their advise.

I need everyone who answered my post to pm me their addresses. The $100 check will be in the mail, assuming I get an A in organic next semester.

Thanks guys,

 

[Blackstars]

Guys how can I get the ACS study guide for organic chemistry. I did a search on yahoo, and visited the ACS website, but I cannot find where I can buy the book from. Help please.

 

[megabot]

Originally posted by owusu-dentist
Guys how can I get the ACS study guide for organic chemistry. I did a search on yahoo, and visited the ACS website, but I cannot find where I can buy the book from. Help please.

Here ya go

http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/chemexams/MATERIALS/org_guide.html

My school was selling the guides on campus when I took orgo 2 like a year ago. Are they not selling them at yours?

 

[Blackstars]

Thank you megabot. I have not seen anyone in my school selling it.

 

[blankguy]

Which concepts from general chemistry are important for organic chemistry?

Bonding, polarity, resonance, lewis structure, etc....

 

[speter33]

Listen chances are you won't get an A in the class but don't be upset most of us don't in most schools it's a weed out course. But you can do very well. Even though most people scare you that it's difficult, which it is, it's also the most interesting course I ever took. I loved organic chem I. The difficulty is also in that after one difficult topic there's another, there's never letting up. But once you understand something it becomes childishly easy.
Anyway study hard and u'll do good.

 

[Supernumerary]

Originally posted by blankguy
Which concepts from general chemistry are important for organic chemistry?

Bonding, polarity, resonance, lewis structure, etc....

Yes. All of them. But only to the extent that you understand what they are. You can go ahead and purge all the formulas from Chem I and II.

As far as how to do well, I agree with a previous post... problems, problems, problems. Organic is very conceptual, you just have to do enough problems until you understand the concept. Then you can go ahead and move on. Most students worry about memorizing reactions, but once you understand the concepts, you don't need to bother with memorization. You can pretty much figure out what's going to happen even when it's something you've never seen.

Organic I can be a little bit of a drag, but if you keep up with it Organic II is just fun. It's a lot more like doing crossword puzzles than chemistry. I could do synthesis problems all day long.