Organic lab tests to know

[laczlacylaci]

orgo lab was quite a long time ago. What are some of the must know tests?

Tollen's reagent: + means reducing sugar/aldose/aldehydes/alpha-hydroxy ketones (clear solution to silver ppt)
Benedict's reagent: + means reducing sugar/aldose/aldehyde (blue solution to red ppt)
Iodoform test: methyl ketone to COOH
2,4-DNP: + for C=O group.

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[bobeanie95]

Fractional/simple distillation, chromatography (affinity, ion, gas), TLC, H-NMR, IR, and so on.

 

[Kpw101]

Fractional/simple distillation, chromatography (affinity, ion, gas), TLC, H-NMR, IR, and so on.

Can't really think of anything else outside of this list other than HPLC and UV Spec.

 

[laczlacylaci]

@bobeanie95 @Kpw101 sorry if this was unclear, I was looking more for tests to indicate a functional group presence. Any thoughts?

 

[Kpw101]

@bobeanie95 @Kpw101 sorry if this was unclear, I was looking more for tests to indicate a functional group presence. Any thoughts?

From the top of my head just IR and H-NMR.

 

[aldol16]

You likely won't even need those tests that you listed. This is very low yield for the new MCAT because orgo has been de-emphasized.

 

[Kpw101]

You likely won't even need those tests that you listed. This is very low yield for the new MCAT because orgo has been de-emphasized.

I had a lot of time and managed to get the most I could out of my content books.

 

[aldol16]

With the exception of organic and/or biochemistry/genetic lab techniques. Their presence has increased since the introduction of the new MCAT.

Still none of the ones OP listed. The must-knows are mainly biochem - column separations, the very basic principles of extractions, etc.

 

[deleted585480]

I'm not even planning on studying for IR or H NMR. Seems like a waste of time. If I get a question on it I'm screwed, but would assume it would be a discrete?

 

[aldol16]

I'm not even planning on studying for IR or H NMR. Seems like a waste of time. If I get a question on it I'm screwed, but would assume it would be a discrete?

You should know how to interpret NMR and IR spectra. IR isn't that difficult - you just have to know the general spots where peaks come up (carbonyls, for instance). NMR is good to know. These might come up in the context of a "drug" molecule in the C/P section where they show you the synthesis and ask about separations/extractions, properties of the molecule, etc. The mostly likely question from that would be showing you a characteristic region of the NMR spectrum (say, some well-resolved peaks in the aliphatic region) and asking you about the part of the molecule the signal corresponds to.

 

[Kpw101]

I'm not even planning on studying for IR or H NMR. Seems like a waste of time. If I get a question on it I'm screwed, but would assume it would be a discrete?

If you get an H-NMR or spectroscopy based passage this would be a very bad move considering it doesn't take much to memorize common features of certain functional groups.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

You likely won't even need those tests that you listed. This is very low yield for the new MCAT because orgo has been de-emphasized.

Reddit feedback has been all over the map on this.

 

[aldol16]

Reddit feedback has been all over the map on this.

Likely because the MCAT versions have been all over the map on this. If everyone says that you need it, chances are you will. If people are conflicting about it, then it's probably on some versions but not on others. If everyone says that you don't need it, then you don't need it.