Organic too easy?

[KELA]

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I'm in my second semester of orgo and everyone in my class (all 18 of us) are having a pretty easy time with it. In fact this same group last semester received only one D and the rest were above that and 5 had A's. Either we are all geniuses or those of us who are premeds are getting royally screwed when it comes to MCAT time. I'm thinking the latter is true. Is it normal to spend a whole month on NMR in orgo 1 and to be taking the first test of orgo 2 on subsitution and elimination reactions on alkyl halides alone? I'm getting a little worried here especially since gen chem at my school was wicked hard. If it does turn out that my education is lacking, any suggestions on material that will teach me what I need to know would be appreciated.

 

[Julius Erving]

Um, that's not good at all. In our orgo we were through all basic types of rxns first semester. By second semester we were doing huge 12-15 step mechanism problems.

Luckily, MCAT doesn't go that far. It is more complex than what you're learning, but no 15 step problems. You may want to read a couple chapters on your own to master more types of mechanisms. It's nice to have the basics, but MCAT probably tests on over 50 types of mechanisms.

 

[spicedmanna]

I'm in my second semester of orgo and everyone in my class (all 18 of us) are having a pretty easy time with it. In fact this same group last semester received only one D and the rest were above that and 5 had A's. Either we are all geniuses or those of us who are premeds are getting royally screwed when it comes to MCAT time. I'm thinking the latter is true. Is it normal to spend a whole month on NMR in orgo 1 and to be taking the first test of orgo 2 on subsitution and elimination reactions on alkyl halides alone? I'm getting a little worried here especially since gen chem at my school was wicked hard. If it does turn out that my education is lacking, any suggestions on material that will teach me what I need to know would be appreciated.

Geez, what's normal. 😀 Your school is doing it backwards in comparison to how I learned Organic Chemistry. I learned nucleophilic substitution and elimination during the first semester, along with usual nomenclature, stereochemistry, carbocation mechanisms, EAS, and basic organic synthesis, and primarily spectroscopy and functional group reactions/chemistry in the second, drawing upon the basic mechanisms learned from the first. The pace was fairly rapid usually, with at least 3-4 chapters per test, and many different types of reactions. I found both semesters difficult, but the second was more difficult. Well, whatever the path your professor is taking, I wouldn't stress too much over it. Organic Chemistry is being de-emphasized on the MCAT in favor of molecular genetics. When I took the MCAT there was only 1 passage and a few stand-alone questions related specifically to Organic Chemistry. Take out the AAMC outline and make sure you cover the basics listed under Organic Chemistry, taking the time to review your book, if needed.

 

[Davjc2009]

In Orgo I, we spent like 3 weeks on general stuff like nomenclature of alkanes/cycloalkanes, sterochemistry, chirality

about a month on acid/base stuff, properties of alkenes, nomenclature, bonding. reactions of alkenes.

about three weeks on haloalkanes, nucleophilic sub and beta-elimination and alkynes

about 2.5 weeks on alcohols thiols ethers sulfides and epoxides

In our Orgo II we have spent a week on IR, A week on NMR(proton and carbon13), and 1/2 week on mass spec.


So I think you have moved a little slower than us, but I mean if you cover everything there is on the MCAT thats in organic I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[BellyDancingDoc]

So I think you have moved a little slower than us, but I mean if you cover everything there is on the MCAT thats in organic I wouldn't worry too much.

👍 Yup, unless you're interested in doing basic science benchwork, your real goal here is to learn enough Orgo for the MCAT. (For the record, yes, I'm aware that the OP's true goal should be "learning for the sake of learning," "expanding his/her mind," etc. However, after 3 years of pre-med prep, I've gotten a little jaded!)

MCAT Orgo really only covers material that is generally taught in the first semester- though it sounds like you're doing things in a different order. Still, if you end up covering in 2 semesters what other schools cover in 1, you'll still have learned enough to get you through the MCAT.

 

[spicedmanna]

And on the bright side, you probably won't have to work as hard as I did for the A in Organic. 👍

 

[DoctorPardi]

On top of the mechanisms the 2nd biggest thing is probably NMR, IR type stuff. Each organic passage has 1-2 questions on those types of things. Also often times the passages will include NMR data inside them. So part of answering the rest of the problems will be based on being able to interpret that data.

I think really any 2 semester organic chemistry class is going to cover MCAT organic well enough, no matter how slow you go.

 

[xucardsfan08]

Does your Organic class have the ACS Exam as it's final exam? My school did and it is sort of the equalizer when it comes to "easy" and "hard" organic classes.

 

[Lals]

Does your Organic class have the ACS Exam as it's final exam? My school did and it is sort of the equalizer when it comes to "easy" and "hard" organic classes.

Agreed, though I was happy to discover that the ACS exam and especially the MCAT was markedly easier than any of the exams my Organic Professor authored for us, including his own final for ORGO I. However, he was also the head of the Chemistry department and consequently took immense pleasure out of punishing his students; though it was one of the harder A's I've had to work for, it was also one of the most enjoyable, and as a result I owned the aforementioned standardized tests (at least when it came to ORGO). I actually wish there was more of it on my MCAT.

 

[BellyDancingDoc]

Does your Organic class have the ACS Exam as it's final exam? My school did and it is sort of the equalizer when it comes to "easy" and "hard" organic classes.

Agreed. If your school has ACS Exam as the final, OP, you'd best get yourself the study guide that ACS publishes and get to it!

 

[Bolo]

Wait a minute...the mcat has ochem on it? LOL

 

[sejin8642]

Wait a minute...the mcat has ochem on it? LOL

yes it does.

 

[Bolo]

yes it does.

I was making a joke. My version of the mcat had like 2 watered down passages on it.

 

[KELA]

We do take the ACS test at the end for the final and we had a watered down version of it (my teacher picked which questions to include and which not to out of multiple tests) after 1st semester and it was really hard. There was stuff that he picked out that he had never gone over. Part of it might be that he is 75 and doesn't seem that organized anymore. Don't get me wrong he is a complete genius but I don't think he always remembers what he has talked about.

 

[AZhopeful]

I was making a joke. My version of the mcat had like 2 watered down passages on it.

my version of the MCAT, if i remember right, had very little ochem on it. of the discreet questions i can only remember like 1. it's all kind of a blur though... i could be wrong.

 

[Nickelpennykid]

You are lucky. Not only will you get an easy A, you will spend more time on the material that is actually on the MCAT. I had to do long mechanisms by the middle of second semester, which is completly useless for MCAT, espically because of the decreasing emphasis on orgo for the exam.

 

[PeripateticMD]

and on the brighter side, I've gotten accepted to 4 schools who have waived the 3rd quarter of orgo for me, 1 school I'm waiting for told me they waived it, and another I'm waiting on doesn't require it. Yay for the quarter system and not having to take the third quarter. I was actually more excited that they waived it than I was at getting in... but that may be because I'm about 4 years removed from having taken the 1st two quarters and would have had a hell of a time taking the end of it...

 

[63768]

taking your first exam in orgo 2 on alkyl halides is proceeding very slowly IMO. that stuff was on the second (maybe first) test of orgo 1 for me. orgo 2 started with things like esterification reactions.