Orgo 2 Advice

[scrubswannabe]

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Hey fellow premeds. I hear often that Orgo 2 isnt as hard as Orgo 1 and it seems like most people do better in Orgo 2. I didn't do so well in 1 and have 2 coming up this term. What should I do differently? Is there anything you did differently? Is orgo 2 more memorization or conceptual? I thought the first term was really conceptual with all the enantiomers and diastereomers and stereochemistry.

 

[bocciball]

Despite what many people say on this forum Organic II is definitely more difficult than the first semester. It takes many of the chemical concepts and molecules from the first half and reacts reagents with them. It is both conceptual and memorization. My best advise is to buy the student solution's manual to your text book and practice. To prepare for my tests I made sure to do every problem in the book within the chapters. Sometimes this meant solving 300+ problems starting a week before a test to make sure I really "knew" the material. Hope this helps.

 

[Dendrite]

Make a reaction notebook. Whenever you come across a type of reaction you never came across before, put it in the notebook. Use that to help you solve problems and study for the tests (major help for the final).

 

[1956Goldtop]

Organic chemistry II is definitely more difficult than the first part of the sequence, but it will feel more natural as you are more familiar with reaction mechanisms and have some experience with memorizing reactions. Don't let yourself get behind and you should be fine. There is a lot of material to learn, but once you learn it, solving problems are kind of fun -- almost like a puzzle.

 

[hopefullkid]

Freaking hate chemistry soo soo much...man if I could get my hands on the guys who discover this stuff...lol\
Such a gpa killer for me. I don't study half as much for all my other classes combined as I do for orgo and I still get bad grades while I get A's in everything else.

 

[RySerr21]

Despite what many people say on this forum Organic II is definitely more difficult than the first semester. It takes many of the chemical concepts and molecules from the first half and reacts reagents with them. It is both conceptual and memorization. My best advise is to buy the student solution's manual to your text book and practice. To prepare for my tests I made sure to do every problem in the book within the chapters. Sometimes this meant solving 300+ problems starting a week before a test to make sure I really "knew" the material. Hope this helps.

👍👍👍

the final exam for ochem II was ridiiiiiiiiiculous. it was literally on the entire book. i've never taken a class where what you learn next builds upon everything you've learned before. i did better in ochem2, but it wasnt b/c it was easier, i think i just figured how to study for it and i worked harder. i second buying the solutions manual. i did every single problem in the book as well. the sad thing is, youll still get a question on the test thatll make you say "WTF!!!!!!!"

 

[Auron]

I took o-chem 1 a year ago, and am signed up to take ochem 2 with lab this spring...and its scaring the crap out of me. I've been reviewing my notes from first semester and remember the earlier stuff, but all the reaction stuff is a blur. If I don't take it now, my senior years is going to be ridiculous. I got a C in first semester, and an A in lab.

Should I just work really hard and try to take it now, or prep over summer and take it senior year? I really have to do well and the thought of not doing well in this class because I got a C in o-chem 1 is giving me serious doubts on whether I should take o-chem 2 in spring.

 

[bocciball]

I took o-chem 1 a year ago, and am signed up to take ochem 2 with lab this spring...and its scaring the crap out of me. I've been reviewing my notes from first semester and remember the earlier stuff, but all the reaction stuff is a blur. If I don't take it now, my senior years is going to be ridiculous. I got a C in first semester, and an A in lab.

Should I just work really hard and try to take it now, or prep over summer and take it senior year? I really have to do well and the thought of not doing well in this class because I got a C in o-chem 1 is giving me serious doubts on whether I should take o-chem 2 in spring.

I would recommend reviewing your old tests and studying what you got wrong. Find a few problems in your text that mirror the type of problem you got wrong on the exam and practice them. For the problems you got correct on the exams, try and redo them without the solutions. Based on your performance you should be able to determine where you should study in the text with additional problems to tune up for the second half of organic chemistry.

 

[centersharpie]

I honestly thought that Organic II is a lot easier than orgo I, but that's just me. It's more memorization than anything else. I would just memorize the reagents and the reactions they undergo to make a specific product. Reagents are so specific when reacting with a certain reactant and if you know the outcome you should be fine.

...but having a strong background in Organic I will def. help you out.