Orgo and Reading Comprehension

[underdog99]

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What molecules should I be memorizing the structure for the O. Chem section?

And does anyone have any advice on how to review the RC tests or how to improve in general? I've gotten 20s on my last three but I'm not really satisfied with it or convinced I actually know what I'm doing lol.

Any advice on either one of these questions would be more than welcome!

Thank you!

 

[RkSwift]

Are you doing the bootcamp RC? Those can be kind of misleading since the questions are all over the place in terms of difficulty. I'd say its more beneficial to read a little bit of scientific american every day. If you are a fairly good reader who can easily find things you see in question stems you should be ok, 20s are solid. In terms of molecule structure to memorize for Ochem...you dont need to memorize any specific structure, just make sure you know how to name a structure if you get questions asking for nomenclature.

 

[Pearl E. White]

I would say the OC portion is more about understanding the trends and knowing the reactions/reagents over knowing specific molecules. If I had to choose you should DEFINITELY know benzene and its derivatives (aniline, toluene, anisole, benzaldehyde, etc), formaldehyde, the general formula for an anhydride, general alkane/alkene/alkyne, general amide, amine, carboxylic acid, etc. You should be able to recognize these because they might just give you the name and ask you to perform some type of reaction with it.
For RC, check out some of the various techniques and try them out. Examples include mapping, search and destroy, etc. Best of luck 🙂

 

[underdog99]

I would say the OC portion is more about understanding the trends and knowing the reactions/reagents over knowing specific molecules. If I had to choose you should DEFINITELY know benzene and its derivatives (aniline, toluene, anisole, benzaldehyde, etc), formaldehyde, the general formula for an anhydride, general alkane/alkene/alkyne, general amide, amine, carboxylic acid, etc. You should be able to recognize these because they might just give you the name and ask you to perform some type of reaction with it.
For RC, check out some of the various techniques and try them out. Examples include mapping, search and destroy, etc. Best of luck 🙂

Ok I will look over those molecules/formulas, thank you!

Are you doing the bootcamp RC? Those can be kind of misleading since the questions are all over the place in terms of difficulty. I'd say its more beneficial to read a little bit of scientific american every day. If you are a fairly good reader who can easily find things you see in question stems you should be ok, 20s are solid. In terms of molecule structure to memorize for Ochem...you dont need to memorize any specific structure, just make sure you know how to name a structure if you get questions asking for nomenclature.

Yeah I'm using bootcamp for RC, and reading about 3 SA articles a day in the hopes of getting quicker at reading and retaining some info as I go along