Review Ochem before pharmacy school?

[BMBiology]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello everyone,

I am thinking about reviewing organic chemistry before pharmacy school. How important is organic chemistry in pharmacy school? Thank you for your inputs.

 

[jdpharmd?]

Originally posted by BMBiology
Hello everyone,

I am thinking about reviewing organic chemistry before pharmacy school. How important is organic chemistry in pharmacy school? Thank you for your inputs.

I wouldn't worry too much about it here, but I've heard that California schools can have a lot of organic in their curriculum. I think that most pharmacy schools use organic to gauge an applicants ability to memorize and apply a lot of information, and not necessarily to expect them to remember it. Functional groups are always nice to know well, but other than that I think that they teach you most of the things that you have to know your first and second years. I don't expect any tests asking about fisher esterification or SN2 reactions, but I could be wrong...

Jd

 

[LVPharm]

I didn't really have to use too much of my OChem knowledge for Medicinal Chemistry. It may be helpful to review functional groups and some nomenclature. A more useful review would be Acid/Base chemistry from GChem (Henderson-Hasselbach), that will come back to haunt you; it's fundamental to the understanding of drug absorption in the stomach and duodenum...so you'll see it again. You won't see all those reaction mechanisms you did in OChem again...thank goodness!

 

[BMBiology]

I appreciate your inputs.

 

[Triangulation]

Why is everyone always hatin' on o-chem? I love that stuff. It teaches you to think outside the box more than any class i've ever encountered, including funky humanities classes. I know this sounds outrageous, but i think intro o-chem should be mandatory for undergrad. Granted, there are some students that truly don't have the the facility to grasp the basics, but i would argue that that number is remarkably few. It truly teaches you to consider the counter-intuitive and rewards you for it, and a little bit of knowledge goes a long way. If you just understand nucleophilic attack, you've got most of o-chem.

 

[dgroulx]

Originally posted by Triangulation
Why is everyone always hatin' on o-chem? I love that stuff.

I enjoy doing synthesis problems. That requires applying knowledge and being creative. But I HATE mechanisms. I lose points on exams because I forget to draw a pair of electrons, or I forget to put on a charge. I tried to convince the class to go for an all synthesis final. The teacher let us vote and only two of us wanted only synthesis. Now I have to memorize stupid mechanisms by Tuesday morning, which is a total waste of my time. He said there will be two mechanisms on the test. 😡

 

[chunkyb]

Originally posted by dgroulx
I enjoy doing synthesis problems. That requires applying knowledge and being creative. But I HATE mechanisms. I lose points on exams because I forget to draw a pair of electrons, or I forget to put on a charge.

If you enjoy the synthesis problems, you're in good shape for that final. You must know your stuff. My experience with organic mechanisms is that it becomes much less of a memory thing, if you think intuitively and keep aware and of the relative elctronegativies/ and or charges of the functional groups and how they influence each other. If you focus on this, you won't forget about those details you need to get full marks! Hope you kick a$$ on that final! Good luck.

 

[Modnar]

How does O-chem differ from gen chem I & II? I liked both of those classes, although people have told me that O-chem is nothing like gen chem. Can someone elaborate?

 

[LSUMED2006]

Indeed, there is little similarity btwn. gen chem and organic chem. General chemistry seeks to provide an introduction to inorganic chemistry as well as physical chemistry. The first difference, general chemistry is very math oriented, whereas there are relatively very little calculations in organic chemistry. Secondly, general chemistry focuses on such things as electron orbitals (this is important in OC, but not in the same manner as GC). Third, GC, when it focuses on chemical structures, focuses on a few, well defined formations, whereas organic has a far less defined structural system. Additionally, OC focuses on only a few elements, whereas GC requires familiarity with many more. Organic chemistry is highly focused on nomenclature, whereas there was much less of this in GC. OC is IMHO more conceptual with many "pictures" while GC is more concrete, relying heavily on mathmatecal forumlas.

I could go on forever, but this should give you an idea.

 

[Triangulation]

Yeah, I'm with whomever said g-chem sucks (or was that just me?) It is as different from o-chem as o-chem is to physics. It seems so less theoretical, I can't really enjoy it. So much plug and chug crap. Like J. Robert Oppenheimer said the things that attracted me in chemistry was all the physics. Not to say that there aren't fun little brain teasers like learning how folgers manufactures instant coffee ( can you say 'triple point') and how hydrogen cells work, but wouldn't want to study that stuff for extended periods.

 

[Triangulation]

My pharm manager at walgreens loves to talk about o-chem. He gets really excited when talking about drug mechanisms, which kinda tells me he doesn't get to do it very often. He's a huge proponent of the move to PharmD only certification. He's also very aware that retail pharm chains are fightin' it tooth and nail.

 

[jdpharmd?]

Originally posted by Triangulation
My pharm manager at walgreens loves to talk about o-chem. He gets really excited when talking about drug mechanisms, which kinda tells me he doesn't get to do it very often. He's a huge proponent of the move to PharmD only certification. He's also very aware that retail pharm chains are fightin' it tooth and nail.

My previous pharmacy manager couldn't tell me what a nucleophile was. He claimed that he forgot it even before going to pharmacy school, but was very familiar with most drug mechanisms, just on a cellular or organ systems level, instead of a molecular level. Ok, maybe a slight exageration, but he really didn't know o-chem very well and he could answer just about any question posed to him regarding drugs in real-life situations. I think that there's a significant difference between o-chem and med-chem (and biochem) despite the percieved similarities. Don't be discouraged if you end up with a C in o-chem or something. You're not doomed.

Jd

 

[LVPharm]

Yeah, the extent to which you have to know the mechanisms of drug actions in the body (pharmacology), it's all mostly at the cellular/macromolecular level, not really nucleophillic attacks or anything of that sort. Quite alot of drugs seem to act on receptors (ie, beta blockers), channels (ie, Ca+ channel blockers), and enzymes (ie, ACE inhibitors). A lot of biochem and molecular bio related stuff, but not really OChem. Remember secondary messenger systems? cAMP? That's the kind of stuff you'll see again!

 

[BMBiology]

Thank you for everyone's inputs.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Speaking of Organic, does anyone know any good online help/review sites? I'll be taking it in the fall and any additional stuff would be great.

 

[jdpharmd?]

Originally posted by Cozmosis
Speaking of Organic, does anyone know any good online help/review sites? I'll be taking it in the fall and any additional stuff would be great.

There's a lot to be found here.

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/intro1.htm

This was my o-chem class, and we didn't have a real book, just the online tutorials, questions, etc. It's pretty useful, and free.

Jd

 

[Triangulation]

Organic is actually one of the easier classes to teach yourself, if you're serious about it. Get a good text, I recommend McMurray. I don't recommend Solomons (although my prof did the graphics for it) or Wade. You can learn a ton of it over the summer if you wanted to. The probs in a text will give you plenty of review material and they usually come with a cd.