self study for organic chemistry in the summer

[korndoctor]

what's a good method to study organic chemistry on my own in the summer, so i will be more prepared to take it in the fall 2006 semester? Any websites, books, outside materials that you would recommend i get? any advice is appreciated. thanks

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[jbrice1639]

the kids who did this in my class seemed to spend most of their time unlearning what they taught themselves and trying to learn the professor's way of doing things. enjoy your summer and let your professor teach you when class starts.

 

[DrBowtie]

Don't waste your summer. Organic isn't that bad, you just have to take the time to learn it right the first time in class.

 

[DownonthePharm]

I agree, organic is kind of a bugger to learn yourself because there is just SOOO much stuff in the text. Each teacher is different so you may even up memorizing a bunch of random crap. Just wait until fall, go to class every day, take good notes, ask questions, and do LOOOOTS of problems.

If you must: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by David Klein. There are two books in this series. They are deceptively thin, but really pack in the info. If you read through these books once, and putter around in them, you will be famililar enough with Organic to do fine.

 

[sbs152]

don't bother. orgo is tough, but if you keep up with the reading and do a lot of practice problems, it's really not bad at all.

put the book down and spend the summer getting acquainted with ethanol. it's in almost every reaction.

 

[masterMood]

what's a good method to study organic chemistry on my own in the summer, so i will be more prepared to take it in the fall 2006 semester? Any websites, books, outside materials that you would recommend i get? any advice is appreciated. thanks

what worked for me was to slack off and have lots of fun doing absolutely nothing, and by the time the week before school started, I got really nervous about doing well for classes, and that motivated me to work my ass off.

If you work over the summer, you're just going to burn out

 

[crazytech]

All the kids that did that in my class were so confident in their abilities to handle the "basics" did terrible when it came time to actually do orgo in chapter 6....Bust ass for the first couple chapters...live in your orgo book for the first month and a half...orgo I and orgo II should be easier than gen bio then

 

[korndoctor]

okay thanks all of your advices...i guess ill spend my time reading then instead of orgo any good books (fiction) you all recommend that i should read?

in high school we get reading lists for the summer, but in college, there's absolutely no motivation to read unless someone tells me to.

 

[masterMood]

i never read what was "recommended" or heck even necessary for over the summer during high school. But now that i am out of high school and in college, I have a desire to read for pleasure because I'm not being forces to read novels that the teacher selects (heck, there are some books that they forced us to read during high school that i absolutely hated reading not because the book was bad but because they forced us to read. I think this stems part from those damn quizzes for each chapter, and making reading more of an assignment than a pleasure).

Here's to reading. Maybe i'll read up on harry potter again (haven't read it since like 6th grade ho ho ho)

 

[DrBowtie]

okay thanks all of your advices...i guess ill spend my time reading then instead of orgo any good books (fiction) you all recommend that i should read?

in high school we get reading lists for the summer, but in college, there's absolutely no motivation to read unless someone tells me to.

I will fill you in on a secret. Do something productive over the summer. They are the absolute best time to shadow, volunteer, research etc.

 

[crazytech]

I will fill you in on a secret. Do something productive over the summer. They are the absolute best time to shadow, volunteer, research etc.

Hey Brett,
why are you always posting in such a condescending tone?

 

[DrBowtie]

Hey Brett,
why are you always posting in such a condescending tone?

Am I? I didn't know you could pick up a tone from my typing. I guess I should add to my happy posts.

 

[k_soze]

Learn these 3 things and you'll know everything you need for the MCAT:
-The 2 Elimination reactions
-The 2 Substitution reactions
-What the word "Markovnikov" means

Forget everything else that you learn in your O Chem class this fall.

 

[juiceman311]

Learn these 3 things and you'll know everything you need for the MCAT:
-The 2 Elimination reactions
-The 2 Substitution reactions
-What the word "Markovnikov" means

Forget everything else that you learn in your O Chem class this fall.

more or less true, wish i would have realized this and spent more time on physical sciences and other bio stuff. i think i had 11 ochem questions, i blow hard ass at ochem, and i know i missed only 1, real basic stuff.

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

Learn these 3 things and you'll know everything you need for the MCAT:
-The 2 Elimination reactions
-The 2 Substitution reactions
-What the word "Markovnikov" means

Forget everything else that you learn in your O Chem class this fall.

That would be pretty bad if their BS ends up being mostly orgo. What about NMR, carbonyl chemistry, CADs, oxidation reactions, amino acid chemistry, and carbohydrate chemistry? Those things showed up on my MCATs.