Surving Summer Orgo!

[Kochanie]

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Any tips from someone who has been there (or not)? I'm so nervous. Even 10 weeks is fast for me, 3 weeks with lab, will be the death of me.

 

[kyamh]

Take a deep breath, you're in a better position than someone going into the summer thinking they'll get Orgo I/II "out of the way quickly". Condensing that much material is hard for anyone and being apprehensive will keep you in line and not slacking in the beginning. Set a schedule for yourself and stick to it. Do yourself the favor of taking some extra time to review older concepts every day. Make sure to have at least a 1-3 hours a day dedicated to hanging out with friends, watching TV, grabbing a drink, etc. Get plenty of sleep.

 

[Kochanie]

Take a deep breath, you're in a better position than someone going into the summer thinking they'll get Orgo I/II "out of the way quickly". Condensing that much material is hard for anyone and being apprehensive will keep you in line and not slacking in the beginning. Set a schedule for yourself and stick to it. Do yourself the favor of taking some extra time to review older concepts every day. Make sure to have at least a 1-3 hours a day dedicated to hanging out with friends, watching TV, grabbing a drink, etc. Get plenty of sleep.

Thank you!🙂

 

[WhippleWhileWeWork]

Make sure to have at least a 1-3 hours a day dedicated to hanging out with friends, watching TV, grabbing a drink, etc. Get plenty of sleep.

Opposing viewpoint time: I'd kiss those 1-3 hours a day goodbye, buckle down for 3 weeks and rock it. Maybe give yourself one evening off a week. It's only 3 weeks, no play time necessary.

Work more synthesis problems and write your mechanisms at least 10 times each.

 

[Kochanie]

Opposing viewpoint time: I'd kiss those 1-3 hours a day goodbye, buckle down for 3 weeks and rock it. Maybe give yourself one evening off a week. It's only 3 weeks, no play time necessary.

Work more synthesis problems and write your mechanisms at least 10 times each.

Haha I will.

I wish my school let me take lab separately from the class. 10 hours of week + the outside work will be as hard as the actual class.

 

[juliuspepperwood]

Do tons of practice problems as well. Most people I know who had trouble with ochem assumed the "got" a concept and moved on. It's really all about putting in the time. Get some models if you have trouble conceptualizing things spatially.

 

[asigna]

I took orgo 1 over the summer last year, and it was over the span of six weeks- i can't imagine 3 weeks! definitely spend a lot of time working out problems, over and over again until you feel comfortable. You probably won't have much free time left over, but it's three weeks, so it's definitely a LOT of work in a little bit of time. Just keep practicing over and over- don't get lazy over the summer!

 

[desdes]

I saw on here the book org chem as a second language and bought it and it really helped me alot

 

[Major]

In the boat with you OP

I am taking Ochem 1 and 2 this summer. Each one is 7 weeks long

Chads videos help a lot

And practice practice problems

And aceorganicchem.com has tons of old exams to practice problems

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

I TAed summer O Chem 1 and 2 a while back and it was definitely a haul for the students, but it's also kind of cool to be able to just focus on one class (we had 4 week summer courses). Incidently I also took summer chem 1 and 2 the year before and ended up actually enjoying it even though I went in scared out of my mind. Students in summer classes tend to form pretty strong friendships which is also kind of cool. If you are dedicated it will be doable for sure.

Just keep in mind that with the lab you are in class/lab a lot then you have lab write ups/homework/studying for exams in addition to that. Time management and good study habits are key. Needless to say, there was a significant correlation to time spent studying to high scores, which I mention because there were some students who were taking other summer courses or working a part time job and they couldn't dedicate enough time to mastering the material and really struggled once they got behind.

It's a marathon and you have to be sprinting the whole time, so don't get behind! 😛

 

[Euxox]

Opposing viewpoint time: I'd kiss those 1-3 hours a day goodbye, buckle down for 3 weeks and rock it. Maybe give yourself one evening off a week. It's only 3 weeks, no play time necessary.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought Kochanie was doing ten weeks combined Orgo I/II and a three week lab? If it's a ten week course, burnout is a very real danger, so I would agree with kyamh that it's important to schedule at least an hour of free time every day. Three hours might be excessive for summer Orgo.

 

[nemo123]

Some of my friends took Orgo during the summer after their freshman year, and they studied non-stop for 10 weeks because they covered so much material in one lecture and had biweekly quizzes. Some of them said a negative about taking a course that fast was not having enough time to really digest the material, but they said it was definitely worth it in the end (since we had to suffer through Orgo all year). The other positive though is that they only had to concentrate on one class.

 

[mehc012]

It's 2 classes. You will be fine.

 

[Muffinho]

Orgo I should be fairly straight forward if you did well in Gen Chem. Orgo II requires a lot more work (my experience, and the experiences of a few friends).

 

[Kochanie]

Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought Kochanie was doing ten weeks combined Orgo I/II and a three week lab? If it's a ten week course, burnout is a very real danger, so I would agree with kyamh that it's important to schedule at least an hour of free time every day. Three hours might be excessive for summer Orgo.

One quarter is 3 weeks x 3 + 2 times a week lab throughout.

 

[Kochanie]

I saw on here the book org chem as a second language and bought it and it really helped me alot

Already bought them! Thank you 🙂

 

[Kochanie]

I took orgo 1 over the summer last year, and it was over the span of six weeks- i can't imagine 3 weeks! definitely spend a lot of time working out problems, over and over again until you feel comfortable. You probably won't have much free time left over, but it's three weeks, so it's definitely a LOT of work in a little bit of time. Just keep practicing over and over- don't get lazy over the summer!

3 weeks x 3 = 9 weeks.
6 weeks x 2 = 12 weeks.
So it goes slightly faster. 🙁

 

[frosted_flake]

Orgo I should be fairly straight forward if you did well in Gen Chem. Orgo II requires a lot more work (my experience, and the experiences of a few friends).

This is how I feel.
I love organic SO MUCH MORE than general chemistry 2 (or 1) but definitely more than 2 🙂

 

[mrh125]

I had a 6 week summer orgo it's not that bad minus the additional labs (we had to do 2-3 labs per lab period). The material is fast as hell, but if you go through the material beforehand like before the summer session and make an effort to understand it you won't be as overwhelmed. Study every day and go through notes, use the free time summer grants you to focus entirely on o-chem. Also, if it's secondary semester ochem you have all the tools necessary to understand it it's just applying them, you've seen substitution reactions and nucleophilic addition reactions now you link them together with nucleophilic acyl substitutions. As you go farther and farther in o-chem you develop more of an intuition where can just see what does what. Make sure you know mechanisms (easy points), all your NMR junk (i hated NMR so much but it's almost always worth a ton of points), and do enough problems to develop intuition. There are a lot of things you may have to just memorize too like some of the whacky heterocycles reactions and the sugars and amino acids.

source: A+s all the way through o-chem.

 

[Frenchick]

Any tips from someone who has been there (or not)? I'm so nervous. Even 10 weeks is fast for me, 3 weeks with lab, will be the death of me.

I took orgo 1 with lab in 4 weeks. We had a test every Friday! it was crazy. I did just fine but I knew what I was getting myself into from the beginning. I studied every day for 4 hours after class doing nothing but practice problems. I also made flashcards for reactions and their mechanisms, which helped me out a lot. For some concepts I didn't understand, I watched this guy on youtube and his channel is Lancefreeteach. I highly recommend him, he's great. You will be fine.

 

[Judson]

I'm taking Orgo I this summer. First exam is one week from today. I've been reading the book, doing practice problems, and watching tutorials on YouTube. If I do well on the exam and remember to, I will post more details about my study habits day by day. Most important thing for me so far has been to watch or read something motivational about becoming a doctor before I go to bed every night. Helps me keep my goals in the forefront of my mind. 🙂

 

[Kochanie]

I took orgo 1 with lab in 4 weeks. We had a test every Friday! it was crazy. I did just fine but I knew what I was getting myself into from the beginning. I studied every day for 4 hours after class doing nothing but practice problems. I also made flashcards for reactions and their mechanisms, which helped me out a lot. For some concepts I didn't understand, I watched this guy on youtube and his channel is Lancefreeteach. I highly recommend him, he's great. You will be fine.

I used that dude a little bit! 4 hours seems good, I think I'm looking at more like 12 😵 lol.

 

[Kochanie]

I think this summer truly proves if this year was a slump or a comeback. 😀

 

[Kochanie]

How bad is it if I get an A-/B+ first quarter after getting a D the first time? Ideally I'd be shooting for an A the second time around but dang everything goes by so quick.🙁

 

[Keladry]

How bad is it if I get an A-/B+ first quarter after getting a D the first time? Ideally I'd be shooting for an A the second time around but dang everything goes by so quick.🙁

Those are great grades, especially for orgo 🙂 Definitely see if you can bring it up to an A, but don't fret too much if you're on track for an A-/B+!

 

[Contr0lz]

Don't worry OP, at least you're not taking P-Chem I alongside O-Chem I and II this summer :/

 

[Judson]

How bad is it if I get an A-/B+ first quarter after getting a D the first time? Ideally I'd be shooting for an A the second time around but dang everything goes by so quick.🙁

Not bad at all. That is a heck of an improvement. Shoot for the A and keep up the good work!

 

[Kochanie]

Don't worry OP, at least you're not taking P-Chem I alongside O-Chem I and II this summer :/

Wow that sucks. You got this. 😀

 

[Kochanie]

Guys, is spectrometry on the MCAT?

 

[Lawpy]

Guys, is spectrometry on the MCAT?

IR and NMR

 

[Kochanie]

IR and NMR

Oh damn, yeah we skipped all of it pretty quick, to the point the professor didn't expect us to get it.

 

[Kochanie]

Is this just orgo 1? or orgo 2 as well? my school is on a quarter system so i took each course in 10 week periods in the winter and spring. it was pretty rough having to speed through things, and i cant imagine it could be any better in the summer. im not going to sugar coat it; it's going to be tough.

Yeah I'm on quarters too. 9 weeks smushed into 3. So far, not horrible, but we switch professors next week.

 

[DocConk]

Mastering Organic Chemistry (at least, for our purposes) has everything to do with reading your chapters and doing LITERALLY every single practice problem available to you... Failure to understand an important mechanism or screwing up with predicting products will result in bad, bad grades.. Good luck!

 

[Contr0lz]

Wow that sucks. You got this. 😀

Thanks for the support! Thank god it will all be over this saturday 🙂 I hope you do really well. Good luck.

 

[bambam92]

Get both of kleins "orgo as a second language " books, and freelance teacher for whatever you are unsure of. And finally profit🙂

 

[Kochanie]

Get both of kleins "orgo as a second language " books, and freelance teacher for whatever you are unsure of. And finally profit🙂

Have them/use him already. 😀 I got this. I just make such little mistakes on my exams and when I look back, I'm like how the eff did I miss that. Whatever, I'm still way above the mean. 🙂

 

[hoihaie]

Have them/use him already. 😀 I got this. I just make such little mistakes on my exams and when I look back, I'm like how the eff did I miss that. Whatever, I'm still way above the mean. 🙂

donno about your school/professor, but sometimes I'm able to argue back points from stupid mistakes by clearly pointing out that I understand the concepts and just made some dumb error

 

[Kochanie]

donno about your school/professor, but sometimes I'm able to argue back points from stupid mistakes by clearly pointing out that I understand the concepts and just made some dumb error

Unfortunately, if you submit for a regrade, you're more likely to get more points taken off. Only one person has had a successful regrade in my professor's history lol.

 

[Kochanie]

Sorry for bumping this AGAIN. I did very well first quarter, but this quarter is kicking my ass. I barely studied last quarter and did great and now I'm studying all the time and I think I bombed my first midterm. I'm so confused by these mechanisms. Some of them don't make sense to me and it's so hard to learn them all. 🙁 Is there any way to learn them fast and well?

 

[Judson]

Sorry for bumping this AGAIN. I did very well first quarter, but this quarter is kicking my ass. I barely studied last quarter and did great and now I'm studying all the time and I think I bombed my first midterm. I'm so confused by these mechanisms. Some of them don't make sense to me and it's so hard to learn them all. 🙁 Is there any way to learn them fast and well?

My suggestion would be to assess which reactions your professor spent the most time with and learn them really well. It's better to know some reactions (and their mechanisms) with great confidence than to know all the reactions with little confidence. This is especially true in synthesis questions where you can choose from a few different reagents to form a product.

For mechanisms, just draw them over and over again. Use different -R groups to switch things up. Khan Academy is a good resource. For synthesis problems, do practice problems. As many practice problems as you can.

 

[DocConk]

It's the principles behind the mechanisms that will allow you to learn them well. Anyone can push arrows and hope for the best. Focus on the why.

 

[Kochanie]

My suggestion would be to assess which reactions your professor spent the most time with and learn them really well. It's better to know some reactions (and their mechanisms) with great confidence than to know all the reactions with little confidence. This is especially true in synthesis questions where you can choose from a few different reagents to form a product.

For mechanisms, just draw them over and over again. Use different -R groups to switch things up. Khan Academy is a good resource. For synthesis problems, do practice problems. As many practice problems as you can.

It's the principles behind the mechanisms that will allow you to learn them well. Anyone can push arrows and hope for the best. Focus on the why.

Thanks, I definitely tried to know each mechanism a little bit instead of a few very well. 🙁 But, thank you! I'll work on them all this weekend.

 

[Kochanie]

What do you mean by bomb? Below a B? I finished my summer course and I'm kind of freaking out that I might get a B+ since like every single other person in the course is going to get an A-.

Every person gets an A-? Ugh I hate my school. The class is curved to a B- or a C+. I think I did below average or average meaning I got a B- or lower, not good. We'll see soon, I don't even know what the average/my grade is yet.

 

[Lawpy]

Sorry for bumping this AGAIN. I did very well first quarter, but this quarter is kicking my ass. I barely studied last quarter and did great and now I'm studying all the time and I think I bombed my first midterm. I'm so confused by these mechanisms. Some of them don't make sense to me and it's so hard to learn them all. 🙁 Is there any way to learn them fast and well?

What topic is this?

 

[Kochanie]

What topic is this?

Alcohols and ethers. :/

 

[Doctor Dream]

Sorry for bumping this AGAIN. I did very well first quarter, but this quarter is kicking my ass. I barely studied last quarter and did great and now I'm studying all the time and I think I bombed my first midterm. I'm so confused by these mechanisms. Some of them don't make sense to me and it's so hard to learn them all. 🙁 Is there any way to learn them fast and well?

Learn them fast? Not really, at least for me. Learn them well? Repetition is HUGE here. I made flashcards of every mechanism we went over in class. I studied them CONSTANTLY, at least 3 or 4 hours everyday, including weekends. I made sure I knew them front to back. It took a lot of work, but I destroyed the exams. I missed probably like 5 points worth of mechanism questions throughout the entire semester.

So to sum it up, flashcards worked amazing for me. I studied them so much and I made sure the mechanisms were my b!tch when I went in to take the exam.

 

[allantois]

Alcohols and ethers. :/

That was my least favorite topic. What are your exams like and how much material do they cover and also does your professor go by the book or uses power points?

 

[Kochanie]

Learn them fast? Not really, at least for me. Learn them well? Repetition is HUGE here. I made flashcards of every mechanism we went over in class. I studied them CONSTANTLY, at least 3 or 4 hours everyday, including weekends. I made sure I knew them front to back. It took a lot of work, but I destroyed the exams. I missed probably like 5 points worth of mechanism questions throughout the entire semester.

So to sum it up, flashcards worked amazing for me. I studied them so much and I made sure the mechanisms were my b!tch when I went in to take the exam.

I know, fast is not the way to go but it is Summer Session. Haha, I will make flashcards tonight.🙂

 

[Kochanie]

That was my least favorite topic. What are your exams like and how much material do they cover and also does your professor go by the book or uses power points?

So we just switched professors. My last one was very conceptual and I loooved him. This one uses the power points that go with the book and uses pretty generic exams (fill in reagents/mechanisms/syntheses).

 

[Lawpy]

Alcohols and ethers. :/

Well, i hate to say this, but that's actually the easier part of ochem. Wait till you get to carbonyls, Wittigs, aldols/Claisens and other fun stuff