Take Organic Chemistry Lab after finishing Organic Chemistry II?

[Drogo]

For those of you who already have taken the lab portion, would it better for me to wait until I finish the two semesters of ochem lecture?

I'm currently signed up for ochem I this next Fall semester and ochem II the following Winter semester. Which means I would not take the ochem lab until after the Summer of next year.

Thoughts?

Thanks

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[brawwp]

Orgo I lab is easy. I am in it right now. I would just take it now to get it over with. Worst part (for my lab) is a lab report and pre-lab due every week. It is simple, but takes FOREVER to do. Which makes it better to get the lab over with before you have to enroll in harder classes with a harder schedule, as it only gets harder as you go on. I personally find orgo I lab much easier than my chem II lab experience. For chem II we had to pretty much make our own procedures, for orgo I you are given a book and follow procedures. The amounts of chemicals to mix, etc are all given to you. It is very easy.

 

[Rikkarikka]

The lab and lecture are generally meant to be taken together so it shouldn't be a problem at all.
The lab class is supposed to supplement the material you learn in lecture.

Also, lab is actually pretty tough at my school, so it would really depend on your school's ochem department.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I think at many schools, the lecture and lab are co-requisites. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone taking lab separately from the lecture. Orgo lab is really not that difficult. It's just boring and is a lot of standing around waiting for things to reflux for an hour.

 

[Drogo]

I think at many schools, the lecture and lab are co-requisites. This is the first I've ever heard of anyone taking lab separately from the lecture. Orgo lab is really not that difficult. It's just boring and is a lot of standing around waiting for things to reflux for an hour.

Well here is the deal at my school, Ochem I and Gen Chem II are prereqs for the lab component. Ochem I is not a corequisite for the lab portion. I have my Gen Chem sequence done, but I was just confused with how to go about Ochem. It looks like I have to complete Ochem I before I can even get into the lab portion.

My logic was in that if I just knocked out the year of Ochem lecture, that I would get a bit more out of the lab portion (also make it easier) going in with two semesters of lecture versus just one.

Also I really want to 4.0 Ochem II. The prof at my school knows his stuff damn well but supposedly is as tough as they come. I'm debating whether or not I should take the lab portion next Winter semester with Ochem II.

Also, I have been reading on here about some posters mentioning an Ochem Lab II portion. My school only offers one Ochem Lab course (2 cr hrs). Am I missing something here or is it the norm for most schools to just have one 200 lvl Ochem Lab course?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Well here is the deal at my school, Ochem I and Gen Chem II are prereqs for the lab component. Ochem I is not a corequisite for the lab portion. I have my Gen Chem sequence done, but I was just confused with how to go about Ochem. It looks like I have to complete Ochem I before I can even get into the lab portion.

My logic was in that if I just knocked out the year of Ochem lecture, that I would get a bit more out of the lab portion (also make it easier) going in with two semesters of lecture versus just one.

Also I really want to 4.0 Ochem II. The prof at my school knows his stuff damn well but supposedly is as tough as they come. I'm debating whether or not I should take the lab portion next Winter semester with Ochem II.

Also, I have been reading on here about some posters mentioning an Ochem Lab II portion. My school only offers one Ochem Lab course (2 cr hrs). Am I missing something here or is it the norm for most schools to just have one 200 lvl Ochem Lab course?

I think it's more the norm for there to be two separate orgo labs for each level of the lecture. Most schools count eight credits of orgo with lab as a prereq, so three per lecture and one per lab. I don't know how yours would work.

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[TexasSurgeon]

For those of you who already have taken the lab portion, would it better for me to wait until I finish the two semesters of ochem lecture?

I'm currently signed up for ochem I this next Fall semester and ochem II the following Winter semester. Which means I would not take the ochem lab until after the Summer of next year.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Take them together! You will hate taking organic lab after you're done with the lecture. The lab helps you learn the material better. If you take it after you learned everything, you'll just find it a waste of time.

Organic labs at my school are brutal. They're 6 hours long and count for 2 hours credit.

 

[brawwp]

Yeah mine are 2 credit hours and I go one night a week 6:20pm-10:10pm. We usually get out early. You get one partner. Our lab is following directions given to you in lab lecture on another day which is an hour class where the lab is explained. The procedure is also in a lab manual. If you can follow directions, you'll be fine. If you mess up (which we have a few times) you simply explain why you messed up in your lab report. My lab report and pre lab takes me an entire day to complete. This is why I would find it best to take it early, so your lab doesn't interfere with your studying for harder courses.

 

[TXTide]

Many people at my school use the schedule you are proposing in order to get the better lab prof (the one who teaches the Spring semester is brutal). Our lab is two credits, and you have to take it at the same time as or after OChem II. You should talk to upperclassmen at your school, because at my school no one has said anything about the lab being a good supplement to the lecture material. I think the advantages and disadvantages of how you schedule this are probably very different from school to school.

 

[RaspberrySlushy]

I took lab after finishing my year of ochem and it was a really good decision for me. Ochem was a big time investment and I was also taking physics (& physics lab, they have to be concurrent at my school) and could not invest the time for lab so focused on lecture alone.

Then this year I took ochem lab along w/some upper division classes, and while lab did take up a lot of time w/reports and pre-lab, the lab itself was actually fun. Maybe it's b/c I had already gone through lecture material which made understanding what we were doing so much easier, maybe it was my TA, maybe it was the fact that though I was taking upper division classes at the same time, they were focused classes rather than those big intro classes, who knows. But I do know I truly enjoyed ochem lab and didn't feel a huge time crunch.

 

[Drogo]

I took lab after finishing my year of ochem and it was a really good decision for me. Ochem was a big time investment and I was also taking physics (& physics lab, they have to be concurrent at my school) and could not invest the time for lab so focused on lecture alone.

Then this year I took ochem lab along w/some upper division classes, and while lab did take up a lot of time w/reports and pre-lab, the lab itself was actually fun. Maybe it's b/c I had already gone through lecture material which made understanding what we were doing so much easier, maybe it was my TA, maybe it was the fact that though I was taking upper division classes at the same time, they were focused classes rather than those big intro classes, who knows. But I do know I truly enjoyed ochem lab and didn't feel a huge time crunch.

Yeah I will be taking physics alongside ochem II next Winter semester. I will take the advice of speaking to some upperclassmen and getting a feel for what the best route would be. Ochem is a pain, it sounds like you have to put so much work into it and very little is tested on the MCAT. One way or another though I'm going to 4.0 the bastards.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

[GopherMD]

I found the lab portion to be easier after taking both ochem I and II. Although the lab (at least at my school) is designed to follow what you learn in the ochem II lecture, occasionally a particularly lab design used mechanisms not yet learned in the lecture. I don't think you can go wrong either way, but I'm glad I took the lab after both ochem lecture sections. Just my two cents.

 

[Faol]

For those of you who already have taken the lab portion, would it better for me to wait until I finish the two semesters of ochem lecture?

I'm currently signed up for ochem I this next Fall semester and ochem II the following Winter semester. Which means I would not take the ochem lab until after the Summer of next year.

Thoughts?

Thanks

I dont think it would be of any added benefit for you to wait until finishing both semesters of the course to begin the first semester's lab. That said, I took my O chem 1 lab concurrent with the O chem 2 course and am happy I did. At my school there are multiple O chem teachers who teach different portions of the class at different times so lots of students who took the first lab and class together had never seen the lab material before.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Just take it as early as you can. Finish the misery as quick and clean as possible.

 

[Clemsonfive0]

My school is on the quarter system and my ochem lab is a two class series starting the second quarter. Just read ahead and have a general idea of what's going on, follow directions and you'll do great.

I have a question of my own.

Hi I'm a premed student and took the first of two organic chem labs offered at my school. I'm really debating taking the second of the two because almost 0 med schools require it to begin with and it's a very time consuming class. I'm already taking a general chem, organic chem and work out class. Can anybody share in their experiences about the importance of a second orgo chem lab class?

 

[altblue]

For those of you who already have taken the lab portion, would it better for me to wait until I finish the two semesters of ochem lecture?

I'm currently signed up for ochem I this next Fall semester and ochem II the following Winter semester. Which means I would not take the ochem lab until after the Summer of next year.

Thoughts?

Thanks

That's what I did, but with an even larger gap. I did fine. You'll do fine.