thoughts on organic chem

[dapmp91]

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hey guys, i just wanted your advice on organic chem,,i heard so many stories about it and i;m thinking about taking it right after gen chem, i dont know how i;ll do in it,, i;m fairly good in gen chem math and philosophy,,there definitely my strong points, but i still have the 😱 and 😕 attitude about organic chem,,,did any supplemental books help yo, like that any references books you might advise me to get,,,i;m scared guys,,your consolation would be helpful 😳

 

[Rafa]

It involves far less math than general chemistry, but requires more visualization.

(Things I wish people had told me before taking it)

 

[muzikbuf]

i really never understood all the fuss about o-chem. just as in any subject, there is a method to the madness and if you understand the fundamentals, you should do just fine.
don't freak out about it.

i never had to use any supplemental materials, except for a molecular bonding model kit. that was helpful in the very beginning. i hear there are some videos that are also helpful...

just remember it's like playing with tinker toys, and that carbon has 4 valence electrons. the rest is just problem solving.

 

[ShyRem]

There is a book about pushing electrons that I heard was very good. I didn't have too much trouble in that regard, but I know other folks swore by it.

 

[Shades McCool]

Study like you would for a class that you think will be very hard.....a lot.

Besides that, if you are struggling, go talk to the teacher.

 

[kyatter]

I made note cards for the reactions we had to memorize (although I probably didn't have to). Writing out the reactions helps a lot. Good luck.

 

[top]

i thought organic was pretty rough (i'm a humanities double major, and i stopped taking chem immediately after orgo). i got through it by looking at lots of reactions until i thought i understood the mechanism...just as much work as memorizing every single one, and more helping for those screwball exam questions. plus i remembered more for my mcat prep.

 

[QofQuimica]

I started out college as a math major, then switched to biology, so I didn't take organic until my junior year. I loved it so much that I went to grad school in organic. If you go into the class with a positive attitude, you may be surprised to find that it's a very interesting subject. You absolutely cannot have a good understanding of biology unless you also have a good understanding of organic chemistry. Chemistry is the basis of life itself.

Yes, you will probably have to work hard, but that is true of most things that are worth doing. If you study for an hour per day, every day, you should be fine. I wrote a post about this in the subforum. Here is the link: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=2877570&postcount=2 Hope this helps, and best of to you. 🙂

 

[Dave_D]

i really never understood all the fuss about o-chem. just as in any subject, there is a method to the madness and if you understand the fundamentals, you should do just fine.
don't freak out about it.

i never had to use any supplemental materials, except for a molecular bonding model kit. that was helpful in the very beginning. i hear there are some videos that are also helpful...

just remember it's like playing with tinker toys, and that carbon has 4 valence electrons. the rest is just problem solving.

Well I can tell you what gave me problems and it's like Rafa said, it's more about visualization.(Given that so much of gen chem 1 & 2 was algebra that's a BIG difference.) Structure is by far the most important thing in orgo.(So if you're good at geometry good for you, bad if not.) I've also said this alot one of the big problems with orgo is it's very easy to do a problem and get an answer that makes sense but is utterly wrong. With gen chem you can check the units as your first check, then the numbers as the second.(Usually if the units are good, the numbers sound about right you did the problem correctly.)

Actually I've said this before alot of orgo has little or nothing to do with gen chem as I learned it.(We covered lewis acid/base very briefly, barely touched on hybrid orbitals and partial charges. Never talked about resonance.) I mean look at what I learned about in chem 2, gases(completely ignored), equilibriums(barely mentioned in orgo, you only had to know the gist of it.) and electro chem.(Completely ignored.)

Oh the other thing with orgo is there quite a bit more memorization in it. For example a bunch of reactions each semester.(I know what someone is going to say, you can figure them out. I say this is bull since more than a few require specific catalysts to work and at our level of understanding the idea we would know how this actually works is laughable.) Oh, that and the fact in gen chem you'll use standardized names for compounds. That's not true of organic, you'll use common names that simply have to be memorized and too many of them start with one letter, that being 'A'.(I mean honestly, have you ever heard of vitriol or muriatic acid in gen chem? Those are common names but they don't use them. What's weird is they actually have a standardized naming convention, IUPAC, but they hate using it.)

 

[deuist]

Organic is a sick joke that adcoms play on pre-meds.

 

[JulioFly]

it's funny how much people mistakelnly believe that Ochem is "difficult" moer than it just being simply a lot of WORK. I'm an average student. But I rocked Ochem. why? because i heard everyone bitching and moaning about how hard it is, so as a result, i made a decision that I would be on top of my ****. Do all the reading ahead of time, stay on schedule, go to the extra help workshops, take a lot of practice tests...the rest falls into place. What most people are not prepared for is the AMOUNT of material that is in Ochem, so when they procrastinate, there's no way to cram. Smart, lazy people do poorly in ochem. People who work hard see the results of their hard studying...just like any other subject. Don't be afraid.

Ochem is a weeder class to filter out people who aren't prepared to work hard for this (seemingly useless) subject.

 

[91946]

One thing I notice about O chem is that it does not rely on simply just logic and good analytical skills like math or physics. The subject itself is very logical, so on first glance you'll feel that you understand it right away, but it takes alot of practice until you master all the typical mechanism. So I would recommend just doing alot of problem until you sorta see all the probablle scenario and then the test should be fine. Also, the ochem section on the MCAT was very minimal.

 

[kovalchuk]

I'm was a Bio major that HATED Gen Chem with a passion. However, I have found that I love Organic and have switched over to a Chem major (I hate Bio though).

There is very little math in Organic, and most of what you learn in Gen Chem is not applicable in Organic. The key to Organic, I believe, is fully understanding the first five or so chapters of your textbook (usually up to stereochemistry, then reactions start shortly thereafter). These concepts are crucial for understanding reactions, so nail them down!

The only books you really need are your text and solutions manual (hopefully it's a good text). Just do all the problems. If you have problems, use office hours or seek tutoring. There are just some things that you cannot teach yourself.

Do not be afraid of Organic! I was, and now I thank God for every day I have with Organic Chemistry (ok not really, but I think it's a cool subject). Good luck!

Edit: Also, I believe that if you do well in Organic (A's) you'll make up a lot of ground for sub-par grades in other pre-reqs. Organic chemistry isn't that applicable to medicine, but you're proving that you can apply rules to complex situations, much like what you'll do when you're a doctor. So do well and distract adcoms with those A's in ochem!

 

[eastsidaz]

Just work your ass off early on and you'll get good enough at it that you won't have to expend that much effort later. Unlike general chem, it isn't a litany of new topics (thermodynamics, kinetics, acid/base chemistry). It's basically one big, overarching concept that integrates those things and is then applied to different-looking molecules. One hour spent during the third week of class equals 5 hours spent during the twentieth week. Seriously.

 

[nikibean]

I took OChem as a post-bac. My original majors were lit and women's studies.

I LOVED Ochem. It was my favorite subject in my postbac program. I thought it was so frickin' interesting to be able to make stuff, so I got really into it. Lab was fun, although difficult.
The concepts aren't that tough- some of the three-dimensional stuff is a little more difficult to digest, but my secret?

I STAYED ON TOP OF MY WORK. We didn't have homework- nothing was required- just a weekly quiz and three tests + 1 final per semester. Homework was done in lab, and I made sure I did it first, even though I found physics to be much more challenging personally.
I actually read, took notes, compared them to class notes, and spent about 5 hrs/weekend on Ochem, and about 1 hr every other morning on Ochem. Lab? about 3 hrs/week unless a huge project was due. Loved it.

Keep with it, and you'll do fine.

 

[stylerprodigy]

I agree. I love organic and I'm taking the second part right now and am in excellent standing thus far. A lot of my classmates are either getting C's or failing and I do not understand why. The whole course takes practice. It might seem like there is a lot to remember but if you think about it, everything in that class builds on chapter after chapter. Basically you should memorize all reactions and any exceptions that go with it. Then use what you know to synthesize products. The things you would probably bring with you from general chemistry are hybridize orbitals, formal charge, lewis dot structures, acid/base, and maybe dynamic equilibrium for lab purposes. I think it depends on the intructor but for mechanisms, we draw out step by step with arrow pushes and explain why. Same thing for the exceptions to reactions, my instructor was interested in why there are exceptions, why we must protect an alcohol when making a grignard reagent etc.. and a lot of the explaining deals with general chemistry.
If I could break the whole course down it would be nomenclature, structural formula, types of reactions, mechanisms, synthesis and interpreting graphical analysis such as IR spec and NMR. Like others have said, if you attack each section at a time and retain it then you should have no problem. I think people who make a fuss about it either hear others fuss which in turn makes it hard for them, or they just don't try at all. I hope this helps and good luck to you.

Tyler

 

[Pemulis]

Get "Organic Chemistry as a Second Langauge" by David Klein, and read through the first few chapters of it before class starts. Then go back to it periodically through the first semester to help you nail the basics.

Other than that, just do what everyone else has said: prepare to work hard, at least an hour or two a day. Stay on top of the reading, go to class, do lots of practice problems, and write out mechanisms over and over again until you can do them in your sleep. It's really not a hard class if you keep on top of stuff.

Good luck.

 

[sit down lucy]

I had a deck of index cards (like 300 by the time I was through with orgo II), each with a reaction on them. I'd add to them after every lecture or chapter or workshop. I kept them in my backpack, and I'd run through them whenever I had a spare second. Knowing all of the reagents/catalysts made the mechanisms a lot easier to understand (at least for me).

Also, the best way to make the flashcards is with reactants and reagents/catalysts on one side, and reactants and products on the other side... that way it's like two sets of flashcards in one.

 

[Dave_D]

Other than that, just do what everyone else has said: prepare to work hard, at least an hour or two a day. Stay on top of the reading, go to class, do lots of practice problems, and write out mechanisms over and over again until you can do them in your sleep. It's really not a hard class if you keep on top of stuff.

Good luck.

Got to second this. You are FAR better served by pacing yourself through any class than by trying to cram at the end. I found the single most important thing is to do the homework, hell do more than they ask.(If you do even just an hour a day it's surprising how good you can get.) The second part to that is when you do the homework check your answer in the solution manual to make sure you really understood it.