Tips on preparing for ochem exxam

[Theafoni]

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Any tips on preparing for an ochem exam in about a weeks time. I have some old tests and planned to re-do some practice problems. The material consists of lewis structures, resonance, acids and bases, functional groups, alkanes, and newman projections.

 

[deleted407021]

Easy stuff. The best method I know of is going through each tested chapter and taking detailed notes on printer paper. Once you're done you have all that information fresh in your mind and you end up with a dense, personalized study guide. YMMV. It's pretty time consuming, but it got m As on 2 Ochem I exams. I self teach a lot any way. Good luck on your exam.

 

[Ace-Co-A]

Do as many practice problems as you can. There is a logic to Organic Chemistry that I discovered at the end of my first semester that was helpful in understanding the material. I discovered this logic by doing a ton of problems.

When you get something incorrect, try to find out why it is that you were lead astray. For example, in attempting to name a complicated-looking molecule, at which step did you become confused? Could you identify the principal chain? Could you identify the priority of functional groups? etc. Another example: in playing with Newman projections, do you understand why some conformations are preferred and others are not?

A third example: in synthesizing something from an alkane, what are my options to obtain a more malleable functional group (rather than a stubborn methyl or methylene proton, say a chloride, a bromine, or hydroxyl).

Organic Chemistry was by far and away my favorite prerequisite course, and I'll do my best to answer any specific questions you may have.

 

[Contr0lz]

Best of luck!

 

[medicalmnt]

studying for my ochem 2 exam right now.

for ochem1 I ended up with a B+ but I thought I could have done a lot better after I saw my final grade.
1. there is a structure and one unifying reasoning to everything
2. understand and learn how to read/draw arrows
3. BEAR
4. make as much notes focusing on the main concepts as possible
5. do every single problem you can find
6. curve #TYBG

for ochem2, i definitely feel very confident that i'll do better than ochem1. mainly because ochem1 i psyched myself out and tried to read every single text in the book instead of trying to get the main concepts. its not as daunting as people make it out to be. i have about ~4/5 pages onsided (sharpie) notes per chapter

the good thing is that after ochem1/2 you'll have a lot less pre-med competition

**this is currently my most favorite class atm. harder than genchem/cell/etc but its not how much you can memorize but rather how well you can understand a concept
gl

 

[ruedjgtc]

I think medicalmnt covered it pretty well. It's very similar to learning how to play an instrument or learn a language, you'll never grow proficient from just staring at the sheet music or the language texts. I was an Organic Chemistry tutor, retired as I was accepted some I'm jettisoning that crap out of my life until August. But, in general perfect practice makes perfect.

My observations on students who have done well or my own pattern:

1. Know your enemy - always access where you are in the course, it's easy to fall behind, very easy.
2. Prep before class - read lectures, review past notes to remember the story line that the professor is weaving.
3. Attend class, take notes - develop a fast note taking system, for e.g. using an asterisk when you see them being emphatic about a particular idea/process, it or some analogy to it usually winds up on the test.
4. Summarize pertinent chapter sections, do homework 3×4 times, review past mistakes. Be willing to back track and study stuff on your own to strengthen your weak points. For example, if you're a Lewis Dot weakling you'll always be in for a world of hurt.
5. Attend office hours after exhausting (or while exhausting) your resources -- office hours are only useful if you've put a lot of thought into the questions before you show up. Also, knowing the professor better will help you understand what they prefer to see you exhibit to show your mastery of Orgo -- each professor had a different post doc and a different position usually. For example, one professor I had to tutor for had his PhD towards kinetics, so he'd ask the same types of questions but veil them in Ka values. While another professor was a synthetic chemist, and preferred confirmed pathways and practical mechanisms (but you were responsible for everything with no visual aids or notes). An NMR professor loved theory, so expected you to know the more theoretical stuff, so he let you use cards. Know your professor.
6. Reconcile everything and prep for next class -- you have to learn how to consolidate your notes and ideas every few weeks. My college was a quarter system, so we had a midterm (or two) after a month after class started followed by a final about a month later or less. So, if you weren't on top of your game you'd just fail and retake the quarter again. Learn how to speak OChem.

I stole my list from myself on my blog linked in my sig,I drone on about it more there.

Good luck.

 

[Bodysurfer]

Easy stuff. The best method I know of is going through each tested chapter and taking detailed notes on printer paper. Once you're done you have all that information fresh in your mind and you end up with a dense, personalized study guide. YMMV. It's pretty time consuming, but it got m As on 2 Ochem I exams. I self teach a lot any way. Good luck on your exam.

Got to agree with detailed notes on nice printer paper. Really helped me especially with reactions (the second half of orgo 1).

Also practice problems up the wazoo. Consider getting orgo as a second language, awesome book. Also, the solutions manual to your textbook really helped me a lot.

Success in orgo 1 makes success in orgo two a lot easier. Personally, I felt like I put in a ton more work in orgo one and was able to build off that in orgo 2, trusting "chemical intuition"

 

[Member10billion]

Here is what got me an A: I made my ochem class into a "game." I bought a giant white board and wrote everything down as many times as I could. I'd quiz myself at random times (I'd try to write down all reagents as fast and as accurately as I could. I even tried to catch myself off guard). I also did practice problems galore. Pretty quickly, I was able to write down all the reagents and able to solve about 99% of the problems. I also found practice problems much more helpful than old tests, as I tend to just study the answers instead of figuring out the problems.

 

[Theafoni]

Thanks guys, I did quite well.

How can I continue this trend, professor said it'll only get harder from here?