Using Anki for Organic?

[663697]

Hi everyone,

I have my final exam coming up for Organic Chemistry and I've been overwhelmed by the amount of content that has been thrown at me in the past week. My professor managed to blow by the final 3 chapters in a week and a half, and it happens to be the toughest chapters yet (involving all kinds of reactions and synthesis).

I've been trying to keep up and have done as many problems as I can for the different types of reactions, but whenever I'm faced with a new situation, such as predicting products or intermediates I seem to freeze up at times.

My professor has provided quite a long list of all the reactions we need to know for the final exam, including the conditions required, etc. arranged by functional groups.

For those of you who managed to do well in this course, I was wondering if using Anki flashcards would be the best way to learn all of these reactions in the amount of time I have left.

Thanks!

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[pseud0]

The way I managed to get an A- in orgo 1 and 2 was to literally do every single problem in the Wade textbook along with closely looking at the solutions manual. It's really just practicing over, and over, and over. Get nightmares just thinking about it

I would not personally use flashcards for this..i guess you could? I think you'll learn more by just sitting down and pushing electrons around all day.

 

[663697]

The way I managed to get an A- in orgo 1 and 2 was to literally do every single problem in the Wade textbook along with closely looking at the solutions manual. It's really just practicing over, and over, and over. Get nightmares just thinking about it

I would not personally use flashcards for this..i guess you could? I think you'll learn more by just sitting down and pushing electrons around all day.

There are around 30 reactions to memorize, though 🙁

Do you think just doing problems would be sufficient to distinguish between all of them?

 

[pseud0]

I know there's a lot. A lot of the reactions you learn in orgo actually have very similar steps. As long as you do enough problems so that you're exposed to each of those 30 reactions you need to know, you're good.

This blogpost is very good at explaining what you need to do to get through orgo, even though for you it's a bit late.

Study hard, and study every day
The only way to get an A in organic chemistry is to spend at least 10 hours a week studying. If you’re not used to spending this much time on a single course, get used to it because it’s very easy to fall behind and get lulled into a false sense of security. Organic chemistry requires that you study and review every single day so that the material becomes familiar and less intimidating.

Understand, don’t memorize
One of the biggest mistakes students make when learning organic chemistry is trying to memorize everything. Naturally there will be memorization involved, but more important is your ability to really understand what’s going on so that you can solve problems that you’ve never seen before. Each concept in organic chemistry builds upon previous principles, so get in the habit of reviewing summaries and notes from previous material as new material is introduced.

Draw out mechanisms
Even if you don’t have to draw out mechanisms to get an answer, do so anyway. By drawing mechanisms, you’ll get a better understanding of the chemistry involved and you’ll become more intuitive. One of the best books I’ve seen for helping students visualize organic molecules is Pushing Electrons by Daniel Weeks.

Work as many problems as possible
It’s not enough to read and understand the material. You have to work lots of problems in order to apply the concepts you learn. Always study with a pencil and paper, and never resort to the answer page until you have seriously attempted to solve the problem. When you get an answer wrong, understand why. It’s not enough to read through problems and look at the answers. You have to do the problems.

Work in groups
Organic chemistry is one of those courses where it’s helpful to study in groups. Ask each other questions, solve problems together, and teach one another. If you can explain a concept to someone else, then you know that you understand it.

Don’t wait to get help
Falling behind is one the biggest reasons for failure, so as soon as you encounter problems, go see the instructor or tutor for help. Don’t underestimate the value of extra help sessions. If they’re offered, go to them, ask questions, and review what you’ve learned. It’s hard to catch up in organic chemistry once you’ve fallen behind, so the best way to do well is to try to get ahead of the class and look for help at the first sign of trouble.

The way in which you learn and practice organic chemistry will be very beneficial to the way you’ll learn material in medical school. Courses such as medical biochemistry, pharmacology (which has a lot of organic compounds), microbiology, and pathology all involve concepts that build on each other, much like in organic chemistry. Perhaps this is why admissions committees believe that doing well in organic prepares you for the way you’ll have to think and approach classes in medical school.

 

[663697]

I know there's a lot. A lot of the reactions you learn in orgo actually have very similar steps. As long as you do enough problems so that you're exposed to each of those 30 reactions you need to know, you're good.

This blogpost is very good at explaining what you need to do to get through orgo, even though for you it's a bit late.

Thanks for the tips. I've been managing well thus far, it's just that my prof decided to cram this insane amount to the very end of the course.

 

[treesnm3s]

I have an A in Orgo 1 at the moment. I use the Wiley book and do all the "Skillbuilder" problems in the book. I also use Anki to help me remember what reagents yield what product, regioselectivity, etc. It was really useful in remembering IR functional group locations. I can send you my deck if you want. It has cards from every Orgo 1 topic (except for free radicals, which I'll do soon).

 

[sullen-burger]

I know you said your final is coming up, so you're doing more reviewing than learning...


...but this site was like a bible to me during orgo: http://www.masterorganicchemistry.com/blog/?_ga=1.155638520.2112063772.1480648518

The search function gives you a nice treasure trove of articles as well as a convenient list of every high-yield topic in orgo index 1 and 2 at the top.

The indices have almost every topic you might need to review or get a different way of being explained. Good luck!

 

[OchemOficionado]

I rarely used flash cards for ochem, but if that's what's worked for you in the past GO FOR IT! A white board became invaluable to me though.

 

[getfat]

Anki w/ Image Occlusion helped me a lot memorizing reagents for certain reactions.

Doesn't help a lot with figuring out products but its a good tool to gain the foundation.

 

[Lost in Translation]

I rarely used flash cards for ochem, but if that's what's worked for you in the past GO FOR IT! A white board became invaluable to me though.

White board was my best friend for orgo. The reactions you really need to just do out. It has to become muscle memory or else you're going to have a hard time recalling it on the exam when it's presented differently.

 

[aldol16]

You're going about this the wrong way. Don't use the word "memorize." "Internalize" is a better word. What you should be trying to do here is writing out the reactions and mechanisms so that you're doing them and understanding them. Patterns will start to emerge and you'll start making connections.

 

[pseud0]

If you see 30 random reactions to memorize, and you can't distinguish between all of them, you may be missing the bigger picture. How many of them are examples of the same mechanism? It's been a while for me so I might get these examples wrong but here's what I mean: Say you look at 4 different reactions and try to learn them as "saponification," "transesterification," "Fisher esterification," and "hydrolysis" and spend however long agonizing over the reactants, products, etc. But really they are all the same nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction that you could learn in a general form and then use principles of nucleophilicity and acid/base equilibria to work out the rest.

That way your 30 reactions quickly collapse into a handful of mechanisms at most, and all you have to memorize are a few solvents, reaction conditions, etc.

exactly. It's been a while for me, but iirc there are like maybe 6 or so major mechanisms you need to remember, and the rest is just variations based on what functional groups are present

 

[Albanian Mafia]

You should focus on reviewing notes/class materials before studying outside sources. I earned an A in both orgo1/2 without using any outside material. All I did was take notes meticulously. And this wasn't at some community college. I attended HYP.

 

[Fancy_Feast]

Hi everyone,

I have my final exam coming up for Organic Chemistry and I've been overwhelmed by the amount of content that has been thrown at me in the past week. My professor managed to blow by the final 3 chapters in a week and a half, and it happens to be the toughest chapters yet (involving all kinds of reactions and synthesis).

I've been trying to keep up and have done as many problems as I can for the different types of reactions, but whenever I'm faced with a new situation, such as predicting products or intermediates I seem to freeze up at times.

My professor has provided quite a long list of all the reactions we need to know for the final exam, including the conditions required, etc. arranged by functional groups.

For those of you who managed to do well in this course, I was wondering if using Anki flashcards would be the best way to learn all of these reactions in the amount of time I have left.

Thanks!

I made a spreadsheet of all the reactions. It listed the kind of reactants or the name of the type of reaction (Ozonolysis of an Alkene H2O2 + O3), what would happen in the reax. (Dbl bond breaks), and the products (Oxidization: double bonded O and addition of an OH).

This helped me quickly see the differences between different similar reactions. Then, because I'm a visual learner, I spent a lot of time drawing and redrawing reactions on a whiteboard.