Whats harder O Chem or Physics?

[Mike MacKinnon]

Hey all

I figured this would be funny since i made the assumption that O chem was harder now people are telling me its the otherway around. WooHoo scheduled O chem alone and physics with another class! Go ME!

Anywho, which an why?

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[kumark13]

I blew through physics. Never had much of a problem with it. I guess it helps that I took some good physics in high school and started out as a mechanical engineering major. I decided to leave the ease of physics for the pre-med route so that I could take o-chem. O chem pretty much makes me bend over and just take it. one more week left of ochem 2 and i will be done. thank goodness

 

[ambernikel]

Hey all

I figured this would be funny since i made the assumption that O chem was harder now people are telling me its the otherway around. WooHoo scheduled O chem alone and physics with another class! Go ME!

Anywho, which an why?

I think they are really neither that difficult but I haven't had 2nd year Physics yet. From my experience, the thing that is hard is the teacher. In OChem 1 my teacher lectured but never really explained, it was all memorization. An insane amount of (at the time) meaningless memorization. In OChem 2 a different teacher used group learning and rarely lectured. We learned the mechanisms to all the rxns we had memorized in OChem1.
The only hard thing about my physics class is putting up with my teacher and having the discipline to teach myself the coursework chapter by chapter by chapter... I'm taking that right now, Final this week... THANK GOD. I don't think I was gonna make it much longer! I'm assuming it gets a lot more difficult in BioChem which I'll have next semester (I guess I'm getting the teacher who lectures and makes us memorize) and Physics II, I'm taking in the spring. Both are full time semesters for me.

 

[ambernikel]

I blew through physics. Never had much of a problem with it. I guess it helps that I took some good physics in high school and started out as a mechanical engineering major. I decided to leave the ease of physics for the pre-med route so that I could take o-chem. O chem pretty much makes me bend over and just take it. one more week left of ochem 2 and i will be done. thank goodness

I'll trade you my physics final for your ochem final!
Just kidding 🙂

 

[Mike MacKinnon]

heheh

It seems a concensus that Ochem is a bit harder. One of the primary schools i am applying to offered that i could tkae BioChem I in place of O chem 2 for entrance. Apparently a number of schools accept this but just dont advertise it. In anycase, i think biochem I would increase my GPA as opposed to O Chem II kicking my ass so i might do it. Also, a number of med students i have talked to said that having taken biochem I pre med they had a much easier time in Biochem during med school. Seems like any edge is a good one?

Thoughts?

 

[mstann]

O chem? I'll take pushing some electrons around over my I-cant-speak-english physics prof. anyday!

 

[Kubed]

Now see, I actually (dare I say it) likes O-chem. Fun labs, a good professor, and material that made sense. (It also helped that half of my class was tall, leggy and blonde.) Physics, in my opinion, is god’s sick inside joke on creation.

 

[Mike MacKinnon]

hehehehe, now thats an incentive! 😛

 

[dr.z]

O-chem screwed me!

 

[ShyRem]

(in a very small voice)
I actually liked them both. Great professors, fun to learn. Now if only I hadn't had mono during ochem II.... *sigh*.

Biochem, on the other hand, was sheer hell. Same ochem professor (who is probably the BEST professor I have EVER had), but one of the hardest classes I have ever had. Perhaps due to the fact that I'm not (not not not not) a biology major and hadn't had all the genetics background that others had. Of the three chemistry majors in biochem, one failed and the other two of us got a C and were grateful. Two A's in that class, a handful of D's, 4 F's total and the rest B's. Felt like I was drinking from a firehose and then was expected to regurgitate it ALL on essay exams.

 

[katiedid919]

(in a very small voice)
I actually liked them both. Great professors, fun to learn. Now if only I hadn't had mono during ochem II.... *sigh*.

Biochem, on the other hand, was sheer hell. Same ochem professor (who is probably the BEST professor I have EVER had), but one of the hardest classes I have ever had. Perhaps due to the fact that I'm not (not not not not) a biology major and hadn't had all the genetics background that others had. Of the three chemistry majors in biochem, one failed and the other two of us got a C and were grateful. Two A's in that class, a handful of D's, 4 F's total and the rest B's. Felt like I was drinking from a firehose and then was expected to regurgitate it ALL on essay exams.

I have to agree with you all around....physics and o.chem...not bad at all...biochem was a nightmare. The professor at my undergrad hasn't given an A in that class for over 6 years and possibly the worst professor ever (i.e. did not lecture--made us outline the ENTIRE textbook to turn in!)... but still it is a very difficult subject. ugh just thinking about it makes me sick and it was over two years ago that i took it!

 

[kumark13]

(in a very small voice)
I actually liked them both. Great professors, fun to learn. Now if only I hadn't had mono during ochem II.... *sigh*.

Biochem, on the other hand, was sheer hell. Same ochem professor (who is probably the BEST professor I have EVER had), but one of the hardest classes I have ever had. Perhaps due to the fact that I'm not (not not not not) a biology major and hadn't had all the genetics background that others had. Of the three chemistry majors in biochem, one failed and the other two of us got a C and were grateful. Two A's in that class, a handful of D's, 4 F's total and the rest B's. Felt like I was drinking from a firehose and then was expected to regurgitate it ALL on essay exams.

I am in the same boat as you when it comes to ochem. I had mono during ochem 1 which made the rest of 1 and 2 very difficult to understand. I missed most of the basics when I was sick. oh well.

 

[jerome79]

I honestly like physics more than o chem....Well, let me be careful here. I didn't like either one, I had an easier time with physics than O. Chem. I had trouble especially in synthesis of molecules and whatever I learned or tried to memorize just didn't stick.

Physics on the other hand, I had a pretty good grasp on formulas, and once you know that, you just plug numbers in. But hey, everyone has differences in what they felt was harder. Its funny too, O. Chem made me hate the bio section on the mcat, and I was a bio major. 😉

 

[ambernikel]

Ok I know I said that it all depends on the teacher... but I've changed my mind. Physics sucks. I hate Physics. I don't care, I hate it. I actually like chemistry.
So there, my vote is ochem ANY day over physics. It's not even that I think Physics is super hard... I Just hate it. I have a final Thursday and I am so unmotivated. Ochem didn't even require that much studying. As long as you learned it in class all you had to do was review and make sure anything requiring memorization was done and there you had it. Draw some arrows, figure out the products or whatever, name stuff correctly and voila!

Physics requires hours of doing word problems. Do you know that I hate word problems?? Well I do. But mainly just when they are dealing with physics. Know what? If I drop something it falls. I don't care how fast bc it is not applicable to me in anyway. Because I don't care. And when something spins, it will spin whether I know why or not. Yep, you guessed it, I don't care.

I'm sorry, my hissy fit is over...
Sorry.. 😳

 

[ambernikel]

😳 OK I know physics is applicable to me in some ways and I really don't actually "hate" word problems. In fact, I kind of like the challenge. I just am not a physics person.

 

[Mike MacKinnon]

Now we are talking.

I dont care how fast something falls either... but since im about to start Physics one end of this month.. im sure ill have to learn..

*cry*

 

[curlykid]

Hey all

I figured this would be funny since i made the assumption that O chem was harder now people are telling me its the otherway around. WooHoo scheduled O chem alone and physics with another class! Go ME!

Anywho, which an why?

You know what's funny? Orgo and Physics are both my best sciences in college so far. Chemistry owned me, and biology is my major has been whipping me as well, but I did pretty well in organic chem and physics. It makes nooo sense! Acutally, I enjoyed both orgo and physics very much (though my profs were very good for both).

 

[Raven Feather]

Hey all

I figured this would be funny since i made the assumption that O chem was harder now people are telling me its the otherway around. WooHoo scheduled O chem alone and physics with another class! Go ME!

Anywho, which an why?

They both suck. I took them together. It will largely depend on your professor to what extent it sucks. Physics is chug and plug but ita all the freaking "forces" one has to analyze and such. Ochem--I didn't think it was as difficult in concepts as physics but it was ALOT about memorization on mechanisms. The lab sucked. Our labs ALWAYS without fail ran over at least an hour (it was 1 freak'n credit mind you) and we were quizzed every week, had a final, plus had 5 page lab reports with works cited. I am SOOO glad that crap is over. I had a harder time grasping concepts in physics but I guess I liked it more because I didn't have as much work in it.

 

[Doctor Bagel]

i really liked both, but i would say that ochem was definitely more work. it was also conceptionally harder because general non-calculus physics is really all about using formulas. if you hate, hate, hate math, you'd probably still hate it, but it's not hard if you have decent algebra skills. ochem lab was also harder and more time consuming than physics. physics lab was super easy and pretty short.

 

[JennyS211]

O chem was easy! Calculus based engineering Physics SUCKED!!! I HATE physics!!!!! 😱

 

[OrthoFixation]

Calc based Physics I & II was easier than OChem II. OChem I was a bit easier (than II). The best advice for all four classes is DO NOT GET BEHIND!

Physics labs were waaay easier and shorter than the OChem II marathon labs. Ours were typically 3-4.5 hours each.

 

[dinesh]

Organic chem doesn't require much thinking or math
Physics on the other hand does....die maths DIE

 

[LADoc84]

-

 

[spongiebob]

To me orgo II was the most difficult because of the huge amount of synthesis and mechanism to learnn (those multiple step synthesis ouch), followed by physics I (i hate pulleys and free body diagrams and newtonian mechanics) ouch!
-i actually enjoyed physics 2 a lot, orgo I wasn't too hard.

 

[Boxer1]

O chem was a daily kick in the crotch for 8 straight months. I think the stuff I was exposed to in the lab has shortened my life by a good 12 years. It didn't help that my professor both semesters was more bored with the subject than I was.

 

[Drugtech]

Dare I say it, I *heart* OChem. Seriously. I might have done graduate work in OChem if I hadn't known what I wanted to do. Physics I was good; Physics II was a nightmare--I had a prof from MIT who taught like we were at MIT. Glad it's over.

 

[MTodd]

I'm an engineering major and have taken two layers of Physics as well as OChem. In my humble opinion, Physics w/o calculus in much easier than OChem. However, Physics with calculus is way harder than OChem. Hope that helps and best of luck.

 

[medicRN669]

Hey Mike, in response to your question, and given your background, I think you will like physics. I did, makes hearing turbines firing up and lifting off a little different..lol. I thought O Chem was a little harder, but I liked it also. If you have the chance I would recommend Ochem2 and bioCHem, it will be usefull for first year. It is surprising, how much it will help, not particularly with patient care, but how what your doing may effect them.
Good Luck


Stephen Hunter NREMT-P RN BSN CEN

 

[Mike MacKinnon]

Hey Mike, in response to your question, and given your background, I think you will like physics. I did, makes hearing turbines firing up and lifting off a little different..lol. I thought O Chem was a little harder, but I liked it also. If you have the chance I would recommend Ochem2 and bioCHem, it will be usefull for first year. It is surprising, how much it will help, not particularly with patient care, but how what your doing may effect them.
Good Luck


Stephen Hunter NREMT-P RN BSN CEN

Hey Steve!

Great advice. I plan to do Ochem 2 now since it seems the best way to maintain my options fcor various schools. I think i will also take biochem in the time i am waiting to goto school when im finished all the pre reqs!

 

[tacrum43]

I think they're two totally different subjects in that O-chem is a lot more memorization while Physics is a lot more intuitive. I thought physics was easy, but then again I had the non-calc based series. O-chem...well, let's just say it's not my friend.

 

[subtle1epiphany]

Actually, I found OChem to be kind of fun. The reaction mechanisms followed logic once the fundamentals were understood. Once I had seen a mechanism worked out, I could generally repeat it as the next step would just flow from the last. Even the "develop a mechanism for this rxn you've never seen" could be done in a few tries, if you carefully applied the rules.
Physics was a complete rehash of my AP Physics class in high school. My first semester was calculus-based, so that was definitely more involved as we derived all of Newtonian physics from scratch. The class was incredibly interesting, because of this...kind of like watching physics evolve before your eyes.
I enjoyed all my pre-med courses, from Gen Chem to Biochem (where I did struggle with pathways) and Physio to Cell-Molec. Then again, I slacked off (as usual), so that didn't help.

Want difficult? Try learning 5th century Attic Greek and translating 50 lines of Homeric verse each night, for three years. That's a workout for your noggin. 🙄
One of the best things about graduating was never having to look at ancient Greek again...unless I want to.