Where is Orgo the hardest?

[JulianCrane]

I wondering with all this talk of multiple choice tests and nomenclature, where is orgo the hardest? I go to WashU, and let me tell you all we have are problem based exams where a mechanism and a synthesis account for 40% of the exam. Do med schools know where orgo classes are harder than others?

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[jargon124]

I took honors O-chem at the University of Arizona. It was fairly hardore. No multiple choice at all, no problem sets to cushion your grade. The tests were heavy on thinking/reasoning problems like synthesis of complex products from simple SM's, complete mechanisms, etc. I know the regular course was not as hard. It was great though, because I really learned the material and got A's both semesters!

 

[Firebird]

Originally posted by jargon124:
•I took honors O-chem at the University of Arizona. It was fairly hardore. No multiple choice at all, no problem sets to cushion your grade. The tests were heavy on thinking/reasoning problems like synthesis of complex products from simple SM's, complete mechanisms, etc. I know the regular course was not as hard. It was great though, because I really learned the material and got A's both semesters!•••

Sounds like my organic class...except without the A's thing.

 

[idiot]

I took orgo I and II last summer at East Carolina. Anyone with a pulse can get into ECU. Every exam we took was problem-based; no multiple choice - very challenging. We were also given quizzes but they were just as detailed as the exams. Anyway, I think you should settle down - we're doing the same work, but you will get more respect simply b/c of name recognition.

 

[Coalboy]

I took it at my local state school, and I think the professor did a hell of a good job. All our tests (past the first few) had mechanisms, synthesis, etc.; Certainly, we had no multiple choice. With a good professor, even hard material can click.

 

[BUmiken12]

I took it at Baylor, and it was fairly hard, but not as challenging as I was expecting...but I think this has to do with the prof. I had the best prof I've ever had (it was actually kinda interesting to me!), so I came to class ready and willing.

Honestly, I believe Orgo is one of those subjects that comes a lot easier to some than others. I know extremely smart people in my class that were struggling for B's while others cruised through it. We had 3 multiple choice tests and 3 written and 10 quizzes that added up to a test grade. Mechanisms were more than abundant, along with complex products and reactants.

 

[megkudos]

I don't know why everyone assumes Multiple choice is so much easier. Honestly plenty of really intelligent people couldn't pull a B and our exams were mostly multiple chice. At least when you write things out you get partial credit. I agree with the previous post and I think some people it just comes easier to than others.

As far as if some schools are looked at easier than others--I don't think so. No matter where you go you are curved against the rest of the students--wehre for example top 10% get an A, ect. So in that case it wouldn't matter where it was easier-just if you can do better than your peers in that institution. That's my experience anyway, asssuming that others schools curve as well.

 

[Firebird]

Originally posted by megkudos:
•No matter where you go you are curved against the rest of the students•••

But some curves are better than others.

Our prof used a linear regression that curved the grades in a fashion that created a bell curve. It was very unusual.

On one test, he misgraded a question and left off 8 points that I should have had. After he corrected it, my score only increased by about six points. All because of his curving method.

 

[Trek]

Let's face it, everyone wants to stroke themselves and say their orgo was the hardest. Why don't we all agree that they're ALL hard. And anyone talking down on multiple choice tests obviously didn't take the MCAT, eh? (and no, all our tests were non-MCQs). --Trek

 

[none]

Multiple choice tests are definitely rare in ochem. I took it at Fresno City College and we only had a single multiple choice test, the end of the year final. It was that standardized test that the ACS provides. I personally found that immensely challenging, considerably more difficult than the MCAT exam questions as well as anything we had seen previously in the course.

 

[sproggin]

I just learned from a fellow interviewee this last weekend that East coasters say Orgo and west coast like OChem. My two cents is that Orgo sounds like a horiculture class or something. Lets push for nationwide adoption of ochem.

 

[dnt107]

Damn skippy, multiple choice tests can be hard! At Penn State, they are all multiple choice tests but that doesn't make it any easier. I would much rather have the chance to get partial credit. The kicker is that the multiple choice test offered answers from A through J. Thats right, we had 10 answer options that all looked the same. You could usually eliminate two or three confidently, the rest was dependant on your true fund of knowledge, quite a challenging course indeed.

By the way, I'm an east coaster and I second the notion of Ochem. Orgo is just creepy.

 

[none]

Can someone who uses the term please explain where "orgo" came from? There isn't another o following the first one in "organic chemistry." Where did that last o come from? Why isn't it "orga?"

 

[Coalboy]

Oh no, we're going to start an East Coast/West Coast gangsta SDN war! Don't dishonor Tupac and Biggie Smalls by perpetuating this madness!!

I'm all East Coast, and I do say 'Orgo' sometimes, but never 'OChem.' I think jes' plain 'Organic' is my preferred term. I do agree that 'Orgo' is a bit odd; it sounds like a character from Lord of the Rings or something. Bilbo, Frodo, and Orgo.

 

[Mystique]

Well, when I took Organic my pre-med friends and I referred to it as "Orgo" around each other, but when we were around our non pre-med friends we'd refer to as it "Orgy" and get them talking...it was so funny b/c for the first few weeks the non pre-meds were so clueless. They were really worried before our first test b/c we kept on saying "Orgy is going to keep us up for most of the night..." I'm laughing just thinking about it.

Anyways, though I'm East coast, I"ll have to go w/ the West coast on this one.

 

[Coalboy]

our non pre-med friends we'd refer to as it "Orgy" and get them talking...i••

But would you pronounce it like "orgo" with a "y" (i.e. "Orgy and Bess"), or the much naughtier "or-Gee"? I'd imagine the latter would make for a funner in-joke. To this day, on NPR, whenever they say "visit our site at N-P-R dot O-R-G", my adolescent side snickers. I am mature. No really, I am.

 

[Yosh]

I too am quite amazed by this "Organic" phenomenon. I took "ORGO" at University of Miami...where it was called ORGO...and now am a MS1 in Los Angeles..where people out here call it O-Chem...

All I know is...when cramming for Gross anatomy....it is a great distractor..and fun to argue about!!

I still find it odd though.....weird...but then again...the West Coast is WEIRD!

 

[jankanator]

all right . . . honors organic at chapel hill . . . we had three midterms, you drop the lowest, and the two you keep each count a quarter of your grade . . . the final counts half . . . the exams were predicting products, writing mechanisms, predicting reactants, and worst of all, ranking reactivities/stabilities of three different molecules or radicals or whatever . . . we say organic or orgo . . . i know physical chemistry is called p-chem . . . don't know about that whole "ochem" thing . . .

 

[megkudos]

I am from Jersey--here it it Orgo--

For anyone who has possibly seen it -- on "Felicity" Ben was taking "Ochem" and I thought that was funny i didn't realize people actually called it that---weird--but it does make more sense I guess---haha

 

[italianlove]

Hey guys,

Damn, what's the fascination with Organic Chemistry all of a sudden? I've seen like 4 or 5 posts on this subject in the last week!

So I guess I'll participate or else I'll feel left out. Here at SLU we call it Organic but many of my friends at WUSTL call it Orgo, so who the hell knows!?

Also, to reiterate some of the previous posts, just because part of an exam is multiple choice, doesn't make it necessarily easier. I mean, the MCAT is multiple choice, is that easy? The fact is that when you have a class of 185 and make a 10 page exam, it makes things easier on you if you make part of it MC. At SLU we had the first 4 pages multiple choice and the last 6 mechanisms, reactions and syntheses. Personally I used to do much better on the last 6 pages, doing MUCH worse on the MC questions. With mechanisms you can work through problems and get partial credit for your work, no partial credit with MC questions.

Organic really is pretty tough everywhere (except for perhaps your local CC). And just remember that even if your friend at Podunk U. gets an A in Organic for merely knowing the difference between a gauche and staggered conformer, when MCAT time comes around, those intense syntheses that you had to struggle through will really pay off! Ciao.

 

[JulianCrane]

So is there a trick to learning NMR?

 

[kutastha]

Ahh.. the ever-present OChem vs Orgo discussion. I've only heard it called O-Chem til I starting reading SDN boards. Orgo sounds like something I'd find in my pants.

As for NMR.. look at a lot of spectra, see how your hydrogen's neighbors look and you're in business.

Andrew

 

[GregiG]

U of C, at least my third quarter of O-chem was the worst... I will have to say it's also one of those teacher horror stories.

Two tests, weekly homeworks and quizzes and 4-5 hour labs with huge writeups. We were told all would count 'an unspecified amount' toward the final grade, but at the end only midterms and final did. The exams had 4 pages with 4 subparts each, all mechanisms (say synthesis of complex bicyclic compounds from CO2, methane, or any other 2C)

At the end, I wussed out and took a P (still have to re-take it for a 'real' grade) and I was VERY happy with my choice. The mean in the class was a C and we had 9 'F's" and only 2 A's in a class of 49.

Let's just say our course evals spoke for themselves and the teacher was censured. Oh well, I don't have too much to vent for except having to retake o-chem my last quarter of my last year GRRRRR

 

[lord999]

I think we all can speak for our O-chem profs. I know Dr. Spurgeon from U of A as being a tough old bird. My prof for majors, Dr. James White, is an infamous SOB at Arizona State (both as a lecturer and as a person).
The overwhelming majority of premeds and prepharms were underwhelmed at who their possible peers could be. OChem is important in and of itself, but the real lessons I took from that class was how to think in screwy ways (read Godel) to find solutions. I doubt that anyone who is in med school was not affected by some mitigating circumstance in that class.

 

[doc3334]

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[Forensic Chick]

I'm on the quarter system, and somehow my o-chem (I'm from California) professor crammed in 3 midterms into a 10-week period. It's crazy. No problem sets that count, and there are 3 quizzes that only count towards our lab grade. I really can't express the difficulty of organic chemistry when your professor reads DIRECTLY from the book (same problems and everything) then all of a sudden, gives us a midterm with mechanisms and synthesis problems that he never discussed. I guess that's life. No midterms are multiple choice, and neither are the quizzes. For the final in the third quarter of o-chem, there's a standardized test that we all have to take. I have no idea how that's going to go since the average score (out of 100 points) on our tests has been in the low 60's/high 50's every midterm. Does anyone else from the Cali state schools have a standardized test at the end of the year?

-Michelle-

 

[Esco]

Just to back up the previous post by Gregig, U of C does have the hardest O-CHEM classes,---personally I think it is just because of the pretentious profs that teach the class, not necessarily the material...

 

[Epi]

I took it at northwestern, and we had 200 point tests based on 5 or 6 problems. It was mostly a critical thinking, applying what you learned in class kinda test. It was good because then you just didn't memorize the stuff, but you actually got to apply it.,