[Doc. Hankins]

I know this is kind of a stupid question. But i am an upcoming sophomore in college and I am stressed about my upcoming semester because i have organic and quantitative. I just, you hear so many horror stories about organic. My chem1 and 2 teacher told me that chem 2 was really the hard class to get past and if u can ace it then u can ace organic. I had like a 101 overall in chem 2 but i am stressing. Can anyone tell me kind of what to expect in organic compared to chem 2. I wanna relax and enjoy my summer but I'm a worry wart. Thanks everyone, I appreciate anything you post positive or negative. Its great being a part of a science community like this.

[constant thinker]

It varies based on the teacher and school but for me...

Ochem 1 was all structural and naming like conformations, different types of isomers etc. If you're a kinesthetic (like to work with your hands) and/or visual person suck it up and buy a molecular modeling kit. You can find some relatively inexpensive ones if you search online or ask around.

Ochem 2 was all reaction mechanisms. Understanding what electronegativity is, the way electrons will flow in certain systems, and the different definitions of acids and bases will help you here. It's essential you know how draw lewis structures and understand the notation of electron pushing electron (you draw the arrow from the electrons to where they're going to go). Practice drawing out the reaction mechanisms on different substrates.

I had no issues. Try not to stress about it and good luck.

[Doc. Hankins]

Thank you!

[nox]

It really depends on your prof. I took "regular" Ochem 1 with the crowd and it sucked balls because people clearly didn't care about the material, and the prof didn't care about the students either.

So for Ochem 2 I took the one for chem majors. The prof was one of the best I've ever had, I went from memorizing to actually being able to understand everything. The prof taught the course from a mechanistic perspective (though there was still plenty of synthesis/reactions), and it really helped to see what happened and why.

If you have the choice, I highly recommend taking the chem major's version rather than the sheep edition. Better prof + much smaller class + you actually learn something = win win win

[Doc. Hankins]

yea my ochem1 is going to have roughly 40 people in it i think which is what my genchem1 and 2 had in them but me and my buddy ended up having a great relationship with the teacher so im hoping for the same thing this time around, just sitting up front and everything from day 1. Thanks though, i wish i could be in like a 20 person class but its better than 100.

[BluePill]

In my school, I aced my chem101 and chem102. I went to orgchem 1 and I find a little difficult though. I passed it nonetheless. ochem 2 and 3 was my favorite. I don't know why everyone had a hard time but I liked mechanisms, spectrocopy, and synthetic problems.

My professor would always say use your imagination. My advise is 90% understand, 10% memorize. There are heaps of reactions in organic chem (just look at March's Advanced Organic Chemistry) but if you understand how it works and understand the concepts, you wouldn't get lost. Synthetic organic chemistry is PRACTICE! What I do sometimes is to challenge myself. Like I would like to synthesize this from that. Benzene derivatives are good molecules to practice with.

Spectroscopy is another thing. It helps if you practice analysing spectra.


Study but remember to relax too. Your brain can only do so much. Cheers!

[AVESTA]

Hi

i want to understand why ketones give negative test with Baeyer test?

[Vidya]

Hi
organic chemistry is very simple and systematic just like math .There is a reason for anything happening in any reaction .Learn it with reasoning and always look in for why in every step.Initially you may be slow in learning but if you learn everything with a reason you will be able to do even difficult mechanisms very easily.