[jamesbrown11]

Got an exam coming up in ochem 1 that’s on alkene, alkyne, radical, and alcohol reactions. We’ve got predict the products, predict the reactants, mechanism, and synthesis problems potentially containing all four. Anybody have any tips on keeping everything straight? There’s a lot of reactants to keep straight and even more little details about each reaction that are hard to remember without memorizing and drawing the whole mechanism. Thanks!

[shchavel]

Hello! Try to transform you conspects into diagrams and tables, some list. It's realy useful!

[hollytara]

You have to work with the material enough until the pattern recognition comes easily. 

You wil lbe given either Reactants / Reagants and need to predict products; reactants and products and provide reagants, or reagants and products an provide reactants. 

If you work through the material both ways: here is a reactant, what does it do with different reagants?
                                                                 here is a product, how do I get it from different reactants?

You will train yourself to recognize these patterns.

The book by Jakob Fredlos is a great resource - it organizes the material into easily remembered chunks.

[anonymous10012]

I always made flash cards with different colored sharpies. Sometimes just associating a color with something you have to memorize helps. The other answers are very true. If you are new to organic chemistry, memorization is in my opinion the *only tool you have until you have been at it a while.

*The more you work on mechanisms, resonance, and logical concepts, the more your intuition builds. The same is true about work experience that involves synthesis.

[Babcock_Hall]

Flash cards with reactants on one side and products on the other side are helpful.  I also like to group reactions as oxidations, reductions, or neither (hydrations, for example).