[tjwright]

First week of summer school and i'm trying hard to not fall behind.  So can someone please give me the general gist of molecular orbital theory?  MY professor and book just sort of jumped into without actually explaining its significance.  Like how we move from VESPR theory to MO theory.  Practical application and what one gains from an understanding of MO theory.  Thanks in advanced for any help.

[Borek]

Sorry, it is not a thing that someone is going to summarize in a short post, we also have no time to write books. Check if wikipedia article doesn't help, or google for MO - there are for sure nice tutorials and explanations on the web. We can help with detailed questions, but not with such a general queries.

[EDTA]

Well, VSEPR theory failed to explain some properties, like paramagnetic property of O₂(most common example).
MO theory also greatly helps you check if some species can even exist, like H₂⁺, or Be₂ and such.

[Corribus]

VSEPR is basically just geometry.  It is a way to determine how bonds are arranged around an atomic center.  But it tells you little about the electronic properties of the molecule.

MO theory is far more sophisticated and tries to explain where exactly electrons are located and how they are likely to behave.  It predicts a lot of electronic properties (such as the aforementioned paramagneticity of oxygen) and creates molecular orbitals that are similar to the atomic orbitals which surround individual atoms.

[TwistedConf]

Just curious....  what class are you taking?