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Organic Chem

Guest Innerlogic

By Guest Innerlogic
in Applying to International Schools

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Guest Innerlogic

Guest Innerlogic

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Im having a hard time with organic chemistry... I'd like to hear if anyone else who's currently in med school or on the verge of getting in ever had alot of trouble with this course. I'm getting quite discouraged, the prof that teaches the course is new, and doesn't seem to understand how to give a test. I understand the material pretty well, but my prof gives tests that are horribly brutal and I havent been able to get above a 70 on my midterms. I really need some advice.

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Guest not rex morgan

Guest not rex morgan

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Not sure which school you're at, so I'll do my best. I did pretty well in organic chem, but I did faulter a bit, so I might be able to touch on some things. The thing with organic is that it's highly dependant on your ability to visualize in 3-D, for electron pushing and conformational changes, that kind of thing. I was ok with that aspect, but many people in the class owed their sanity to the molecular model kits. You may already be building conformational isomers with your kit, but if you're not, this may help out. Our prof told us not to memorize the material b/c that's not what organic is about. True to a certain extent, but you still need to know what certain types of chemicals will do to certain kinds of organic compounds. So do lots of problems (don't be afraid to do extra problems...ie non-assigned problems if you aren't feeling strong). I did this for one midterm and got something like 60 on it b/c I didn't know which specific substrate made compound X turn to Y. So for another midterm, I learned/ understood, what have you, but I also memorized the summary reactions at the back of the chapters. I don't know what text you're using, but we used "Organic Chemistry" (inventive title) by Bruice. Hope that helps.

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Guest Kirsteen

Guest Kirsteen

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Hi there,

 

Having taken Organic Chem at UT this past summer I understand what you're facing. It's one heck of a course, but if you put in the time, you can make your way through those exams and do well.

 

First thing: I made sure that I tried to get my brain around every concept presented in class--right from the start. This included the basics, e.g., the types of orbitals involved in single, double and triple bonds, molecular orbitals, acidity and energy diagrams. Not only did I find this paid off when faced with trickly little non-reaction-type questions on the exam, e.g., "Draw the energy diagram for butane." or "Circle the sigma bonds in the following molecules", but also, it really helped solidify understanding in other areas that were to come later. Basically, approach each piece of knowledge as a layer, and the more layers you can add to your understanding, the easier the later stuff may be.

 

Second: make sure you make time to do as many of the chapter problems as you can--ideally all. We were fortunate that our course used the text by McMurry which contained ample, excellent questions and generally explained concepts well. I found that the chapter questions would ramp up in difficulty, the latter being excellent gauges for determining how I was comprehending the material. An important point here is, while you're completing the questions, if you find that you don't understand how one answer was derived (and the solutions manual doesn't help you out) make sure to jot the question down and make the time to visit the prof to clarify the point. Visiting the prof over the TAs may be a good approach in that ultimately, he/she is generally constructing the exams and therefore, knows exactly what you need to know.

 

Third: regarding the profusion of reactions, you've got to find a way to stuff them into your brain and keep them there for easy access during the exam. If you want to call that memorizing, then yep, you've got to memorize them. There are different approaches to doing so, but I came up with one way that helped me immensely so that when it came to reactions and naming off reagents on the exams, etc., I could zip through them no bother at all, and finish those exam sections quickly, allowing plenty of time to be spent in other areas that required more thought. Give this a try and see if it works for you: start with reaction families. For example, the first set of reactions that we were introduced to us were the alkenes. For each family, break the reactions down into groups, e.g., preparation of alkenes, haloalkene reactions, reduction of alkenes, oxidation of alkenes, H20 addition to alkenes. Then you get progressively more detailed. For each of the groups, be able to name off each of the reactions and each of the reagents. Then, write them down over and over. For example, I'd start off by writing, "alkenes", then the number of groups of reactions within that family--7; then the names of those groups of reactions and the number of reactions within each group (for alkenes the number of preparation reactions was 6); and finally, each of the reactions within each group including the reagents. These numbers help by acting as signposts, jogging your memory to cough up the details of specific reactions. By doing this for every family of reactions and being able to name the sub-groups of reactions off quickly, I found that no matter how the prof presented one of those "fill in the blank" type reaction questions (where the reagent, the reactant or the product may be missing and you'd have to fill in the missing details) I could quickly go back, list the reactions in that family if necessary and find the answer he was looking for, although most of the time, by the time you get to the test, you'll have named off those reactions so many times, you won't need to do all the listing.

 

Fourth: spend the time to get maximum marks on the labs. If you're not doing well on the exams, the labs are an excellent and alternative way to collect marks. Likewise, don't neglect the labs, thinking that they're too much bother for their worth. Those darn things can sneak up and bite you on the bum later, average-wise, if you amass a sufficient number of not-as-fabulous marks in them.

 

Anyway, those are a few recommendations to start you off. Give them a try, but bear in mind that you may find an approach to orgo, once you get into it, that better fits you. There are many. Go whichever route works best for you and best of luck.

 

Kirsteen

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Guest monkey

Guest monkey

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Hi there,

 

The O chem is quite tough, but if you really try to understand the concepts of nucleophile/electrophile relationships, polarity and electron densities, the reactions make sense and become easier to remember. As some of the others found, drawing out the reactions really makes you understand them (and remember them) better. When drawing the mechanisms out, it is important to continually question the logic of each step in the context of the basic (no pun intended :) ) concepts above. If you do this, you will find that you will be able to predict the mechanisms of other reactions as well!

 

At first O chem can be intimidating but if you understand the logic rather than rote memorize, it is actually kinda fun! like a visual puzzel, like a rock-climbing/bouldering problem.

 

hope this helps!

 

If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me at miket7@hotmail.com

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Guest Ian Wong

Guest Ian Wong

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Good luck! Take one step at a time, and concentrate on Organic. Med school will sort itself out afterwards. It's time to focus on your exam tomorrow. Again, study hard, and good luck. :)

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

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Guest BennyG

Guest BennyG

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I took O/C in the 1994-95 academic year at Toronto and it was a very frustrating experience. The lab component was totalitarian and the TAs were incompetent and dismally poor with the English language. The prof was uninspiring, to put it mildly. O.K., I thought he was an anal sphincter.

 

I succeeded by memorizing endless reactions and also trying to visualize in 3-D, as mentioned by other writers in this thread. I also tried to understand the nature of certain reactions where I could. It was only when I took an MCAT prep course, in 2000-01, to prepare for the April MCAT, that I finally and truly understood O/C. So, I suggest that, if your text/prof/TA sucks like mine did, get yourself an MCAT prep book. It worked for me.

 

Good Luck.

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Guest Innerlogic

Guest Innerlogic

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So the exam wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be, maybe there's some light at the end of the tunnel after all. But then I heard that the second half of this course is even worse....oh man....

 

I appreciate all the support though, maybe you can all put in a good word at Memorial for me.

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