Organic Chemistry Studying

[SusGob711]

I am taking Organic Chemistry this semester and it is giving me a run for my money. Success in the class, unfortunately, comes down to doing a lot of self-teaching. Chemistry has always been difficult for and I was wondering if anyone could offer me some tips as to how to study.

I am doing all the problems in the book and I always go to lecture. I am aiming for an A (his grading scale is actually 85-100 for an A!!) but I'll need some help to get there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[polka-dot, RN]

Are we in the same chemistry class????? Sounds an awful lot like the situation I'm in .

What book are you using? I just made an mp3 file of questions/answers for chapter 16 of McMurray (aldehydes and ketones). If you want it I will try to email it to you.

Good luck!

[SusGob711]

Bettelheim/Brown/Campbell/Farrell are the authors of the book we are using, which is actually an abbreviated version of a larger book including other topics like biochemistry, etc. I'm actually pretty pleased with the book we are using (and thank God for it because I would be REALLY lost if we didn't have a decent book). Anyways, I'd love to take a look/hear at the info from your book. Anyways, we are actually taking an exam tomorrow over the alkanes so I will let you know how that goes. Best of luck to you ; )

[AtomicWoman]

85-100 is an A? Wow, can I be in YOUR class? :)

I'm doing orgo, too. Very different from inorganic, I must say! Good thing I love chemistry. Trying to draw and interpret bicyclic compounds is driving me bats.

I use a LOT of different resources, because some resources are better at teaching one thing than another. I do like the Organic Chemistry for Dummies book, which is much better than most of the Dummies series.

I also constantly go to the virtual organic chem book:

http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/intro1.htm

Lots of explanations and good exercises there. I finally understood cis-trans isomerism in cyclohexane after reading his explanation.

I also really like chemguide, although not every topic is covered:

http://chemguide.co.uk

I sometimes go to Dr. Hardinger's website:

http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~harding/index.html

This guy has a lot of good handouts and quizzes/problem sets:

http://itech.pjc.edu/tgrow/2210tom.html#Problems%20Sets

I also refer to The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry book by Karty and Organic Chemistry I As A Second Language by Klein.

Sometimes my husband cannot believe how many books and papers I have open on the kitchen table at one time. LOL!