To all who've taken Organic Chem as a prereq...I need your advice

gluck · Oct 28, 2008

I did it and it was not difficult at all. There were just a few things in the beginning of the semester that the lab instructor assumed I knew like molar mass and calculating mole fractions, but otherwise the classroom and textbook were self contained and i did not need to refer to any other source. I would just make sure that you are able to start off strong; i.e., you may have to work a bit harder than the other students at the beginning of the semester.

Mrhanddiya · Oct 28, 2008

I've taken both semesters of Ochem and found it to be extremely challenging and time-consuming. If you have the time you should be fine.

If there is one piece of advice I would give, it would be to buy the book "Organic Chemistry as a Second Language" by David R. Klein. I can't emphasize enough how much that book helped out. Without it I probably would of failed both semesters, but ended up with B's. Even my teacher used it to help explain some of the mechanisms in class.

Good Luck.

SBCHEV99 · Oct 31, 2008

i was originally a premed student so i took the full blown organic chemistry which was NOT the 'intro' class...i did it over the summer and realized that general chemistry was not even needed to get through it. the beginning of the first semester delt with lewis dot structures and such, but you would think the instructor would go over it as if it was not a review but to introduce students to something new.

Organic chem demands:

1. Time

2. Memory

3. The need to keep yourself going...do not give up

4. Critical thinking skills

5. Patience

6. Confidence

7. Study, study and study

8. The most important is for you to find a study partner that you can count on to be a dedicated to the class as you are!

overall orgaic chem is talked up over and over about how hard it is, but when you think about it the first time you take a new class; for instance physics or whatever it starts out tricky, but it grows on you and you start to get in the rythm of what is needed of the class. you will realize its not what is seems to be and you will laugh when its all over and youll wonder why you stressed the way you did because in the end you will do FINE.

srna2008 · Oct 31, 2008

Like SBCHEV99 said, Organic is a different animal. I too was pre-med and took O-chem I & II. It is pretty much memorization, just put in time and you should be OK

I took O chem not having had general chem in about 7 years and I didn't have a problem with it.

aCRNAhopeful · Oct 31, 2008

I'd be very interested to hear some feedback about this as well. The only college chem. class I have taken so far is called chem for health sciences, one created by the comm. college for the ADN program. I would love to jump right into organic but I also want to make sure I get an A when I do. I am fascinated by sciences of all kinds and have no problem studying my butt off, but jumping into this level of chemistry with such a weak background makes me wonder if getting an A is even a reasonable goal. Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

mcubed45 · Nov 5, 2008

i'm in my first semester of o-chem right now. you don't really use too much from general chem. heck we don't even balance equations in our class since you're mainly concerned with the products and the mechanism.

for me, i feel like the course has actually very MINIMAL memorization. if you understand the concepts a lot of the trends and mechanisms you learn make perfect sense. chemistry is applied physics so there's not a lot of random "what the hell??" exceptions to rules. even the exceptions usually have a very simple and logical explanation for them.

idk maybe it's just me. i've just been cramming the night before my exams and still getting A's. (class avg is in the 60's i think). for a lot of people i suppose it's a very difficult and time consuming course though. imo if you spend your time understanding what's going on instead of memorizing facts/trends you're a lot better off.

SBCHEV99 · Nov 9, 2008

oh yes there are alot of 'what the hells'

reactions; structures; clyclohexene; S & R; 2,3-trimethlybutyne, 2,4,6-TriMethlyToluene (TNT), butyric anhydride + cyclohexanol; mechanisms; trans-3,4-dimethyl-3-hexenioc acid; *****

"if you stay on top of your material the O-chem book will fear you"

:bowingpur...I shall fear no ten page exam, 4 1/2 hour final and the woman trying to take the last 20 standing students down...

i had a crazy instructor....she did not believe in remorse

presrna · Nov 11, 2008

O-chem is definitely not a picnic

charlottegirl · Nov 12, 2008

I took OChem after not having had any chemistry for several years...I aced it! I HIGHLY recommend getting the answer key to the problems that are in your textbook. This is how I learned and had success.....working problems every night and comparing my answers to those in the key! GOOD LUCK!

iLovemyJackRT · Nov 13, 2008

Thanks to everyone whose replied. I'm starting to feel confident.

Are there any books you would recommend getting a few weeks ahead of time...just to start glancing over some things...learn basic terminology?

Thanks again.

Brooke

gluck · Nov 13, 2008

Get the text that the course requires and read the first chapter. It will cover most everything you need to know from general chem. If you don't understand something in the first chapter, then start looking for alternate sources