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Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud
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I'm starting organic chemistry this semester and it seems a bit daunting. The damn lab book is as large, if not larger, than my textbook. How do I survive this most rigorous of courses, the make-or-break of science majors?
Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud on
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Orgo really isn't that bad, just do the homework, understand everything in it about it and you'll be fine.
This is an intimidating class. It is very hard (at least, it was for me). Study, do all the homework, and I mean all of it, and for the love of god, do whatever you have to do to not fall behind. Once you get behind, it's an uphill battle. Trust me on that one, it sucks.
As far as tips go specifically, I would say making flash cards of reaction products. That helped me out a lot, as well as writing out mechanisms a hojillion times until I knew them backwards and forwards. Probably 1/3 of my old organic notebook was full of mechanisms written over and over.
Ahem. Anyway:
Yes, a 1400 page textbook is very daunting. But by the end of O-chem 3 it was a well-worn reference. I freaking loved that book.
So you're taking O-chem? How much? A quarter? A year? If just a quarter, focus on learning the rules of reactions. By that I mean, what do nucliophiles do? Oh, they bond with positive things? Well then, this carbonyl carbon is slightly positive, it'll probably attach there!
Once you know the rules, everything else falls into place. You can work out how reactions work just by knowing the reactant structures, with nothing else. What you do NOT want to do is memorize reactions. If you don't know why a chemical behaves the way it does, ASK. If you try to get through o-chem on pure memory, you will fail HARD. I took o-chem for a year and didn't understand the WHY of chemistry for the first quarter. I tried to rely on memory. It really sucked. But once you learn the language, it becomes fun. By the end of the year, chemistry problems were puzzles. Homework was actually often fun. Crazy.
If you're taking a year, then you'll still need to learn the rules of why reactions occur. But memorization will be unavoidable -- you'll probably need to know the reagents for about 100 different reactions. So make flash cards for every reaction you come across, and study them constantly.
One thing that helps is to do as many problems as possible. When I was studying for the ACS exam I did most of the questions in the back of every chapter. That helped tons.
Oh and if you ever have any questions don't hesitate to post here! I tutored o-chem in college, and love explaining it. I'm such a nerd.
What major are you?
If you're struggling, just repeat this mantra: at least it's not p-chem, at least it's not p-chem, at least it's not p-chem.
I also loved p-chem, but I'm a masochist.
Read the book everyday. Read it in the bathroom, read it when you are on lunch break, cover it in plastic and read it in the shower.
I dont think that should be a problem for you though, you said you read the book before class even starts.
The whiteboard is a good idea too.
but they're listening to every word I say
To the person that asked, I'm a biology/biotech student. I have a feeling I might end up liking organic and becoming a biochem major or something, who knows (I still can't pick which part of science I
Just a normal whiteboard.
Maybe something that's about 2x1.5 feet or so, if you want it on your lap. Bigger if you want to put it on a wall. And some dry erase markers. This lets you practice a lot without wasting paper. Or you could be badass and draw reactions on your windows/mirrors with sharpies, and use alcohol to get it off.
I totally hear you on switching majors to biochem. My o-chem experience is partly what made me focus on biochem. I eat that stuff up.
Allowed me to go over mechanisms with utter impunity.
Organic chemistry isn't very difficult, there's just loads and loads of information. There are a lot of rules regarding likely reaction paths etcet, but most of those come down to logical steps. In organics especially, remember your stoichiomotry basics: Track the electrons, track the atoms.
The whiteboard is a great idea to work on reaction equations especially.
Biochem rocks. Where a biologist looks at a phenomena and says "How does it work?" a biochemist looks at it and says "How can I manipulate it?" If you like organic and want to continue when you are done, then bch is the way to go. I'm big into nutrition and metabolism so it was a no brainer for me. Be prepared though. Its easily the hardest major outside of maybe mathematics and engineering, without the job prospects. You will cover everything from DNA to sugar nomenclature in what is sometimes a ridiculous amount of detail. A lot of the biotech funding is drying up, so unless you go phd or MD its not very applicable to the real world.
That said, if you do pursue your phd you are getting in at an awesome time. Biotech is advancing faster than computer science ever did. DNA sequencing that was impossibly fast just 4 years ago is now performed in undergraduate labs (to a certain extent). The techniques for genetic manipulation are being perfected, allowing for some incredible stuff on the horizon. Advances in proteomics could open the door to detecting cancer and susceptibility to other pathologies years before any symptoms show up. Diseases may very well become a thing of the past in another 60-70 years!
sorry if its a little incoherent, I'm tired and not fully sober.
One thing I forgot about lab work: Try to be neat as well, and respect the safety regulations. First year labs often go fairly light on this because most of the stuff isn't hazardous at all, but if you want to go on in the field, you may as well learn to do it the proper way now.
Your ultimate goal is to understand how and why reactions work; why molecules behave the way they do.
However it's not going to come naturally for you unless you're some kind of savant, so expect to spend a lot of time memorizing reactions despite what Joe Chemo says. The whiteboard is a fabulous idea.
But do make sure that while you're memorizing things, you know why the reactions do what they do, and eventually it'll "click." I really enjoyed organic chemistry, and by the end of the first half of the first year, the memorization I had to do was minimal.
Learning a language is a really good analogy. At first, it's going to be lots of memorization and drills, but eventually you'll become "fluent" in it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Care to elaborate or is that your idea of a contribution? PM me if you want so we can avoid threadjacking. To keep this on topic I'll keep going into why the op should get into biochem if he finds himself interested. We are currently in the age of biotech. In 1955 all we knew was that DNA goes to RNA goes to protein. A little over 50 years later and we can now clone animals, students are introducing genes into species during 3 hour undergraduate labs, and scientists are just a stones throw away from being able to grow whole organs. The speed of sequencing technology is advancing faster than moore's law for transistors. The proteomics I mentioned before have the potential to move us to an age of true preventative medicine. There are A LOT of exciting technologies that are in their infancy. Its a great time to get into the field.