Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: johnmathew on November 22, 2019, 01:42:53 AM
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I'm pre-med, and I'm about to take O. Chem for the first time.
How did all you Organic Chemistry veterans stay organized? Did you use multiple notebooks (one for class notes, one for personal notes)? Or did you use one notebook? Did you write your notes using different colored pens? This post may seem silly, but it'd be very useful to me to gather this kind of information.
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Definitely separate notes for class vs studying. Colors can be good. Probably too hard to use different colors when taking notes in class. Once you get to the part of the class with many chemical reactions, make a list of all the reactions with reactants and products, making note of regiochemistry and stereochemistry.
Draw resonance structures every day until it becomes second nature. Also draw mechanisms every day for reactions you are supposed to know. And of course, it goes without saying you must do all the assigned practice problems, mostly without answers in front of you, and then check your answer in the solutions manual. Solutions manual to the textbook is required, unless you have tons of online homework. If you do have online homework, you also need to put pen to paper and write out the answers manually. Punching in answers on a computer screen does not help you to remember as well as writing down the problems on paper.
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OrganicH2O has good points - but every person has their own best ways to study.
Read the textbook. Do the assigned problems - and make sure you understand them! If you are stumped - and have to look up the answer, don't say "Oh, I see." Set it aside for a while and then re-do it to make sure you understand.
Take detailed notes in class, then recopy them. Sometimes it helps to record the lectures and listen to the play back as you re-copy.
Make sure you understand mechanisms.
Make sure you understand nomenclature - on exams and quizzes, nomenclature problems are the "low hanging fruit".
Finally - there is a book by Jakob Fredlos that is a great resource for Organic Chemistry - it collects all the most important topics in a way that helps you to learn them.