Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Organic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: unleash10 on May 12, 2006, 04:18:07 AM
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I hear a lot of people complaining about organic chem, and I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips to survive for next year. Thanks.
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Eat well, take vitamic supplements, stay hydrated, get regular sleep and regular exercise.
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besides that:
try to understand the basics
It's very important to understand how things work. The best thing is: take a good organic chem book and read the first few chapters. It's important to understand mechanisms and you have to be able to move electrons around for mesomeric structures.
Eventually you have to memorize reactions. What worked best for me was doing that just one little piece at a time. For example I'd read through one or two reactions on a ten minute subway ride and maybe think about them a little bit more on my walk home.
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Ask your professor what you're going to deal with the next time, and read about the topic in a good organic chemistry book before you even start to talk about it at school. This is my method, and it ran successfully so far, I never study for organic chemistry tests and I always get A's. ;D (A's are 1's here in Austria)
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When you get to trying to memorize reactions in later organic chem courses, make flash cards and review these periodically. On one side of the flash card, wrtie the starting material and reagents and leave the product blank. On the other side of the flash card write the starting material and the product, but leave the reagent blank. When you review, shuffle both the cards' order and which sides the cards are facing. This way, you can be able to work out problems which test whether you know the actual reactions (e.g. find the product) or synthesis questions (e.g find the reactions from A to B).
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First try to solve some practical problem in chemistry as how to prepare some useful compound be it unknown for you and the world round you :). First you'll become of mixing all you find in the kitchen (as salt, soda, sugar, lemon acid and so on) with some stilled reagent(s) from your school laboratory (as some acid or what else you find interesting in mind ;) Then after you become mixing this with this and first find occure bubling, chenge colouring, heating, smell, fumes and as many effects as you produce in this moments, then bit by bit test by test you'll gain experience, gain interesting in home experiments and who know if have the bless to become a chemist you'll have to read and some books and then you'll be able to transfer your tought from paper to the flasks and if lucky or as drunked as me now - from the flask to the paper blank ;)
Cheerz for chemistry!
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By the way, it's much easier to understand organic chemistry if you have at least some basic knowledge of inorganic chemistry ::)
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Listen to music while you draw reactions mechanisms: I like to link reactions and songs.
There is such a beautiful music, if only you could hear it...
:o
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Listen to music while you draw reactions mechanisms: I like to link reactions and songs.
Interesting...to what song would you link the Beluzov-Zhabotinski reaction ;D ?
Just make sure that you relax while reading your notes/book. Sometimes I also play the piano while reading my holy oragnic chemistry books. Of course this works only if you are a musician ;)
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Well, I use it only for LONG syntheses of drugs. Moreover, it's something extremely personal, in my opinion.
However, if you ask me, I'll tell you that it reminds me of 'Time' by Pink Floyd.
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Listen to music while you draw reactions mechanisms: I like to link reactions and songs.
Hudson Hawk? ;)
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It is not nearly as hard as people think. Do not get behind your first 3 chapters, and especially the first 2. Just keep up, get ahead to make sure you keep up. Look for trends everywhere. Learn short-hand line and ring struc. Learn from mistakes. Ask for help. Stay up until 1:50 a.m. on Fri. nights and post in an o.chem forum to spread the love and pass down the torch. Nope, I didn't just get back from a bar, I've been here all night.
*My prof. has gone through 25 chapters in two semesters >1200 pages. Many teachers don't do this, but others probably do. It's just an example of the pace.
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I am back from bar and sober down 8) If talking for chemistry inspirations, i personally inspirated most from mechanism reactions and especially in so changing the reaction conditions, used catalist or new functional reagents in finding knew synthetic path to my home door :)
Stop with joking.. In serious yes reading, listening and writing with passion tones of lectures in all chemistry and related subject is from most an impotance to become good chemist being the theory gray and green the tree of the life ;) Then it stand time for specialization courses when all the seems unusefull subjects like math or related become usefull too but if you are true chemist by the time you'll continue with writing long synthesis on the back to your note book with no care about math and the people who borned good mathematicians (i respect them too). Its strange i am good chemist-engineer but awfull mathematician - of course sense of humour from most an importance in all :)) Gentlemens, keep being happy and always inspired from chemistry, hm and music too !
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Be perfect on basic concepts in reaction meachanisms and practise them