Why is organic chemistry so hard PDF

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The second reason ochem is so difficult to learn is that it's a memorization nightmare. Not only are there more than 15 million organic compounds, but there are different rules governing the reactions and properties of each of these compounds. The trickiest part is how often the rules change....

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Why is organic chemistry so hard? Organic Chemistry is not really that tough but it gets a bad rap because most who don’t do well in it aren’t studying in the right way. At the undergrad level, it is not inherently difficult at all. Yeah, there’s a lot to learn, a lot to study, a lot to memorize, a lot to know. But it’s mostly just a matter of recognizing reaction patterns and knowing mechanisms and being able to predict outcomes. Organic Chemistry is not hard if, AND ONLY IF, you develop a good system for yourself of studying and learning the material from the beginning of your first course in it. Set aside at least an hour a day after class, or more if you have time (most people don’t though) and read the text and, assuming you take notes in class or the professor publishes their notes, review them. BUT and this is a huge ‘but’, you need to spend most of your study time working problems from the textbook or, I dare say, any problems that you can get your hands on. There are many old exams and problems posted online. By “working problems”, I do NOT mean looking over the problems along with solution keys or manuals and saying to yourself, “Mhmm, yeah, makes sense, that’s the way I would’ve done it too if I’d actually taken the time to think through the problem” (most of my classmates did it this way and they didn’t do as well on the exams as I did.) It DOES mean working through and thinking about the problems, then checking answers to see where you may have been incorrect. As far as doing synthesis problems - there’s only one way to do them easily, and that is “work backwards.” Start with the target molecule and ask yourself, literally, “what was the last reaction used in the synthesis of it?” And just keep doing that until you get back to the starting material. E ← D ← C ← B ← A , where E is the target and A is starting compound(s).

As far as mechanisms, just memorize them… Your professor won’t ask you to do anything on the test that you haven’t done in class in some form. But be prepared for some variations on what was covered in the book or in class. As far as the reactions, again, just memorize them. But know how to apply them to syntheses and mechanisms, not just as static reactions. Seldom, in the real world, does any process have just one reaction. As far as spectroscopy - this should be the easiest part of the course, unless your professor gives you messy spectra and expects you to decipher it all on an exam (seldom does this happen.) These days, Ochem courses are not taught so much with a focus on rote memorization of nomenclature rules, reactions, etc. That’s how they used to be taught, decades ago. You could memorize your way through. Not so much anymore, although it depends on your professor. With all the emphasis in education on Bloom’s Taxonomy and whatnot, most courses nowadays are application and conceptually oriented. While the content of the courses has not changed much, the way they test student knowledge definitely has, and continues to. I hate to say it but it depends a lot on who is teaching the course. If your professor is easy, you won't have to learn much or demonstrate in-depth knowledge on the tests. If the professor is hard, you’ll have to know a lot more and be able to convey it on paper. The fact is that most people taking Ochem are premeds and biochem majors and chemical engineers - in other words, smarter-than-average students. If you can’t do Ochem, you most definitely can’t do higher-level stuff like biochemistry, that employs what you learned in Ochem. You might get through physics with an ‘A’, because it’s mostly math. But in my own academic travels, I encountered quite a few who were great at physics and math, but couldn’t do well in Ochem. I always wondered why, because if you approach it the right way,

it’s very easy - to do well in the course and learn the material on a higher level. I also used to tutor OChem students. The pattern there was that they usually didn’t seek help until it was too late. They’d often failed 2 exams by that point, had not developed a foundation for themselves, and were well on their way to a D or F in the course. And if you don’t develop your foundation right away, it’s very hard to find time to build it later because the professor usually moves very fast through the topics OChem texts are usually very thick and very heavy with reading assignments. Anyway, these students I tutored paid me for my time, obviously, but only a handful of the many I worked with did well because they worked with me continuously (from day one of the course/of the school year.) As a point of reference, let me compare Organic Chemistry to Physical Chemistry aka “PChem”, which is far harder. Why? Because you can’t memorize your way through it and still do well like you often can with OChem (depending on the professor). You have to know the concepts, and have a good foundation in physics, in addition to the math. If you’re a Chem, Biochem, or Chemical Engineering major, you have to take PChem. If you thought OChem was challenging, be prepared for a quintuple dose of difficulty in PChem, which is full of abstractness and things that are not straightforward or “easily memorizable.” BUT OChem is a good stepping stone. You learn how to apply your knowledge of chemistry - and it may be your first “applied” Chemistry course! This will help you in later, more difficult courses like PChem and Biochemistry in your junior and senior year, assuming you take OChem as a sophomore. So, make good use of it, you’ll thank yourself later if you put the time in and find a good study method for yourself. But you WILL have to put in the time, unless your IQ is off the charts and it’s all just a lark to you and you never find anything in academia very difficult. Yes, Ochem

may be the class that the rest of your life has to revolve around…and Pchem and Biochem too, if you have to take them. Another note - OChem, and also PChem, teach you how to become a good problem solver. OChem more than PChem I think, because it is more tangible and “real-world”, as I say. And if you’re going to be a good doctor/medical practitioner, you had better be a DAMNED good problem solver. You also have to be very good at thinking on your feet and making split-second decision…CORRECT split-second decisions. So, get your brain into rapid-fire mode. Again, my advice would be to spend most of your time outside of class working problems. Read the text only one time, and review your lecture notes one time and if you don’t understand things, just ask your professor or better yet, the Graduate Teaching Assistant(s) who are often even better at distilling things down than the professor is. After that, just WORK PRACTICE PROBLEMS. Dead serious about that. It’s the one and only way to learn Organic Chemistry. Those who don’t work enough problems fail the exams. It’s been happening for decades. Finally, for any Pre-Meds reading this - you’d better be very proficient at OChem because your medical school admissions officer(s) will look at your grades in OChem and Biology (and Biochemistry if you’ve taken it). If you’ve gotten A’s in all of them, it means you probably have the necessary foundation and enough discipline to handle the rigors of med school. Study hard, but most importantly, STUDY RIGHT. Develop that plan for yourself. You’ll know if it’s working or not when you look at your exam scores. And don’t listen to people who say, “Organic Chemistry is impossible.” This was an inordinately long response to a very short question but hopefully at least a sliver of those who made it all the way through will take it to heart and, even better, succeed.

Organic chem, at the university level, is a challenge to many students. As mentioned in another comment, you either get it or you don't. Paradoxically, even though (at the more advanced level) it calls on many “more chemistry-y” fields, like Quantum, StatMech etc, at the very beginning it forces the student to do something that science students don't often do. The student must SLOW DOWN, take a breath, stop looking for the numbers (o-chem doesn't have many numbers at the early stages) and start making friends with the Periodic Table. Learn which elements are electrophilic piggies and will hog (or abstract) a lesselectrophilic element's electrons in a quest for stability. Think of it as “elemental bullying”. Learn which elements are the weak “pushover” that will easily surrender their electron density. This is why you learned about Periodic and Diagonal trends in the table! Learn to think of the electron density itself as a sort of negativelycharged, sticky jello. Give the elements personalities! Can you picture how an electrophilic atom that REALLY wants electrons might be willing to bully one that doesn't hold its electrons very tightly into giving up its little blob of negative charge jello? It would end up without its little blob, sad and almost naked, while the strong electrophile sits there, pleased with itself for “hogging the blanket”? Picture how that jello would ooze and wrap around the atoms. Which way will it ooze? In short, o-chem becomes easier if you let it be itself - ORGANIC. Living. Reacting. What you are REALLY learning is how elements behave towards each other at the ATOMIC level. You get the chance to peek into their private lives and to learn how to predict what will happen when they meet. Think of it as a soap opera of sorts. Don't attack it with brute force. Get to know it with thoughtfulness and regular “visits” and you will be amazed at how quickly and deeply it will it will draw you into itself.

I think we are excessive thoughtful about organic chemistry. We can create some abnormal imaginations on organic chemistry so that we will not be able to cope it up. To handle it i think one way you must follow i.e. from primitive zone of it you may start learning. It does not mean that you have to search the ancient books. Just take your text book or any basic book of organic chemistry with the help of your friendly one who can help you from beginning or with the help of your teacher who does not get annoyance with your silly or simple questions at first. This is the only way to grow you up. And when you see that you are able to jump into a conceptual part with your own thinking that time you will realize that yes nothing is hard in organic chemistry. From that day your journey will be started with a solid motivation. Must try it please. Because i have told you that from my own experiences. My undergraduate degree is in Industrial Chemistry. I graduated with honors and found all of my major classes pretty easy — except for Organic Chemistry. I am extremely good at memorization and I am probably best than most in problem solving, especially if you could use math to solve the problem, but pretty much any kind of problem solving I am great at. Still, Organic Chemistry wasn’t as intuitive as all of the other courses. That is one reason I wanted to get a PhD in Organic Chemistry — I thought there must be some kind of trick to it to make it easy and I needed to find out what it was. I eventually found out what my problem was, at my subconscious level I could not believe my own inability to predict the outcome of organic reactions with logic and mathematical modeling alone. I was trying to find specific patterns and numeric logic to Organic Chemistry and encase the outcome of reactions to my past experience, but some reactions simply defied my internal logic and knowledge. I actually needed to memorize the way that bonds had behaved in the past and use only that, even if that information would go

against my own logic. Once I trained my brain to stop applying my own logic to try to solve the problems, and instead use only the patterns I had memorized, I was able to master the courses, but I have to admit — my brain complained and squealed because that is not in my nature. But even after mastering what they teach you in college, the real issue is that organic reactions don’t always go as you would expect, as a matter of fact, scientists still can’t figure out the absolute logic in organic chemistry, which is why is so hard to create a good computational simulation software for organic reactions that would be reliable and that is why we always have to try our theories in the lab, sometimes they just defy our expectations. Think about it, if organic chemistry were easy, we could easily program computers to tell us exactly what you would get with any kind of established parameters and we wouldn’t need to do things in the lab. There have been many advances in biological computing and in many kinds of engineering, but there is still a lot to do in organic chemistry. In a sense, organic chemistry is similar to human behavior, you can theorize the outcome, usually based on past behavior, but many times it just surprises us....