text: What should I review before taking Organic Chemistry 1? - Pre-Med Topics - College Confidential Forums
  What should I review before taking Organic Chemistry 1?
  AirHendrix August 1, 2010, 1:58pm #1
  <p>Hey, what's going on?</p>
  <p>I'm currently a returning sophomore Pre-Med student that is going to be taking Organic Chemistry 1 in the fall.</p>
  <p>I would like to know if there are any topics that I should review from General Chemistry I and II in order to prepare for Organic Chemistry 1.</p>
  <p>Please let me know :D. I tried e-mailing my General Chemistry II professor about this but didn't get a response back so I'm willing to e-mail him again, same with my General Chemistry 1 professor.</p>
  <p>Thanks for reading my message!</p>
  apumic August 1, 2010, 5:21pm #2
  <p>acid/base, periodic trends, balanced rxns, details about the top 3 rows of the periodic table, bonding, etc. Basically, know g-chem conceptually like the back of your hand and be able to apply g-chem concepts to novel situations.</p>
  ansar August 1, 2010, 5:21pm #3
  <p>From what I've seen, most people recommend Organic Chemistry as a Second Language to get a grasp on the basics</p>
  OoPurestOo August 1, 2010, 10:16pm #4
  <p>Don't buy supplementary books.... Just stay on top of your class, honestly. That's the best approach if you want to save effort and time. If you have a lot of time on your hands this summer, then I guess you can brush up on acidity/basicity, Lewis Dot structures, and electronegativity.</p>
  AirHendrix August 1, 2010, 10:32pm #5
  <p>Alright, cool. I'll fish out my Gen Chem 1 and II notebooks and look in my book for the topics, and skim the chapters a bit, and if there's any problems I need to review, I'll just look in my notebook for the appropriate chapters (my Gen Chem II professor organized his material quite well).</p>
  <p>Anyway, thank you so much. I remember Dr. Schramm told us to review acids and bases and periodic trends before Organic now that you mention it.</p>
  <p>Novel situations would include what kind of examples?</p>
  <p>I was told by a Organic Chem tutor that its alright if you keep up with the work but its a lot of memorization. I'm not necessarily scared because I'll try my best regardless.</p>
  <p>How are the lab sections for Organic? My actual Gen Chem II tutor said they were model based labs but I'm not so sure. There's obviously more caution with the chemicals being used in Organic Chem labs as I was told by a student within that course but I don't necessarily know the difficulty of the labs themselves.</p>
  <p>I read the General Chemistry labs three times before we actually had the lab and highlighted certain points with a highlighter but always sometimes had a hard time with gen chem labs although I managed the grade well.</p>
  <p>I lacked a bit of common sense if I can say that honestly but was interested in what was going on. I just hated how it was such a huge competition to be the first group to leave aka there was so many tight knit cliches within my labs.</p>
  <p>I guess that exists everywhere, whatever. I hope I'll do alright in that class.</p>
  phonyreal98 August 1, 2010, 10:49pm #6
  Don't buy supplementary books.... Just stay on top of your class, honestly. That's the best approach if you want to save effort and time. If you have a lot of time on your hands this summer, then I guess you can brush up on acidity/basicity, Lewis Dot structures, and electronegativity.
  <p>I found Organic Chemistry as a Second Language to be EXTREMELY helpful in mastering the basics; especially when my professor wasn't clear about something.</p>
  AirHendrix August 2, 2010, 12:44am #7
  <p>I thought you were kidding about the Organic Chemistry as A Second Language.</p>
  <p>Would it be worth it to buy the actual book? Its about $30 on Amazon though I might be able to rent it on Chegg.</p>
  <p>Do you recommend that I also buy the Organic Chem 1 book for the class?</p>
  <p>I'm gonna rent it from Chegg regardless but I have the option to buy it at the end of the semester if I want to.</p>
  <p>Thanks for the recommendation. The reviews on Amazon.com are pretty good but I'm not sure if I need it though. I think I'll go through the topics in my General Chemistry book like you said.</p>
  <p>Its been since May that I did any Chem based textbook work but I'm sure it'll be alright.</p>
  <p>I have to take Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 so I'm only hoping for the best I guess.</p>
  fneverforget August 2, 2010, 1:40am #8
  <p>I haven't taken organic chemistry, but is there a correlation between how well you do in gen. chem and organic chem?</p>
  OoPurestOo August 2, 2010, 4:24am #9
  <p>Well, ok fine. Buy that supplementary book if you are unable to take in the course from your own textbook for the class OR the professor's teachings. I'm saying this because, personally, I brought maybe 2-3 supplementary books for reference to my 2nd year for organic chemistry, however my professors and textbook did a great enough job in helping me grasp the material. </p>
  <p>As for the course itself, you are pretty much going to learn background information about the reactions (acidity and basicity) of organic molecules as well as their structures in the first part of Organic Chem1. The later parts of Ochem1 and throughout Ochem2 you will be dealing with series of reactions and mechanisms. For example, your professor will teach you useful reactions for getting from a starting molecule to a more favored product. You will have to know the dynamics of the electron shiftings as well as what you add (solvents, conditions) to get to that product. </p>
  <p>What makes the course difficult is people pretty much just try to memorize all the reactions they were taught instead of understanding the principles as to WHY this certain reaction takes place. The exams will feature problems with starting molecules and you'll have to show a number of steps, what you added and the conditions, to get a final product using the reactions and mechanisms you learned in class. So pretty much organic chem can be like a puzzle. </p>
  <p>@fneverforget: If someone didn't do well with lewis structures, electron properties, electronegativity, or just hated chemistry overall because of the concepts related to periodic trends...they may not enjoy Organic Chemistry. If the only thing one could've hated in General Chemistry was the Mathematical aspect and relative formulas to get products, Organic is a little different ballgame since numbers aren't too relative to the main concepts...unless you count NMR spectroscopy (determining the structures of molecules based on numerical PPM values on a spectrum.)</p>
  AirHendrix August 2, 2010, 1:21pm #10
  <p>Lewis structures and electronegativity were alright. They were topics that I didn't have too much trouble with after you get the basic method of how to go about doing them, especially the lewis structures.</p>
  <p>I went to my General Chemistry II professor's every office hour last semester for mostly help and extra problems to make sure I knew what I was doing for the homework and test.</p>
  <p>If there's one thing I could say about my General Chemistry courses was that sometimes the topics seemed so far out there but once you got it, everything made complete sense.</p>
  <p>I always had a sense of being overwhelmed and being enlightened hehe but I guess that's what every class is like.</p>
  <p>Thanks for the suggestion. I think the book plus my professor will help me just fine for this class. But seriously, thank you for sending me a reply. It really means a lot to me ;D.</p>
  MiamiDAP August 2, 2010, 3:36pm #11
  <p>According to my D. Orgo has very little to do with Gen. Chem. Gen. Chem. has been her easiest class, Orgo is pure memorization. Summer time is way too precious to waste on Orgo. Relax.</p>
  apumic August 3, 2010, 3:20am #12
  <p>^Miami, your daughter clearly missed the point of ochem if she didn't see the link between the two and was memorizing in ochem. I agree it is not worthwhile to waste summer studying for ochem but it is a myth that ochem and gchem are so different. Ochem is simply gchem without the math and focused on carbon and its rxns w/ O, N, H, X (halides), etc. If one understands the concepts from gchem, ochem is nothing more than an extension of those principles. There is no need to memorize ochem mechanisms once you understand the trends, common types of interactions between nucleophiles and electrophiles, acid/base rxns, etc.</p>
  MiamiDAP August 3, 2010, 9:10am #13
  <p>^She does understand concept of Gchem very well, she has been Supplemental Instructor for Gen. Chem prof. (paid position) for 2 years and did not need to go over it before MCAT, rarely missed any Gen Chem questions. OChem was completely different animal for her. although her grades and MCAT score were the same in PS and BS. She needed to work very hard for Orgo, but not to the point of wasting summer time on studies.</p>