O-chem is no joke. Anybody who tells you it's easy is one of two things: very intelligent or lying.
You have got to study your ass off, and reading before class is essential. It clarifies the material in class, and allows you to get way, way more out of the lecture notes than just going to class and then cramming the night before the exam.
If you study the text, then do the problems, then check them with the solutions manual, it will go a long way towards your understanding of the material.
You could have almost no general chemistry in your background at all and do well in organic, because it's a different kind of learning, a different aspect to the material. You have periodic trends and a few equations, but it's largely going to be examining the POSSIBILITIES in the given problem, rather than the single correct answer.
For example, in Gen. Chem, they would give you the data on a cell, and ask you to calculate the rate of electron flow for that cell, etc. In Organic, they will give you two reagents, and ask you to detail what materials you need to add, under what conditions, and show each step to get a very specific product, in a very specific conformation (remember going over aufbau, valence, electronegativity, and bonding orbitals in general? This is where you apply that knowledge). For the beginning reagents you are given, there are several possibile outcomes, but the professor will want only one.
If this sounds intimidating, you'll do fine. You'll be scared now, then get to class and realize you just have to STUDY the material to do well.
I'll be honest with you and tell you that I have some wicked ADHD, and so my study habits were not up to snuff to tackle organic chemistry. I took first and second semester courses a total of 6 times, for various reasons, including personal study habits and other reasons beyond my control.
Organic is the "weed-out" course in any college science program, but not because the department wants it to be; rather, it requires effort on the students' part to learn the material, and, importantly, the professor's style in teaching the material. O-chem is so large that each professor will demand something different of their students on their exams, so it pays to go to class.
Don't get all motivated now, just to blow it off come the fall. Of all the courses in your college career (I graduate in May, after 5 full years of school), this is the one you need to attend religiously. More importantly, find a group of people you can trust, and share notes and study together. There is always someone in the class who gets a lesson when you don't, and vice-versa. Use the resources your school makes available to you, be it office hours, tutors, study rooms, whatever.
Now is the time to
be scientific and systematically approach the lessons, as well as analyze your learning style. This requires a little introspection on your part.
Sure, this is a lot to say on one college subject, but ask around, and see how many people suddenly decide they would rather be a business major or political science major, rather than a chemist or biologist. This is a very doable subject in the undergraduate level, but a lot of people just want to get by with the minimum study. For me, at least,that was a recipe for failure.
Save yourself the headache, heartache, and the cost of summer tuition by working hard weeks before your first o-chem exam, and keep this in mind: there have been thousands and thousands who have done well in this subject , and just as many who have done miserably. Choose at the beginning of the fall semester which group you want to be in.
