Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Phory · 04-30-2005, 07:50 PM

O-Chem is what made me change my major to chemistry. It was so fun. What helped me most was doing what my professor recommended: keeping a reaction notebook. It was a special notebook, separate from all of my other notes. It was a 3 ring binder, to which I would add a blank piece of white paper for each type of organic compound we learned about. Each time we learned a new reaction I would write down its name on the relevent page, and draw the reaction under the name. Then to study I would just draw each page over and over again. For example I'd say to myself..."Ok draw every reaction an alcohol can do." Then I'd check to see if I drew them all. I'd keep drawing the same page from memory until I got them all, every time. It wouldn't take many iterations of this to memorize all of the reactions, since I would be learning visually. I would also make sure to draw little arrows in every reaction showing where the electrons were moving.

In time from drawing the reactions over and over again, I learned that o-chem is basically just recognizing where electron density around a molecule is high or low, and which atoms are likely to attract or give up electrons.

Another big part of o-chem is being able to vizualise the orientation of 3D models in your head. It seemed like some people just have that ability and some people didn't. It will be much easier if you are fortunate enough to have that ability, but if you find that you lack it...don't dispair. Plenty of people do well in o-chem without natural talent in that area, they just have to practice more.

04-30-2005, 07:50 PM	#21 (permalink)
Phory Upright	O-Chem O-Chem is what made me change my major to chemistry. It was so fun. What helped me most was doing what my professor recommended: keeping a reaction notebook. It was a special notebook, separate from all of my other notes. It was a 3 ring binder, to which I would add a blank piece of white paper for each type of organic compound we learned about. Each time we learned a new reaction I would write down its name on the relevent page, and draw the reaction under the name. Then to study I would just draw each page over and over again. For example I'd say to myself..."Ok draw every reaction an alcohol can do." Then I'd check to see if I drew them all. I'd keep drawing the same page from memory until I got them all, every time. It wouldn't take many iterations of this to memorize all of the reactions, since I would be learning visually. I would also make sure to draw little arrows in every reaction showing where the electrons were moving. In time from drawing the reactions over and over again, I learned that o-chem is basically just recognizing where electron density around a molecule is high or low, and which atoms are likely to attract or give up electrons. Another big part of o-chem is being able to vizualise the orientation of 3D models in your head. It seemed like some people just have that ability and some people didn't. It will be much easier if you are fortunate enough to have that ability, but if you find that you lack it...don't dispair. Plenty of people do well in o-chem without natural talent in that area, they just have to practice more.