8 Steps to survive in Organic Chemistry
1. Review organic chem basics before the first class
Reviewing basics and getting a little exposure to new material gave students confidence coming into the course
2. Make organic chem your priority
Every student is going to be fightened by a difficult exam at some point (even if they don’t show it). Stay focused on your goals and how doing well in organic chemistry will help you reach them
3. Ask a lot of questions
What we can’t do is just open up the students’ heads and pour in the knowledge. Try to work out a problem on your own. When you hit a roadblock, look for several ways around it. If you just seek out the ‘right’ answer every time without first examining the problem from various perspectives, then you really only learn to recognize correct answers, but you will fail when asked to generate correct answers of your own accord.
4. Form study groups
If possible, work in teams. Fostering working friendships with your peers will be helpful if you need a motivational boost to keep cranking out problems or do another practice exam.
5. Learn from your mistakes
Through the studying process, students tend to make mistakes here and there. It is normal. If you do your best, despite your errors, you will learn what you are supposed to learn.
6. Don’t simply memorize; seek to understand
There is a lot of memorization, but one of the jobs as a student is to draw correlations and organize the information
Stay focused on why reactions are happening (hint: pH, electrostatic forces, and sterics), as well as the function of the reagents (nucleophiles, electrophiles, oxidizing agents, reducing agents, acids, and bases)
7. Identify the basic mechanism and how it correlate with thw whole organic chemistry
Students should know the importance of electron arrow pushing in Organic chemistry which form the basis fundamental of Organic Chemistry.
8. Give yourself the credit you deserve
Always give rewards to any Chemistry facts that you come across, give yourself a small treat when you are able to identify the right correlation. Everytime you study some thing, you will increase level of understanding. You will then be highly motivated to study more difficult Organic Chemistry