Organic Chemistry, Ahhh!!!
By Pigglies
@Pigglies (9329)
United States
March 26, 2007 4:52pm CST
Ok, so organic chemistry is one of those worst nightmare classes for students. But is it really that bad?
I just had the first lecture today. We were told to study 2 hours a night to pass, 5 hours a night for an A. And that's for students who read normally, not students like myself. Yikes!
So how much did you really study? Did you pass? Did you like ochem, or was it a nightmare?
2 people like this
8 responses
@Denmarkguy (1845)
• United States
31 Mar 07
I feel guilty about adding another negative story here... however, my ex basically quit pursuing a major in Chemical Engineering over Organic Chemistry. She had a 3.8 GPA, "scraped" a low B in first semester and switched majors towards the end of the second semester when it was sadly clear that getting a C would require 3-4 hours a DAY, which did NOT work out with maintaining A averages in her other classes.
Organic Chemistry does seem to work as a "sorter" to separate the "serious" people from the "posers."
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
31 Mar 07
Yeah, we were told it's sort of a sampling of what a professional school will be like too. Like if we went onto medical school or something.
So far, the reading alone is totally killing me. Thankfully, this Monday one of my friends offered to help me with the reading.
@Catkin (480)
• United States
28 Mar 07
I still despise o-chem! It's looking like I may be taking spring semester for a third (and last) time. The tougher mechanisms don't like to stick in my mind, and the prof LOVES making difficult tests (on which our grades are entirely based). Blah. Down with o-chem!
1 person likes this
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
28 Mar 07
I'm afraid now because we had a take home quiz on stuff we already knew, and I knew nothing! Tonight I have homework too, but this guy is very vague so I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.
I'm on my first of three quarters of o-chem.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
1 Apr 07
I loved chemistry back in high school. And even the first general chem class in college wasn't bad. The second one was a bit worse, and the third was a nightmare because I couldn't get into it until 2 years later.
Ochem is proving difficult for me to learn because our professor can't lecture on everything so we have to do a lot of reading. And reading is always a bad thing for me in general.
@kwagga (55)
• United States
24 Apr 07
If you're just getting into it, then the fact that it seems easy to you is a false picture of the devil of chemistry... just make sure you do all the assigned work and stay on top of the topics, and you should be fine... if you don't, well then, you have your nightmare.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I'm halfway into the first quarter of ochem... midterm next week, yikes!
I got very behind in the readings at first, and now I'm almost caught up. I bought the dummies book and that's helping a bit too. I'm not sure how I'll do on the test. I'm not good at the nomenclature stuff yet, but hopefully I can get it by next week. I was doing good until functional groups were added in.
@mrrtomatoe (800)
• Canada
17 Jun 07
It isn't that horrible, it just requires a lot of time. I was almost failing but if you give it enough time you could do really well. Conceptually it doesn't seem very hard but it is being able to apply these concepts and having a solid grasp of them that may be tricky.
