Nov
23
How will i survive organic chemistry after being absent from chemistry courses for a year?
Filed Under Organic Chemistry
how much of general chemistry is actually used in organic chemistry. i got a b in general chem and i am going to take organic chemistry after being absent for a year from any chemistry course. help please i don’t know what to do
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2 Responses to “How will i survive organic chemistry after being absent from chemistry courses for a year?”
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chemical bonding is important for organic.
study it properly and get down to some serious “mugging up”
if you understand the starting few chapters (i.e alkane,alkene etc) the rest should be managable.
There is good news and not such good news. The good news. Depending on who teaches the class, there is not a great deal of information that you must know from general chemistry for organic chemistry. There is much more transference from general chemistry to organic chemistry lab.
The not so good news. A problem with chemistry is that although we like to think that the sciences are very black and white, right and wrong, you will find that organic chemistry is more gray. Here are some paradoxes you will encounter in organic chemistry. From the electronegativity tables, carbon is more electronegative than hydrogen yet it is a better electron donor than hydrogen or that iodide has the least ionic content in a reaction yet it ionizes the most easily. Fluoride has the most ionic content yet it resists forming an ion. You will need to have two thoughts. One for the chemistry and one for your professor. If your professor tells you fluoride has the highest ionic content, then it does. If you are predicting reactions, you will know that iodide is the best leaving group because it forms an anion most easily. You can read my thoughts on this here,.
Overall, I was never concerned about students having even had general chemistry or not. I think it could and should be taught before general chemistry.