budullewraagh, how's organic chemistry treating you?

[blike]

Have you started yet?

[budullewraagh]

i havent started classes yet; they wont begin until the 27th of june. i have started studying, with quite a bunch of success.

 

do you think i'll need to know all the steps of every reaction with intermediates, etc?

[dan19_83]

organic chemistry is funny like that. for exams purposes (from my experience) you may need to learn the different mechanisms that apply to different orgain compounds which may require a lot of learning alright.

[blike]

do you think i'll need to know all the steps of every reaction with intermediates, etc?

It's hard to say. There's no way to memorize every single reaction. Your professor will probably give you some idea as to what you should be studying. Usually what you cover in class you'll see on the test somewhere. Most lectures involve discussion of a couple of general reactions, their mechanisms, and some examples.

 

Undoubtedly you will have a better idea of what to focus on when you start class. There are some classic reactions that will pop up such as: Diels-Alder, aldol condensation/addition, Wittig and Wittig-horner, Wolff-Kishner, Reformatsky, etc etc. These are paramount and will likely be on your exams. But anything he covers is likely fair game, so don't neglect anything if you can.

 

Eventually you should be able to combine several reactions together and be able to predict the product at each step. You should also practice predicting the reagents (i.e. you're given a starting compound and the compound after a reaction. Predict what chemicals were used). Typical test problems (for me) consisted of a starting compound and initial reaction conditions. From here, you have to predict the product. Then, they'll give you the next product and you have to figure out the reaction conditions. My tests consisted of maybe 15 of these sorts of questions (one to four reactions, predict the product OR reagents). Then, there were always two or three mechanism problems. Usually they gave us a reactant, reagents, and a product and asked us to draw the mechanism, including all intermediates, transitions, charges, and resonance structures (these are important!).

 

There are a ton of resources on the web both for understanding and practicing problems, so seek those out if you need to.

 

I've typed a lot and just realized I haven't really answered your question clearly. So, in a nutshell: you won't have to know them ALL. You'll need to know some, he may or may not tell you which ones. You'll have a better idea regarding how you need to study after the class starts and especially after the first exam.

 

Keep us posted on the class!

[budullewraagh]

thanks, blike, that was really helpful.

 

from what ive read, orgo I appears to be all about various classes of organic molecules; their physical and chemical properties, as well as the reactions that synthesize them/the reactions they can undergo and specifically how these reactions work (intermediates, resonance structures, etc).

 

sounds like a bunch of fun. do you have any suggestions as to what i should read or things i should look into specifically, aside from the aforementioned topics?