Ochem

[Chrono1984]

I have taken 3 practice tests now, and I have improved everywhere EXCEPT ochem...

I was just wondering what sort of studying worked best for those of you who did well. I am making reaction flashcards, is there anything else that might help besides memorizing the reactions? My class notes are more detailed than the Kaplan book, but are those details even necessary to study?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

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[lafootdoc]

hi i got a 25 in ochem. What I did was pretty much write out each reaction like 10 times each and i tried to understand what was happening each time. I also did alot of hw problems. My advice is study the barrons for ochem. Its only like 20 bucks and it could help u in the long run for ochem.

 

[Dr. Parm]

I have taken 3 practice tests now, and I have improved everywhere EXCEPT ochem...

I was just wondering what sort of studying worked best for those of you who did well. I am making reaction flashcards, is there anything else that might help besides memorizing the reactions? My class notes are more detailed than the Kaplan book, but are those details even necessary to study?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

I took the Kaplan course, and not only studied the Kaplan Flashcards, but also went through the Review notes, page by page, and made my own notecards and memorized them like heck. I did surprisingly well on the Orgo section and I would recommend licking up the Review notes highly.

 

[lovechild404]

the ochem section is a bit strange. i was scoring like 17/18 on the practice exams, but i scored a 25 on the real thing. keep practicing the flash cards and get lab related stuff down also. and hit up your old ochem text book.

 

[BenignDMD]

Org. was my weakest section too. I just read the Kaplan book and did as many practice probs. as possible. Got a 25 on it too, looks like the popular score!

 

[tinman831]

Org. was my weakest section too. I just read the Kaplan book and did as many practice probs. as possible. Got a 25 on it too, looks like the popular score!

If ochem is your weakest section and you got a 25 on it, what did you get on your other sections?

 

[kew]

I took all the rxns out of the kaplan book and put them on a separate sheet of paper. Kaplan has them all spread out and studying that way might be difficult and since the real thing doesn't care about anyting but reactant and product regarding this material, then just know the reactions (all of them). Again, write them all out and memorize them as subject. "When this mixes with this What do you get?" Or like: When this mixes with this and has this reagent, then you'll always get and aldahyde. If you do this, then your practice tests will fly a lot faster. You don't need to know your notes from class. This is just memorization baby, so start memorizing them all and you shouldn't miss any. If you find some wierd ones on actual tests, just take note of them and watch for them later. you don't need to go thru your notes and figure out why this weird one was an exception to the rule, just take note, memorize it as another rxn and move on. You'll waste a lot of time doing it any other way. Again, this part is just sheer memorization, don't make it more difficult than it has to be (as far as the ochem rxns go). I realize I didn't get a 25 on Ochem, but I did get a 19. And around here, I guess 19's don't hold much water anymore, but I'd rather represent the majority and post something more from the average person's radar capabilities.

 

[issa]

how many "predict the product questions" were there in the actual DAT?

 

[Chrono1984]

Ok, thanks for all the advice.

What I've done so far is mapped out kaplan on seperate pieces of paper. I divided the reactions by functional group...like all the alkanes on one page, ketones/aldehydes on another, ect. Since Kaplan doesn't have many examples, I just looked up each reaction in my old notes and found 3-4 more detailed examples of each and put them down. My ochem prof is also helping me out by giving me blank tests and practice problems from class last year. Just further drilling those reactions into my brain.

Slowly starting to come back to me.

 

[kew]

Map them out into those funcitonal groups and you'll nail those questions. You Go Boy!!!