Organic Chem Mechanism Memorization/understanding advice

[ahart01]

Hi fellow SDN future doctors, I'm looking for your advice for how to best understand and memorize organic chemistry mechanisms! Anyone who has taken the course before, do you have any advice in terms of what approach you had and what worked vs. not worked so well? Your input is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance and hope you all stay well and have a great semester!

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[caterwaiter]

Hello! First off, I hope you know you're not alone on the O Chem Mechanism Struggle Bus. I struggled with it for a looooong time. Things that worked for me: repeatedly drawing out mechanisms (a whiteboard comes in handy), supplementing with Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, and relating mechanisms/concepts to reactions we produced in lab. I know the last one is only relevant if you're also taking an O Chem lab, but I genuinely think writing detailed mechanism notes in my lab reports and being able to remember specific experiments in relation to mechanisms for exams helped me.

Finally, a general test-taking strategy that has worked for me from everything from dance performance to the MCAT: practice in the actual test-taking environment! Sometimes the issue isn't information recall, but test anxiety of sorts. If your professor offers a practice exam, take it like you're actually taking the exam in class. Find a quiet space, use the pen/pencil you're going to use, don't allow distractions, get yourself a little nervous. Pretend it's the real deal. This has worked well for me for a long time.

On a different note, I would not hesitate to investigate any of the resources your school has available to you. Don't be afraid to talk openly with your professor, TAs, or peers who have taken the class before. Not asking questions for fear of looking/feeling dumb is something I wish I had let go of much sooner.

Good luck!

 

[esob]

Personally, I learned Ochem backward, in the sense that I got a workbook that had answers to questions and then I read the explanations for why the right answer was the right answer. It probably took me longer than most to master the material but I was in the 99th percentile for the ACS exam. I still learn things in med school this way, by doing questions first to understand the pathophys behind the answers.

 

[drbatsandwich]

Personally, I learned Ochem backward, in the sense that I got a workbook that had answers to questions and then I read the explanations for why the right answer was the right answer. It probably took me longer than most to master the material but I was in the 99th percentile for the ACS exam. I still learn things in med school this way, by doing questions first to understand the pathophys behind the answers.

Definitely all of this. Use the answers in the back of the book to reverse engineer your knowledge. Also I wrote and rewrote mechanisms on a whiteboard over and over. High A’s in organic 1&2 after getting like a 60something on the very first exam.

 

[ahart01]

Definitely all of this. Use the answers in the back of the book to reverse engineer your knowledge. Also I wrote and rewrote mechanisms on a whiteboard over and over. High A’s in organic 1&2 after getting like a 60something on the very first exam.

Thanks @caterwaiter @esob @drbatsandwich -- these are very helpful tips! Much appreciate your input. I just got my first midterm back and while I am happy with the grade, I know that was just the beginning -- it was just a quick overview of genchem + a slight taste of what real orgo. This past week after the exam we started on mechanisms and wow.. I feel like THIS is the real orgo. We covered Sn2/E2/Sn1/E1 and tomorrow in the lecture, we'll probably learn different functional group rxns. I will definitely use your approaches to these for sure, thanks again!

 

[jhmmd]

Hi fellow SDN future doctors, I'm looking for your advice for how to best understand and memorize organic chemistry mechanisms! Anyone who has taken the course before, do you have any advice in terms of what approach you had and what worked vs. not worked so well? Your input is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance and hope you all stay well and have a great semester!

I made a mechanisms folder and a rxns folder. Repetition repetition repetition. If this means writing things down over and over, visualizing things as you say them out loud, drawing them in mid-air, or using all three types of learning styles at once--more power to you. Also 99% on ACS exam. Practice makes perfect.

 

[crandmat]

Hi fellow SDN future doctors, I'm looking for your advice for how to best understand and memorize organic chemistry mechanisms! Anyone who has taken the course before, do you have any advice in terms of what approach you had and what worked vs. not worked so well? Your input is greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance and hope you all stay well and have a great semester!

Organic chemistry is essentially one big game; learn all of the fundamentals first (the rules) and then you can play the game. Things build off of each other, lots of mechanisms are similar, and for sure know your functional groups.

 

[deleted1066189]

Thankfully, there isn't much Orgo on the MCAT. A lot of the times, you'll get questions on chromatography, or types of reagents.
Plenty of the orgo you can simply flashcard and repeat. Some mechanisms you may want to draw.
Kaplan quicksheets are super comprehensive for the orgo knowledge you need!

 

[jhmmd]

Thankfully, there isn't much Orgo on the MCAT. A lot of the times, you'll get questions on chromatography, or types of reagents.
Plenty of the orgo you can simply flashcard and repeat. Some mechanisms you may want to draw.
Kaplan quicksheets are super comprehensive for the orgo knowledge you need!

Just to build off of this, the ochem on the MCAT mainly has to do w/bio.
A lot of pre-meds make the mistake of thinking that they don't need ochem for the MCAT--this is a false statement. But yeah flash cards are great too.

 

[tinylegomumps]

I don't mean to scare you, OP, but I wouldn't rest easy thinking "'there isn't much Orgo on the MCAT." I had a full section that required knowledge of NMR (which you will learn) to the ability of doing some practice problems and not just memorizing a few facts about it, as portrayed in the Kaplan review books. Was excited to think I could close the book on that topic forever -- nope! Learn everything to the best of your ability in your classes and it will pay off at MCAT time.

 

[jhmmd]

I don't mean to scare you, OP, but I wouldn't rest easy thinking "'there isn't much Orgo on the MCAT." I had a full section that required knowledge of NMR (which you will learn) to the ability of doing some practice problems and not just memorizing a few facts about it, as portrayed in the Kaplan review books. Was excited to think I could close the book on that topic forever -- nope! Learn everything to the best of your ability in your classes and it will pay off at MCAT time.

1. "Just memorizing a few facts"--this is not what the MCAT is about. The MCAT (and Step 1) are about applying what you've learned. It's a critical thinking test, just like the ACT. The SAT is more memorization. The MCAT is more akin to the ACT.
2. Medicine is a lifelong learning profession. You will be tested routinely: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, board certification, board re-certification (every year), reqs for board certification, etc. etc. etc. If are not the type of person who enjoys picking up a book and learning it BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS, then you will not succeed as a doctor.
3. "Learn everything to the best of your ability"--I don't disagree with this, but you need to be able to push yourself. Just going through the motions is not going to make the cutoff.

Sorry to be harsh but that's the way it is.

 

[tinylegomumps]

1. "Just memorizing a few facts"--this is not what the MCAT is about. The MCAT (and Step 1) are about applying what you've learned. It's a critical thinking test, just like the ACT. The SAT is more memorization. The MCAT is more akin to the ACT.
2. Medicine is a lifelong learning profession. You will be tested routinely: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, board certification, board re-certification (every year), reqs for board certification, etc. etc. etc. If are not the type of person who enjoys picking up a book and learning it BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS, then you will not succeed as a doctor.
3. "Learn everything to the best of your ability"--I don't disagree with this, but you need to be able to push yourself. Just going through the motions is not going to make the cutoff.

Sorry to be harsh but that's the way it is.

I don't disagree with any of your points, but I was trying to forewarn that one cannot skimp on certain parts of organic chemistry (that they may struggle with) because the review books say you are unlikely to be tested on it with any depth on the MCAT. This is as a counterpoint to the commenter who said orgo isn't really a big part of the MCAT. I didn't elaborate on this because OP hasn't even studied NMR yet but the Kaplan books were basically like "remember that these ranges mean these functional groups and you're good to go" and my testing experience was far from that. There is a smattering of other topics in all three content-based sections that review books will say are unlikely to be tested on in much detail. I hear people say a lot "the MCAT is a test of breadth, not depth" but I don't really think that's true from my own experience. My belief now is that "high-yield" vs "low-yield" is a comforting myth and the first and best preparation is doing well in the pre-med courses and mastering the content presented.

 

[jhmmd]

I don't disagree with any of your points, but I was trying to forewarn that one cannot skimp on certain parts of organic chemistry (that they may struggle with) because the review books say you are unlikely to be tested on it with any depth on the MCAT. This is as a counterpoint to the commenter who said orgo isn't really a big part of the MCAT. I didn't elaborate on this because OP hasn't even studied NMR yet but the Kaplan books were basically like "remember that these ranges mean these functional groups and you're good to go" and my testing experience was far from that. There is a smattering of other topics in all three content-based sections that review books will say are unlikely to be tested on in much detail. I hear people say a lot "the MCAT is a test of breadth, not depth" but I don't really think that's true from my own experience. My belief now is that "high-yield" vs "low-yield" is a comforting myth and the first and best preparation is doing well in the pre-med courses and mastering the content presented.

Well I guess that shows that you can't take that much stock in review books. There is an outline of MCAT topics floating around somewhere on the internet--I think it's part of the MSAR these days? Anyways, I would use that instead, and make sure that I feel completely 100% confident about all of the topics. You can probably find it by googling it.