Teaching organic chemistry professor's tricks since 2006.
Hi everybody–
It’s been over two years now that we have been giving you our organic chemistry tips, now it’s your turn. Tell us what trick your profs tried to pull on you, or a slick way around a problem that you might have seen. We will take the best ones and use them in a future post.
Hi Everybody, browsing again I found that AceOrganicChem.com has recently released review videos for organic chemistry that cover your entire semester. The videos are about 6 hours long, easy-to-understand, and only $8.99. I think that they not only useful for the end of the semester, but a nice review as you go along too. You can jump from topic to topic, go at your pace, and learn all of the tricks your professors won’t tell you. These get 5 stars from us here at this blog. Here is the link for the videos: organic chemistry videos, they are available to download immediately after your purchase.
Good luck and happy reacting
This is my new favorite book. It is from AceOrganicChem.com and is now in paperback version available from Amazon.com. It is titled “86 Tricks To Ace Organic Chemistry” and is an instant winner. It is easy to understand and will help you improve your o-chem grade quickly. A link is below or just search “86 Tricks” on Amazon.
Learning organic chemistry is like trying to work in a foreign country; if you don’t know the language, it is going to be very difficult to learn how to do your job. Imagine that you have just been transported to the mythical country of “ochemia”, a small island nation in the south Pacific, where your job is to write chemistry reactions.
Frequently, in a chemistry lecture, professors start tossing out strange organic chemistry terms far too quickly. Because students aren’t fluent in “ochemia” yet, they need to translate each word in their head to understand what the instructor has just said. By the time this mentally translation is done, the student has just missed the next sentence and has lost half of the lecture. Our goal is to get as fluent as we can in the language of chemistry as quickly as we can. Here are some terms it will be helpful to memorize so that you don’t have to do a mental translation when you hear them:
Meth = 1
Eth= 2
Prop = 3
But = 4
Pent = 5
Hex = 6
Hept = 7
Oct = 8
Non = 9
Dec = 10
Nucleophile = has electrons, has a negative or partial negative charge
Halogen = F, Cl, Br, I
Aprotic solvents = do not contain OH or NH bonds
Protic solvents = contain OH or NH bonds
Lewis Acid = electron acceptor
Lewis Base = electron donor
Carbonyl group = (C=O)
Cis = same side of a double bond or ring
Trans = opposite sides of a double bond or ring
Electrophile = wants electrons, has a positive or partial positive charge
As always, for more help please go to organic chemistry
Hi everybody, we are back from the long summer break and I wanted to start the year with a very cool article which just came out. They have taken a molecule of pentacene and provided a “clear as day” picture of it. It is pretty fascinating to look at the ring structure and see how similar it is to the molecular models we have all been using since freshman chem. Anywho, link is below, well worth a quick peek:
Remember, all your needs for organic chemistry can be found at organic chemistry
Good luck, and as always, happy reacting.
Don't be so hard on yourselves.
Don’t forget, organic chemistry help can be found at organic chemistry help
I love this, it is the largest test bank on the web for organic chemistry exams. It is completely free and is a great way to study for your exams. Testbank is located at organic chemistry, scroll to the middle of the page and click on “practice exams”. There are over 50 practice tests from Organic I and Organic II, most with the correct answers. See former exams from universities around the country.
Good luck and happy reacting.
Hey Everybody, cruising the net again I found that AceOrganicChem.com has launched their latest product, 200 Organic II Audio Flashcards. With audio flash cards, you not only see the answer, but hear an explanation of it too. I purchased the to take a test run for my students and I love it. Some people are visual learners, some are audio learners. This helps both!!
To see a video demonstration, go to organic chemistry flashcards.
To purchase, go to organic chemistry.
Thanks, and as always, happy reacting.
AceOrganicChem.com has just released the update to their first book, adding 21 new tricks for a total of 86 tricks to help you score a top grade in organic chemistry. In a recent survey, it was found that 88% who purchased the book would “definitely” recommend it to a friend.
It still covers:
and much more.
What is $3.99? Is an “A” in organic chemistry worth $3.99? Don’t wait for the price increase. Get your copy now, available for immediate download.
Let’s face facts: alkanes don’t have many uses. In real life, they are non-polar solvents, larger-chaines ones can be used to make wax, and they are good for burning/they make good fuels. As far as organic chemistry goes, alkanes are very boring. They have only three uses in your class:
1) Solvents: Alkanes are very good non-polar solvents. See tip #XX for more information on this.
2) Halogenation: Alkanes can be reacted with bromine or chlorine under free-radical conditions to obtain an alkyl halide. See tip #XX for more information on this.
3) Combustion: This is the fuel part. Complete combustion is an alkane reaction with oxygen to obtain CO2 and water, as shown in the following example: C3H8 +5O2 à 3CO2 + 4H2O + Heat
There is only a small possibility that you will see a combustion reaction on one of your exams. Therefore, the only real uses for alkanes in your undergraduate organic chemistry class will be as a solvent or in a halogenation reaction. Hence, if you have an alkane in one of your exam reactions, it should be very simple to determine its role. If there is a halogen (usually either Br2 or Cl2) , then beware of a halogenation reaction. Otherwise, it is most likely safe to say that if you have an alkane in your reaction, it is a solvent and does not participate as a reactant.
For more helpful organic chemistry information, please go to organic chemistry.
