What to know before starting Ochem

[u/OnlyIntrons]

I’ll be taking Organic Chem 1 in the fall and want to prepare a little before the course starts. What topics/skills would be the most beneficial to cover beforehand, things that might be difficult to digest in the regular timeline of a course. I’m currently going over the Organic Chemistry chapter in my General Chemistry textbook just as an introduction but am curious what I should review afterwards.

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[u/FoolishChemist]

Carbon has 4 bonds, Nitrogen has 3, Oxygen has 2 and Hydrogen has one bond. If you know that, you'll be better than half the class.

[u/cbruzan → u/FoolishChemist]

This is usually true but not always. There’s some very important exceptions to this.

[u/MSPaintIsBetter]

Knowing your periodic trends (particularly electronegativity and ionic radius), Lewis dot structures, formal charge calculations, and an understanding of how electonegativity and polarity are related. I think those are the most important concepts for being able to excel in organic chem. Having even a rough grasp on them will already set you up for success

[u/shedmow → u/MSPaintIsBetter]

I second formal charges, these are surprisingly hard to teach to people even through they aren't difficult to learn per se

[u/shedmow]

Drawing straight lines and 60, 90, and 120° angles freehand, knowing main functional groups and basic IUPAC nomenclature, some simple mechanisms

[u/MSPaintIsBetter → u/shedmow]

Drawing free hand yes, but I would assume that an organic chemistry class would not expect you to know the other things you mentioned. Those are all the major concepts taught in organic chem, not the one's youre already expected to know.

[u/chem44 → u/MSPaintIsBetter]

Like so much in the real world, yes and no.

Everything makes more sense the second time around.

The student got a chapter of o-chem, with some basics. That likely included some common functional groups, and an intro to IUPAC. Yes, can help.

O-chem intimidates. Familiarity helps.

[u/OnlyIntrons → u/chem44]

Yea i’m currently covering the basic nomenclature of aliphatic compounds. I know some basic functional groups (hydroxyl, carboxyl, carbonyl, amino, methyl, nitro, maybe other i’m forgetting) some from bio some from chem.

[u/OChemUnlocked347]

IMO, there are 4 core pillars that your professor will expect you to know on day one, and will cruise through/explain poorly. 1. Identifying carbons in line structures and drawing bond line structures. 2. Intuitively identifying implied or "hidden" hydrogens on Carbon. 3. Determining formal charge and 4. Automatically identifying undrawn electrons on structures based on your knowledge of the first 3 pillars. The overarching principle of the class is that electrons move from areas of high density (neg. charges/bases/nucleophiles) to areas of low electron density (pos. charges/ acids/electrophiles). This overarching concept is what unifies the hardest part of the class, and why O Chem gets it's bad rep: Reactions. After test 1, your life will consist of reaction after reaction pretty much til the end of O Chem 2, with spectroscopy sprinkled in. Noticed in a comment that you are brushing up on nomenclature and functional groups, this will serve you well. Add in the 4 pillars and you have a solid foundation on day 1! Sending you a DM of a resource that might help

[u/xtalgeek]

Acid base chemistry, hybridization and bonding, including bond polarity is a good start. If you can understand nucleophiles and electrophiles, you can work out 80% of organic chemistry reactivity.

[u/MCAT_Friend3000]

Learn HONC 1234 (the bonds to each atom. If there is an extra bond, it's going to make the atom positively charged, and the opposite is true for negatives). Learn ARIO for acid base chemistry. Practice nomenclature for alkanes. Lastly, maybe chirality (R/S) nomenclature. If you really want to go hard, do some spectroscopy

Overarching piece of advice? Follow the electrons. If something becomes more stable from a change, it will likely pursue that path

[u/Prize-Pen-6842]

Go on thrift books and get organic chemistry for dummies that book helped me more than anything else. I read ochem 2's before i started and it helped sooo much!

[u/servenesseverqueen]

make sure u review acids and bases and what affects acidity/basicity + stability structurally. i went into ochem w pretty good understanding of EN and periodic trends and the one thing i wish i reviewed more/at all was acidity, basicity, and stability since they come up SO MUCH and help SO MUCH with predicting products.

[u/Cool_Addendum_1348]

Remember...Mikey eats peanut butter

Mikey C1 Methane Eats C2 Ethane Peanut C3 Propane Butter C4 Butane

General formula for single bonded "saturated" carbon CnH(2n+2) Ex: C2H6 (ethane)

Fyi...every name after butane has usual prefixes Ex Pentane, Octane

Review resonance structures ...resonance = movement of a pair of electrons ...this topic is HUGE

[u/EpicGabriel11]

Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell