Is it possible to take 5.12 without 5.111?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>So, I know MIT is supposed to be pretty lax about prereqs, tending to consider them more recommendations than actual requirements, but I also know that the Chem department tends to be one of the stricter departments (or, at least Mollie seems to think so, and the difficulty of the 5.111/5.112 ASE seems to hint at it). Anyways, from talking to people, it seems that the material in 5.111 isn't too pertinent to 5.12 (opinions? does anyone disagree?). Additionally, I have a pretty strong background in chemistry from high school and I think I'd be comfortable in 5.12. My reason for wanting to take 5.12 next semester is because I'm going to have a really light schedule, thus I can dedicate more time to it than I could later on.</p>

<p>So, will it be possible, or is something (my advisor, the chem department, etc.) going to block me from doing this?</p>

2

<p>Also, I’d rather postpone 5.111 rather than take them concurrently as “coreqs,” but I’d be willing to if necessary.</p>

3

<p>I don’t believe you can skip general chem without taking the ASE. </p>

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<p>NOTHING you did in high school will prepare you for 5.12. Organic chem at MIT is VERY tough and taught much more in depth than at other schools. It is really a class for chem majors. My D was premed, had a very strong chem background from high school and struggled with 5.12 which she took Spring freshman year. She felt completely unprepared for the difficulty of the tests which typically required recreating a final compound by recursively deriving multiple levels of reaction sequences. No multiple choice questions here. </p>

<p>She decided to take Organic Chem II at Harvard instead of 5.13 at MIT to meet the premed requirements. She found the Harvard class much easier and the material had already been mostly covered in 5.12 at MIT.</p>

<p>Be warned!</p>

4

<p>I took 5.12 this past semester, after three years of chemistry in high school, one of them at Penn State. 5.12 is hard. I don’t know that I would have been prepared for it as a freshman. At the same time, it might have been nice to take it P/NR… Good luck. :)</p>

5

<p>It’s true that most of 5.11X isn’t too relevant for 5.12. The only topics I can think of off the top of my head that are directly applicable are MO theory and acid/base chemistry.</p>

<p>That being said, you’re gonna have a hell of a time convincing anyone to let you take 5.12 without 5.11X. The only people I ever met that took 5.12 without 5.11X were those who ASE’d out of it.</p>