<p>does anyone know what chapters in the organic chemistry textbook CHEM 140A covers?</p>
<p>no matter how hardworking you are, that book is so dry and boring that you will not get past chapter 1. this is coming from the person who was formerly a chem nerd and opened the book out of curiosity last summer.</p>
<p>(ch 1-9 btw)</p>
<p>do the professors tend to stick to the book or come up with their own lecture material?</p>
<p>the further along i got in the 140 series, the less the professor stuck to the book. 140a was <em>fairly</em> aligned with the book...140b...the professor taught in his own way (much better than the book, imo) such that only the reactions at the back of each chapter were essential to doing well. by 140c, well...most of the stuff in class didn't correspond to the book at all. should have just sold my book then instead of hang on to it.</p>
<p>hah, ilose is right. i'm stuck at sd taking summer classes, and so i bought the o-chem book last week thinking i was going to get ahead. after i had read a couple of pages, i had figured that it's just not possible for any sane person to read through that thing...i think that the book for general chemistry is more dense, but not as bland as the o-chem book</p>
<p>Ha, I'm reading through another O-Chem Book at the moment, it comes highly recommended. (Organic Chemistry 6th Ed. L.G. Wade, Jr.)</p>
<p>It's not so bad, but yes, it is very dry as well. How likely would you say it is that I get into the class as 15th on the waitlist? I'd hate to do all this reading only to have to take it in the winter.</p>
<p>i_lose, would you recommend freshmen to take ochem? i got a 5 on the ap test--so i don't have much of an option in chemistry, since taking the general chem courses won't effect my gpa, and i have to take o.chem sometime or another. it's just a question of when, but i don't want freshman year, particularly 1st quarter to be too difficult and unmanageable.</p>
<p>15th? out of like 30? i'd say 50-50 chance...it depends on who is teaching and how hard the tests are (because the worse the score, the more students will drop...even if the curve works itself out in the end. yay for panick-y students...)</p>
<p>140a is not too bad. the first few weeks was electronegativity, electron dot diagrams, formal charge...stuff you should have learned in AP Chem anyway. the later chapters are more of a challenge but it's not like it'd be hard for someone who got a 5 in AP Chem. just take it and get it over with. just remember that in ochem classes (at least, for mine), 60-70% is an A...</p>
<p>60-70%?</p>
<p>I'll be doing my best to royally f'up that curve for everyone! </p>
<p><a href="Don't%20take%20it,%20I%20don't%20need%20even%20more%20people%20signing%20up%20before%20me">size=1</a>[/size]</p>
<p>i_lose, thanks very much for your help!</p>
<p>just wondering..which professor did you have? do you have any recommendations for ternansky, whitesell, or glazer for 140A?</p>
<p>haha you'd need a bunchhhh of people to help you screw up the curve. they usually remove the very best students from the curve and assign them A+s and then deal with the rest. and keep going with that attitude. you'll just burn out faster from your insane demand to succeed. :P (coming from personal experience)</p>
<p>dunno which prof to "recommend"...whitesell is E-Z A. if you did the homework, the same ones appear on the tests...and they're the easy questions, not the "challenge" ones. did i also mention that the answers to all questions in the book are in a solutions manual? this said, whitesell will not prepare you for 140b. ternansky is a lot harder but you'll learn and be well prepared for 140b. some say he's the hardest...but if you're a girl, you can flirt your way to an A (supposedly). never heard of the last professor. for the record, i had yang. ok professor, but ridiculous final (45% average? that was horrible.)</p>
<p>Maybe I am just crazy, but I actually like the ochem book... Much better than the gchem book. </p>
<p>And IMO, I thought ternansky was crazy. I got an A, but that class was ridiculous. Well, the class was actually very good (great lecturer) but his exams are difficult, which in itself is not bad, but his grading is absurd (almost no partial credit). There is a curve in the end, but its still quite upsetting to get a 40% on a midterm. Averages on all exams were 30-40% (if I recall correctly).</p>
<p>Realistically, I think I can keep up the pace. I only have to keep it up for 2 years (transfer student), and it'll be good prep. for med school (assuming i can get in).</p>
<p>For the record, I'm signing up tomorrow for Ternansky.</p>
<p>lifetranscends, do you remember what percentage of people get a's in ternansky's class, and do you feel that his class helped you to do well in 140B?</p>
<p>ternansky and tor are the two best ochem lecturers you can hope to get in the series (perrin isn't bad either).</p>
<p>breakdown of grades:
Untitled</a> Page</p>
<p>his exams ARE significantly tougher than the other professors'. they're long, thought-provoking, and partial credit is rarely given (when we graded for 5 hours straight, fishing for points was the last thing we wanted to be doing). but if you can master his class, you will be guaranteed a rock-solid foundation for organic chemistry.</p>
<p>soo... any middle of the road professors?</p>
<p>I thought 140B (took it with Nefzi) was a breeze after Ternansky, but I'm not sure if that was just because Nefzi was significantly easier than Ternansky. In any case, I got a good grade in 140B, and it seemed to be far easier than 140A.</p>
<p>Ha, webreg is getting hammered at the moment.</p>
<p>I can't even login to update my schedule. >.<</p>
<p>lifetranscends, looking back, would you still have taken Ternansky's class in spite of its difficulty? you mentioned that his exams are hard. does looking back at old tests help?</p>
<p>Ok, back to normal. But damn, I'm now wait listed for O-chem (18th) and a Lower Division bio (5th)</p>
<p>Curse you bastards hogging up all the spots!</p>