What strategies worked for you for both learning the necessary material (ie study off class lectures only vs studying the text vs ?)/Is the book necessary if you understand everything in class?
Are practice problems are the best/only way to learn to apply the material?
Thoughts on Sulikowski vs. Hess vs. Hare(new?)?
What can I expect on exams/how may it differ from the practice problems?
Took Hess.
Never opened the book. Ok well I opened it once to study for the third exam, which resulted in the lowest orgo grade that I had ever received. Still got an A in the class. Hess posts powerpoints online, which you should memorize. Do tons of practice problems.
Also, his tests are part multiple choice and part free response. The best part: he literally copy and pastes the multiple part section of his tests from another professor online. Wish I figured this out before I finished the class. Just google “Sivaguru Jayaraman Chapter X” and Hess will pull his multiple choice questions exclusively from that pool. Although, I think he started to catch on near the end. The last test and the final had no multiple choice and were only free response, so I’m not sure if he continued his bad habit.
Don’t buy the model kit, everyone I knew who bought it regretted wasting the money. Unless you are severely lacking in spatial awareness, the diagrams on powerpoints will be enough.
By the end of the semester, only ~15 kids showed up to class. I went once near the end to review for the final and wished that I just studied in my dorm.
Average in the class was a 77.
Honestly, I didn’t really see what was so hard about the class. Definitely easier than gen chem in my opinion. All of the concepts are doable as long as you put in the time and effort. The exception here might be chirality and stereochemistry, but you can survive without getting an A on every test 