<p>I had my first ochem exam yesterday and I didn't do well at all. I scored a 70, two points below the average. This came after studying quite extensively and meeting the professor to discuss certain things, and I felt reasonably confident.</p>
<p>I know there's a lot of time left and I shouldn't panic, but does anyone have any tips for studying and doing well on future exams? I know the material is only going to get harder so maybe I need to overhaul my studying methods. I am trying as hard as I can to get an A but I'm not sure if I'm studying correctly or going about this the right way.</p>
<p>What do you guys suggest?</p>
<p>Look at the questions you missed / lost points on. Did you lose points because you didn’t know the material? Misunderstood the question? Made a careless error (the bane of my own personal existence)?</p>
<p>Sometimes, knowing why you got the score you did helps you get a better score the next time.</p>
<p>I haven’t taken it myself, but I read once that the best way to study for ochem is to never memorize. You have to understand everything, and be able to visualize it; memorization won’t cut it. I wish I had access to the write-up – it provided excellent tips on studying for ochem. :(</p>
<p>A 70 in ochem really isn’t an awful score, especially for your first exam. Get used to worse scores than that in ochem 2, haha. </p>
<p>Ochem 1 is a lot of memorization and involves a lot of information at once. It’s been awhile since I’ve taken it, but remembering pKa values is crucial and you need them in ochem 2 as well. Without knowing what information you covered/what’s coming up I can’t give you much more help, but do as many practice problems as you can. If you run out/need more, this Michigan State website has a ton: </p>
<p>[http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/Questions/problems.htm</a> Organic Chemistry Practice Problems](<a href=“http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/Questions/problems.htm]http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/Questions/problems.htm”>http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/Questions/problems.htm Organic Chemistry Practice Problems)</p>
<p>Electron/arrow pushing is a HUGE concept as well</p>
<p>Agreed. You absolutely have to know where your electrons are going, and where you charges are going. I TA gen chem help room, and I sometimes get o-chem stragglers seeking help. The biggest problem seems to be resonance structures. electrophile/nucleophile, redox, resonance, polarity/electronegativity, acid/base… I would say 90% of the things you learn can be understood pretty well if you can understand what the electrons are doing. It’s like trading marbles. electrophiles really want them marbles; nucleophiles don’t really care about their marbles, so they give’em away. If the desperate electrophile gets a marble from nucleophile, they might get married (ionic bond). but that marriage is weak, and not as stable as a covalent marriage, where the marbles are shared… it might help to put it in a different context.</p>