<p>Does anyone know what textbook is used for 171/172 and/or 221/222?</p>
<p>I took 171/172 (172 was tough) last year and we used the Bruice 5th Edition. 221/222 use the same edition. Also, Warning: Jose’s teaching is quite abstract (not reliant upon the text, in fact, I would argue that the problems he assign from it are not remotely as random and difficult as the exams) compared to say, Weinschank, so you really won’t need to use the book that much. Just take really good notes and attend SI sessions. However, if you are really one of those who relies on the textbook, I guess you’ll still be fine, just don’t limit yourself to it, cause Jose doesn’t.</p>
<p>Thanks very much!
does anyone else have any firsthand advice on organic chemistry? I can’t find very much in past threads</p>
<p>Jose is awesome in my book, but some people don’t like his rather abstract approach to the lectures, so this class may be tough if you like a highly structured class. Also, his finals are hell. They aren’t really comprehensive finals, but instead are exams on the last pieces of material he taught put on “super” steroids. For the orgo. 1 final, he had to implant 15-20 bonus points (bonus points is way of curving, except you have to earn them) in the test to yield decent scores. The 2nd semester “final” was far more difficult, and he did nothing like that, it was just a typical 100 point exam.</p>
<p>The rest of his tests are kind of tricky. The answers to some problems are very straight forward while some for the tougher problems are really simple, but hidden, so you often have to take several looks to find a loophole somewhere to derive some of the mechanisms. If the answer appears obvious, and is something he explicitly told you not to do, then find another way; it’s normally an unexpected (perhaps a concept covered, but not taught or used in that context) loophole. Also, one fatal mistake will yield a 0 for a problem, even if you get the rest right for the problem by time you get to the 3rd exam in Orgo. 1. The 3rd exam seemed easy while we took it, but we ended up doing really poorly overall because he graded it a million times harder.</p>
<p>Note on first exam in orgo. 1: This test is a warm-up to perhaps inflate and create a buffer for people’s grades. If you think his class is really easy after that, you may be wrong. His second exam is the real deal and takes quite a bit more mental extrapolation as the first exam is just review from AP Chem basically (as in those topics covered in AP related to orgo.). He basically uses the 2nd exam to get rid of those who don’t belong early on. Trust me it’s doable, but just far more difficult than the first. </p>
<p>Overall, just do what I said in the post above, and you’ll do pretty well.</p>