<p>Wow, thank you so much for all the advice, everyone. There's definitely a range of opinions, but at least I know it can be done. I do feel pretty strong in my chem background, but I'll definitely have to talk to my advisor before making a decision.</p>
<p>Cervantes - you're right, I've seen a lot of confusion about this. The AP credit pdf says 31X "or higher", which is very ambiguous lol. However, I did find something on the chem dept website that with a 5 you can get into Chem 33 as long as you talk about it with your advisor/ maybe the head of the dept? Basically it sounds like it's still an option. But it's def something I will need to figure out in the fall with my advisor. Thanks anyways for the input (and see you next year? :))</p>
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For example lithium diisopropylamide is a pretty crappy nucleophile, but it's a great base.
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That's not quite what I was saying, but your point remains valid. Basicity and nucleophilicity are definitely not the same thing.</p>
<p>What I was saying is, the same principle applies to both acids and bases and nucleophiles and electrophiles. If you understand the concept of acids and bases (or nucleophile/electrophile), then you understand all the fundamentals you need to be successful in organic chemistry.</p>
<p>It's why my orgo teacher said, over and over and over again during the year, "it all goes back to chapter one." The first chapter in our book was about acidity and basicity. It was definitely true. If you understood that first chapter forwards and backwards, you had already won half the battle.</p>
<p>I know someone who used AP Chem to skip gen chem & go straight into ochem (or "orgo" for some of you). It massively hurt his GPA. His goal was to skip gen chem so he could graduate in 3 years & save money then go to grad school. He did manage to graduate in 3 years but since his GPA stank then he didn't get into a good grad school (no phd program).</p>
<p>But I'm not really sure how well gen chem benefited me before going into ochem. I also got a 5 on the AP test and had aced every chem test in high school. There were only very few topics in gen chem that weren't covered as thoroughly in AP chem - over all it was a GPA booster. Ochem is hard mainly because there are a lot of reactions to memorize and a different set of naming rules.</p>
<p>O'chem I you'll find pretty intuitive, based on what I've posted before. There will be some nomenclature here and there you'll have to memorize. The key is to understand the mechanism. Sn1 and Sn2, the solvents used for each. You will have to memorize very few reactions.
O'chem II will be a little harder, as you'll cover a lot more material. There'll relatively more memorization. The best strategy would be to make notecards for each reaction mechanism. Lot more synthesis-oriented. You may or may not like spectroscopy.
Depending on you prof and class, you may get to polymer chemistry.
I loved O'chem, both I & II.</p>
<p>OP - I didn't see your answer about pre-med. If you are pre med, most schools require one year of General Chemistry with lab and some schools do not accept AP credit. Does this apply to you?</p>
<p>LWMD - I have heard of that, but no, I'm not pre-med (at least I'm not now!) and don't think I ever will be. :) So thankfully that doesn't apply.</p>
<p>In response to what someone said earlier, my AP chem teacher began teaching us some of the nomenclature rules at the end of the year, and I remember thinking it was so fun, lol. So hopefully that will be something I can get excited about.</p>
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So for a premed it is necessary to take the general chem before organic?
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<p>But if you have AP, you can skip gen chem, take orgo, and then take an advanced chemistry course to make up for the gen chem requirement that you never fulfilled.</p>