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Tips for remembering all of the stuff in organic chemistry?

At school I found remembering the reactions and mechanisms really easy as there wasn't too much. However at uni there is like 10x more things to remember and my exam is next week and I am just struggling to remember all of the different reagents used and different mechanisms.

So what things have you done to help you remember the reactions? I have to try something different. Even when I read through the mechanism, I completely understand what is happening and why but I just can't remember things easily. Like I could think through reactions logically and work out what is used, but that takes me too long in the exam as I am messing about trying to get it to work, so I want to be able just to remember it all.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :smile:

Reply 1

EierVonSatan

It terms of learning transformations, write down some of the more obscure ones stick it on your wall and read it once a day to constantly refresh yourself. You should already have a bank of these in your memory from pre-university like oxidation/reductions, simple nucleophilic additions/substitutions and eliminations to common groups etc.

I'd suggest looking at a mechanism, turning it over and try to reproduce it. It's easy to convince yourself that you understand it just by reading. By trying to reproduce it, you force yourself to use the logic that underpins it - after enough practice you'll get a good feel for how many reactions might take place mechanistically. The more you practice the faster things will slot into place.

Enjoy :p:

Reply 2

username913907

I found the best way is to understand the mechanism. I found that the general result of the transformation A->B tends to stick fairly well but remembering the mechanism very hard. By understanding the mechanism (and with many years of practice of churning out mechanisms making it quicker) I could get them down in an exam situation. Better to rely on this than just learning by rote as you never get the perfect example in exams.

Reply 3

BJack

I never managed it. Gave up on organic in the end and focused the bulk of my efforts on doing substantially better in the other two disciplines. :redface:

I agree with EVS, though. Going through mechanisms and writing them out is a great help. Keep it up over the summer too, if you don't want to end up rusty in the autumn.

Reply 4

MrKappa

If your molecule doesn't have any carbon in it you've done it wrong.

Reply 5

cl1.

I've started drawing the mechanisms without looking at the book over and over again and I can do all the questions where it asks: 'what is the product of X and Y be and draw the mechanism'

But if the question ask what is used to produce Y or what reagents were used, I'm ****ed.

Thanks for the replies!

Original post by MrKappa

If your molecule doesn't have any carbon in it you've done it wrong.