Organic Chemistry!

OK, so here I am three days from starting Organic Chem 2 and I’m already starting to get nervous about this course! Org Chem 1 was one of the most difficult courses I’ve ever taken and my professor told me that Org Chem 2 is three times harder! So, to get a jump start on the course, I’ve already started reading the first two chapters. I got an A in Org Chem 1, but it was the hardest I’ve ever had to work to get an A. Anyone else taking Org Chem 2 this semester?


After Org 2, then it’s onto Physics and then my premed courses will be done unless I decide to repeat General Bio. I will also most likely take Biochem at some point too. I’m somewhat nervous about Physics since I didn’t take it in high school. Can anyone compare the difficulty of Physics compared to Org Chem and/or Gen Chem? I know that it will be a lot of math which is why I’ve already taken a refresher College Algebra/Trig course.


Thanks for listening and sharing advice!

I took the physics WITHOUT calc, aka “college physics.” If you got an A in organic you can get an A in that physics pretty comfortably, especially if you’re taking it as a part time student. The people I sat with all got A’s and we all agreed that the first 3 weeks were the hardest and we all wanted to drop the class (3/4 of us didn’t take it in HS including myself). This was mainly due to just figuring out how to study it and how to think within the realm of the problems. It’s like any other class: read before, pay attention in lecture, do all the problems at the end of the chapter and THEN do the assigned HW. When it comes time for a test, redo the HW for the chapters that will be on the test and any other problems that gave you difficulty.


I can’t stress how important busting your booty in the first few weeks is. Everything basic you learn in the first few weeks is just repeated with different letters for the variables. It’s very very fundamental. Good luck!

I agree with Matt. If you do all of the problems at the end of each chapter and the assigned HW problems, then you will do well in Physics.


I also just finished Org 1 and will be starting Org 2 this week. Org 1 was the hardest pre-req class I have taken so far, but I enjoyed the change from formula-driven problems to much more conceptual problems.

Thanks for the advice everyone!


I’m up for the challenge of Org Chem 2 and Physics next year!

Just started organic 2 myself. Different instructor too. For some reason, mine decided not to teach the second section, so I’m with very different type of instructor. Hope this goes well. I can already tell from the first couple of lectures that what she covered and what he covered were a bit different, even though they both use the same book.