Please proceed in numerical order
1. Be a certified genius
If you can actually do this please feel free to stop reading now, go home and take a nap.
2.Come to lecture EVERYDAY
The best foundation is made by coming to lecture and having everything thoroughly explained to you and the notes written in your own hand, trying to decipher your friends notes or reading through the dense textbook cover to cover is a killer. You need to know what happens and WHY it happens which is usually explained in class and may not be in the notes or well explained enough for it to sink in. Dr. Petersen really does answer questions and try her best to get everything to sink in.
3. Do sapling homework as early as possible
Try to work through the problems as we learn the material so all the reactions become familiar and repetitive they will slowly become second nature. Take time to work through the problems slowly rather than rushing to the correct answer for credits sake. If you get stuck skip it and come back rather than giving up and getting the solution straight off, allot of time unclear areas are slowly clarified through working the other problems. Go back through sapling after your done and read the explanation of any problems you had trouble with, make sure you understand the method, don't just say you get it, explain to yourself why it makes sense.
4. Get in study groups
Two heads really are better than one, sometimes you need multiple ways of thinking about it to solve a difficult problem and if you think you get it, explaining it to someone who's struggling will make you all the stronger. The camaraderie makes it less stressful, it can help you fill in understanding gaps, catch tricky loopholes, cement foundations and you make lots of friends :)
5. Work more problems
Book problems, especially the ones embedded in the chapter readings are quite helpful for assisting in full understanding of the material, the ones at the end of the chapter can also be useful as extra practice. The exceptions and tricks in the problems will get you more than anything and nothing really prepares you for them more than having seen and dealt with them before. Purchase the ACS book for Organic Chemistry and start working it, it will help you on the material now and be good overall preparation for that scary final that is coming for us all.
6. Read the book
I really hate doing this myself, but if there is a particular area you are struggling on then anything is better than leaving it weak, it will come back to haunt you. I can't make myself read it straight through but touching on sections every once and a while is helpful.
7. Find someone who is really good at
If at least one of these people aren't in your study group then you're doing it wrong. You need to make at least one person a go to for Orgo problems, I suggest this be your study group but you need at least one certified genius on your role to move along the group when they get stuck. If you don't know one of these people find them *cough Ashleigh Musso cough* use Dr. Petersen if you have to but I guarantee finding someone who knows their stuff and is learning it for the first time is better for most circumstances.
8.Look over your own notes often
Just taking the notes isn't enough you need to look at them and study them and make sure you know what they're saying. Pay special attention to exceptions, special cases, and anytime you see a mechanism if you can't remember every step just remember the trend and general ideas enough so that you could probably work it out if you had to on the spot.
9. Look over past tests
Make sure you know EXACTLY what you did wrong on every problem, if it was a stupid mistake tell yourself why it was stupid, work the problems again, get everything perfectly clarified so that you'll never make the same mistake again. Making every mistake possible before the exams (and especially the final) and figuring out ways to avoid those some pitfalls is that main way to do well in organic chemistry; leave no stone unturned.
*I apologize for any grammatical errors, it is no accident that I am not an English major
No comments:
Post a Comment