Study Tip for the Next Exam

Fellow Organic Chemists,

In light of our upcoming, reaction-intensive exam, I'd like to share a tip that has been helping me since Day 1 of Orgo: copying down pre-solved syntheses problems, reagents and all, to study how certain things are turned into certain other things.

I usually focus hard on the sections in the book that say "Designing a Synthesis," because they show very clearly how reagents are used to turn one thing into another.  I also use the Sapling synthesis problems to do the same thing.  After I get them wrong a few (dozen) times, I hit the "Review Answer" tab and see exactly what was done.  This way, I can have a list of reactants, reagents, and products at my disposal when faced with a really difficult synthesis problem.

Here's a good example from page 681 of Bruce:

This example is beautiful because it shows you very clearly how to add several different things to benzene, and which order they should be added in to get a desired product. So for studying purposes, I like to think through many of these without even necessarily trying to solve them. If I can see how to do certain things, I can be ready for the synthesis problems on the tests and quizzes. Hope this tip helps.