PREPARING FOR CHEM 351, ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I
The most significant reasons why
students struggle with organic chemistry
courses are summarised below:
- Poor background knowledge from General Chemistry and High School
chemistry
- Poor study / learning habits during the course itself
If you want to prepare for this
course, the best things you
can do to start
with are to review Chem 201 or 211 and 203 or 213 General Chemistry materials such
as:
A student is
expected to have a good, working understanding of (this means the
ability to apply) general chemical principles including (but not
limited to):
- aspects of structure and bonding, especially Lewis structures,
formal charges, hybridisation, isomerism.
- general principles of
acids and bases including definitions, pKa, structure - reactivity
trends.
- general principles of resonance.
- general principles of oxidation and reduction including balancing
redox equations.
- simple thermodynamics and kinetics : free energy, enthalpy,
entropy, activation energy, equilibria and rates of reaction.
- anything to do with organic chemistry (e.g. functional groups,
nomenclature),
Only when you are competent with
these materials should you read the first
couple of chapters of the organic chemistry text.
A GOOD BACKGROUND IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT
THAN TRYING TO GET AHEAD