how hard or different is organic chemistry from regular chemistry(inorganic)?

Question

I am planning on doing pre-med. I have a strong background in physics, inorganic chemistry, biology,and calculus. will this help for organic chemistry in my sophmore year at UCLA? I know it involves carbon but like how different or hardder is it?

Answer 1

I truly love organic chemistry. It makes more sense than inorganic and follows rules.

Answer 2

It requires a lot of memorization involving structures and organic reaction mechanisms. Compared to physics and inorganic chem, there is a lot less math involved at least in the 1st year course.

If you take the time to work out the problems and are meticulous with drawing your structures properly and keeping track of excess protons, it is pretty straight forward. It's not hard per say, but if you try waiting till just before the test you'll crash and burn. The amount of material to know and understand is quite a bit, far more than 1st year chem. It more the magnitude of what you have to learn than the difficulty of it.

Most of the horror stories about organic chem are students who wait till the last minute rather than keeping up as the course progresses. Working the problems is absolutely essential to understanding the material because it forces you to keep everything organized in your mind. It is also far more cumulative than the other courses as far as requiring you to have all the previous material fresh in your mind.

Also, a good instructor who has already organized the material getting covered makes a huge difference but not mandatory if you have supplemental textbooks and sources to explain the mechanisms.
From a background perspective, you are in good shape already with the previous course mentioned.

Every good organic textbook I have seen has a solutions manual that comes with it. Use it. Get a 2nd organic text to supplement the one used in the class and read it in conjunction with your regular text. Work all the problems in each chapter from your main text and you won't have any problem with the course.

Answer 3

You will benefit from your biology class (some) and inorganic chemistry class (some) for your organic chemistry class you plan on taking.

The biology class will help because there are a lot of things to remember in organic chemistry. The inorganic chemistry class also helps, as you are used to molecular formulae, balancing equations and other basics of chemistry.

Organic chemistry is it's own beast though! There are plenty of named reactions, plenty of named types of organic molecules and the introduction into pathways of how an organic molecule can turn into another organic molucule. This last part actually helps with another class you will take (biochemistry).

If you can, do yourself a favor and take the honors/advanced version of organic chemistry. It will be a bit harder, but will be a much smaller class, so you'll get more attention.

One final thing - organic chemistry is "the" weed out class for pre-med students. Don't let them discourage you! Post questions here as you go through it and we'll help out, Doctor!

Answer 4

I am currently double majoring in biology and chemistry, but you can say that I am "pre-med."

Most people say organic is one of the most, if not the most difficult course they have ever taken. But that was not at all true for me, it was my favorite of all the chemistry courses that I have taken (and I am four chemistry courses away from completing my chemistry major). I was recommended to tutor organic 1 after I took it a year ago. I took inorganic during my second semester in college which was one semester before I took organic. Inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry are completely different.

The only course that really helps you in organic is biochemistry and I know this because I took this course prior to taking organic 1. Some of the topics covered in organic 1 are: nomenclature (naming molecules), functional groups, valence bond theory (bond length and strength), aromaticity, isomers, conjugate acid/base pairs, entropy, energy, equillibrium constant expressions and more. The only topic I can remember that was covered in both organic and inorganic was electron configuration but it was only covered briefly in organic. This is a tough course I am not going to lie, but if you can do physics and calculus you can definitely do organic chemistry. I just completed my first semester of calculus and physics and both of those courses challenged me more than organic chemistry ever did. Organic is a lot of work, but "it is do able" as my physics teacher says.

I am taking organic 2 next semester so I have to review the material covered in organic 1 during my 6 week break.

Answer 5

Orgo is different because it's all about carbons, it's more interesting, there's no math..and I found it easier than inorganic. It makes a lot more sense and I think it's easier to understand. With your background it seems you'll do just fine! Make sure you pick a good professor though. Makes a huge difference

Answer 6

Yes, it will help.
Inorganic material does not contain things like polymers and carbon covalent structures as does organic, but it should help you somewhat.

Answer 7

organic chem is interesting

you will have to learn new things

concepts that don't seem to really relate to anything or might not even make much sense

they will make you memorize TONS and TONS of reactions, till starting with ants you can make any chemical required

for me the majic of it was a lab in which they gave us an unknown clear liquid and asked us to figure out what it was

I was able to do that.

Answer 8

both are easy once you put ur mind to it.
Organic tends to be easier in my opinion just remeber ur facts straight,dont let the things gte you mixed up.
Inorganic is more complicated however if u master there then go ahead u're just a scholar thats all.

Answer 9

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