How hard is organic chemistry?

Question

Organic chemistry 1 and 2 I have to take as a requirement for my major. I don't feel like I'm really strong in chemistry, but I am good in biology. How is organic chemistry different from general chemistry?

I've already taken general biology 1 and 2, microbiology (which touched briefly into a little biochemistry) and I'm currently taking genetics. Do you think if I have a good grasp on these concepts I'll be ok? I'm doing qualitative analysis right now in general chem 2, it's just all the formulas to memorize and math equations to do is kicking my butt. Is there this much equations and math in Organic chem?

Answer 1

Organic is a whole different world. You need some gen chem understanding of oxidation, formal charge, and such, but the rest is very different. There is very little math involved, and a whole lot of being able to visualize in 3-D. Gen chem one and two, and even quantitative analysis came easily to me, but I struggled in O-chem. And I know a few people for whom the opposite is true. So it's a matter of your personal strengths. Also, my biology courses have required a lot of memorization and writing papers. O-chem doesn't much resemble that. You can't get by in O-chem on memorization. It's visualization and getting an intuitive grasp of things.

Answer 2

It's a lot more abstract than general chemistry. There is a lot of memorization involved. The labs are complex, but very interesting. It's hard, but it's do-able.
Don't take it in summer- the condensed version is extremely hard. Some kids in my summer class took the main class (not the lab) and then went back to their own colleges and took the orgo class that went with their major. It was extra money time and lots of hard work but they both got A's in their own colleges.
Plan to carry the big book around with you and study it every day. Do all the homework, make flash cards about the reactions, form study groups and ask each other questions.
And then just do your best.
I was no great one at the chemistry although I did enjoy it- and I got C in both orgoI&II. I got C in medchem, C on biochem- but I will still get my doctorate in June. Just try hard and don't give up.

Answer 3

Some find Organic Chemistry a lot easier than General Chemistry and vice versa. The difficulty of Organic Chemistry is it's depth and the memorization involved, which some are unwilling to attempt.

Answer 4

I make this sort raither than cut and paste from the internet.

Organic chemisty in general is about chemistry of mostly carbon based compounds. Although most of the compounds in question have other atoms, ie, H, N, O, S and a few halides and metal.

It is mosely about using functionial groups and regeants in order to synthesis other groups ot compounds of intest and the reactivly of such groups to other regeants and compounds.
General chemistry on the other hand can involve a wide range of stuff but is mostly calcuations, based chemical methods that can include organic, inorganic and pyshical chemistry.

But in general if you don't like organic chemistry you will find it hard, in general I liked organic chemistry so it didn't bother me.

Answer 5

Hey, I'm a Biotechnology major at RIT. I'm in my third year and I've taken Orgo 1-3. My teacher was evil...but I digress.

If you like Bio, that generally means that you can memorize lots of stuff. That's what Orgo is. You memorize lots of enzymes, shapes, and everything else. There is almost no math. You just have to know where stuff cuts bonds, attacks, bla bla bla

You'll be fine. I'm more of a bio kid than a chem kid too. But, you gotta bite the bullet, what else are you going to do?

Answer 6

i was a biology major in college and i really liked organic chemistry. i thought most of the organic wasn't too bad... like naming compounds, drawing structures, etc.
the hard part is doing reaction pathways. i had to learn how electrons would be transferred during specific reactions and predict the products that will be made.
or else, you would be given certain compounds and you would have to figure out how to change it into a different compound. i know this sound really vague but i came to think of them as little logic puzzles and that made it fun =)

hope you have fun too!

oh, and it is very different from general chemistry! general chem hardly deals with organic compounds and ochem stuff.

Answer 7

Yes, but it shouldn't be. General chemistry developed from the behavior of chemicals in water and air. Organic chemistry developed from the behavior of compounds derived from carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. These compounds are generally covalent in their bonding. There are isomers, cis- and trans- isomers, stereo isomers, and other structures you dont encounter in general chem. You learn about the aliphatic compouns (carbon and hydrogen only), then the oxygen-substituted compounds) alcohols, aldehydes/ketones, acids. Then you move into the aromatic compounds that derive from benzene, and whose properties are related to the interaction of the benzene structure with the chem species. Lots of memorization involved, but quite fascinating.

Answer 8

Organic chemistry is a specific discipline within chemistry which involves the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation (by synthesis or by other means) of chemical compounds consisting of primarily carbon and hydrogen, which may contain any number of other elements, including nitrogen, oxygen, halogens as well as phosphorus, silicon and sulfur. [1] [2]

The original definition of organic chemistry came from the misperception that these compounds were always related to life processes, but it has been shown that this is not the case (See Historic highlights). Moreover, it is known that life also depends heavily on inorganic chemistry; for example, many enzymes rely on transition metals such as iron and copper; and materials such as shells, teeth and bones are part organic, part inorganic in composition. These are to be added to the metals mentioned above, HCl solution used in the digestion of food and the water, the main constituent of all living creatures, which are all subjects also of inorganic chemistry. Apart from elemental carbon, inorganic chemistry deals only with simple carbon compounds, with molecular structures which do not contain carbon to carbon connections (its oxides, acids, salts, carbides, and minerals). This does not mean that single-carbon organic compounds do not exist (viz. methane and its simple derivatives). Compounds that are related to life processes are dealt with in the branch of chemistry which is called biochemistry.

Because of their unique properties, multi-carbon compounds exhibit extremely large variety and the range of application of organic compounds is enormous. They form the basis of, or are important constituents of many products (paints, plastics, food, explosives, drugs, petrochemicals, and many others) and of course (apart from a very few exceptions) they form the basis of all life processes.

The different shapes and chemical reactivities of organic molecules provide an astonishing variety of functions, like those of enzyme catalysts in biochemical reactions of live systems. The autopropagating nature of these organic chemicals is what life is all about.

Because of the special properties of carbon, it is likely that life in other star systems would be carbon-based, in spite of speculations about the possibility of substituting silicon, which lies just below carbon in the periodic table.

Trends in organic chemistry include chiral synthesis, green chemistry, microwave chemistry, fullerenes and microwave spectroscopy.