How to Tackle Organic Chemistry Synthesis Questions Organic Chemistry Tutorial

TUTORING ORGANIC CHEM MCAT ABOUT CONTACT

How to Tackle Organic Chemistry Synthesis Questions

November 10, 2016 By Leah4sci 1 Comment

Organic chemistry may cover many concepts and topics, but

it’s all about the reactions and mechanisms.

It’s not so scary at first, think about the simple acid/base

deprotonation, an alkene reaction here, another there. Before
you know it, you’re drowning in dozens upon dozens of
reactions!

You’re asked to ‘memorize’ each one, to know what every

reactant and reagent will do.
And once you have it all down, don’t forget the dozen or so
exceptions to the rule.

Groan!

And once you have all THAT down, let’s put them all together: when you’re given molecule A and asked to
come up with all 20 steps to produce product Z!

Ok, perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit…but really, just a tiny bit!

The average Organic Chemistry 1 or 2 exam synthesis question will range from two to five steps with
intermediates.

http://leah4sci.com/how-to-tackle-organic-chemistry-synthesis-questions/[08-04-2020 08:08:44 AM]

How to Tackle Organic Chemistry Synthesis Questions Organic Chemistry Tutorial

How do you keep everything you learned straight?

And more importantly, how do you sift through the hundreds of data points in your head to produce the exact
steps required to achieve the desired outcome?

As a kid, I was proud to call myself a nerd. Perhaps with a bit of OCD.
I always looked for trends and found patterns where they didn’t exi

http://leah4sci.com/how-to-tackle-organic-chemistry-synthesis-questions/[08-04-2020 08:08:44 AM]