What Is The Acs Exam For Organic Chemistry
ACS stands for American Chemical Society. The ACS Examinations Institute creates nationally normed exams for chemistry courses, starting at the high school level and going through the entire undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Whats interesting is that their exams are created by committees of educators who actually teach the course.
Since this discussion is related to organic chemistry, I will focus solely on the ACS Organic Chemistry exam- what it contains and how to prepare for it.
Simply put, the ACS is a standardized test for organic chemistry:
- 70 Multiple Choice Questions
- 110 minutes to complete
- Tests you on 1 or 2 semesters of undergraduate level organic chemistry
Given the time constraints and sheer volume of information, this is a notoriously difficult exam with the national average at just over 36 / 70 questions. Most professors curve generously so that scoring < 60 questions correct can still result in an A.
What is tested on the Orgo ACS Exam?
The ACS is a cumulative exam that will test you on everything you should have learned in the first semester or both semesters .
I say should have because its a standardized test covering a standard curriculum.Most of which your professor should have covered, some of which you may unfortunately have to learn on your own.
This is just another reason to practice with the ACS guide, to ensure you catch every topic on the test regardless of what was actually taught in your ochem class.
But even if youre NOT taking the ACS
How To Ace Orgo Ii Five Simple Things You Should Know When Taking Orgo Ii
Welcome back!
Whether you were on vacation or just getting back into the swing of things many of our students are beginning or will just be starting their coursework in the second semester of organic chemistry known as Orgo II
Orgo II, or O-Chem II is a challenging course, but it doesnt have to take over your life. Orgo I is typically harder, because many students are getting used the language of organic chemistry. But Orgo I and Orgo II are usually rather different and here is why:
Happy Studying,
How Did You/do You Well In Organic Chemistry Ii
xXIDaShizIXx said: So I was wondering, what did you do to give yourself a good grade in the second semester of organic chemistry? What needs just plain memorization? What needs practice? What were your study habits and how did they help? I was just wondering. Thanks for any advice!
gmcguitar4 said: If you did well in Orgo 1 and understood the concepts..just do the same thing for Orgo 2. Orgo 2 def has more memorization but just do practice problems. If you have a good understanding of Sn1 and 2 and E1 and 2 reactions then u should be fine. PRACTICE PROBLEMS ..all of them!
xXIDaShizIXx said: Thanks for all of the answers so far guys! How bad is the ACS exam exactly? Any tips for mass spectrometry and IR? I do use a whiteboard, most of the time I just use paper though.
xXIDaShizIXx said: Thanks for all of the answers so far guys! How bad is the ACS exam exactly? Any tips for mass spectrometry and IR? I do use a whiteboard, most of the time I just use paper though.
JohnnyRomanes said: Ridiculously easy. Much more easier than my professor’s exams, which the average and mean which where a 45 and 43 respectively.
RandomHero117 said: orgo 2 was easier for me than orgo 1… just make a chart for each functional group that has properties and reactions it can undergo
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Students Preparing For Organic Chemistry 2
If youre taking organic chemistry 2 this upcoming semester, I will assume you skipped over the orgo 1 materials above. Go back and skim through it quickly asking yourself these questions with every topic:
How do I feel about this topic? Do I remember it well enough? If I had to take a quiz on this tomorrow, can I score at least 90%?If not, consider taking the time to review.
How To Study Organic Chemistry Effectively
This article was co-authored by Bess Ruff, MA. Bess Ruff is a Geography PhD student at Florida State University. She received her MA in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016. She has conducted survey work for marine spatial planning projects in the Caribbean and provided research support as a graduate fellow for the Sustainable Fisheries Group.There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 86% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 32,864 times.
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Start With A Positive Mindset
If you enter a course thinking “I’m gonna fail” it is really going to affect the way you will perform. When I started my class work I had a very open mindset, I knew it would be challenging but I reminded myself of my abilities and told myself I would do my very best and be happy with the outcome. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how scared and anxious they were to take this course, as best as possible try to leave those emotions at the door and go into your class with confidence. Your mindset affects your learning more than you know!
Learning Chemistry Takes Time
TIME ON TASK!
Just as you need to take time to practice for sports or learn a foreign language, you need to take time to practice chemistry. We dont expect you to get everything right away in fact some of the best students in these courses had to wrestle with the material before really understanding everything. Make sure you allocate enough time to review the course material and practice problem solving on a regular basis.
There is a reason these courses are not directed readings: all the parts practice problems, reading, lecture, section, labs, office hours, studying on your own or with friends, tutoring work best when you use them together.
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What Are The Best Ways To Study Organic Chemistry
Okay, so youre ready for some organic chemistry self-study, and youre not quite sure how to do it. Or maybe you just want to know how to do well in organic chemistry at school. No matter what you plan, there are some essential things to keep in mind.
For one thing, you need to actually focus on the information. Organic chemistry can be a complex subject if youre not careful and youre not paying attention. So, take the time to read the chapters in some of the best organic chemistry textbooks. Then make sure you actually understand the material.
Before you walk into class or start your official program, youll want to go through some of the information that you can about organic chemistry. That means looking at your textbook or reviewing quality information online. This will give you a foundation to work with.
Understanding the information is essential rather than just being able to spit out facts or memorized information. This might take a little more time, but its going to make it easier for you to actually build on the knowledge you start with and continue to understand the more advanced concepts as you go in class.
How I Study For Organic Chemistry
Edit: Thank you for the feature!!!
Hey guys!!! Its been a little while. I really missed this amino and with everything going on Ive managed to gain a bit more free time and decided to get back on here again.
As you may or may not know, I am currently a second year at university, and during this second year Ive had to take Organic Chemistry courses .
In this post I wanted to share with you all what I did to prepare for the class and how I managed to do so well.
I. Preparation
I had two different professors for my organic chemistry 1 and organic chemistry 2 class, so in that regard my preparation DID differ. For my orgo 1 course, I found it most helpful to read the chapters of the unit BEFORE I went to lecture. I usually took notes on said chapters in my notebook as well. The book we were using was extremely detailed and well organized, so I didnt have much trouble using it. In my orgo 2 class however, I havent touched the textbook at all. It wasnt particularly useful, was often worded weirdly, and on top of that my professor only tested us on stuff covered in lecture so I didnt bother with the textbook. What I did instead, was I printed off the lecture slides and read through them before class. During class I would then be focused on what my professor was saying and would right random things that she said but didnt write on the board since I already had the notes with me.
II. Review
A few useful tips for organic chemistry in general:
Ciao!
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How I Went From A 65 To An A In Organic Chemistry
I made a 65 on my first O-Chem II exam. After all As + Bs in O-Chem I, I was shocked. Id never scored so low on an exam in my life. O-Chem II is very different than the O-Chem I, you can pass using memorization in the first semester, but once the second comes, you have to learn how to understand concepts and find connections. Doing so helped me make an A on my ACS final with an upward trend in my exam grades all semester. How did i do it?
How To Ace Organic Chemistry
If youre going to take a class, you want to make sure that youre going to get a good grade, right? So, how do you make sure that youre going to ace your class? Well, youre going to need to start by being prepared. That means getting all of the materials that youll need for class (including textbooks, note-taking materials, and other study materials and bringing them with you to every class.
The next thing is to make sure that youre studying throughout the class rather than just at the end or around exams. This means making sure that you follow along with whats going on in class at all times and that you are going over the notes you take each class period as well.
You will generally also want a study schedule that will help you stay on top of what you need to study and when so you dont feel like youre cramming a lot of information at the end of the class period or section. In addition, having a schedule that lays out the different things you need to study and when will make you feel a little more at ease.
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Use Lots Of Resources
Lectures alone are usually not enough when it comes to OChem. People learn in very different ways, and organic chemistry is an incredibly broad subject, so dont limit yourself to just one book or teacher . But if something isnt working for you or a concept just wont stick, google it until it makes sense.
Of course, some resources are better than others, and time spent googling is time youre not spending practicing problems. If you need a reliable source of explanations and information, check out our Organic Chemistrysection for more tools. We put together a searchable collection of videos and problems taught and approved by actual professors, so you can skip to the exact concept youre stuck on, saving you time and energy that you can then use to practice more problems. Everybody wins!
What Was The Hardest Part
I struggled the most with NMR, I really wanted to give up and just get partial points. I put an example picture above for those who haven’t taken the course yet, basically you had to look at the spectrum and put the molecule together. It was really frustrating to me when I couldn’t get it right. I’m glad I didn’t give up though, and when I took the final exam I got the whole molecule right and full points! Ah best feeling ever! When you’re feeling frustrated please don’t give up on yourself because you never know what you can accomplish!
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Make Organic Chem Your Priority
Twelve-year veteran teaching assistant Peter Hamel offers a fair warning: Expect it to be a full-time job and then some.
Tip: Sperduto approached organic chem with the same mindset as she would training for a sport. You are training for success in this class! You need to warm up , work hard while youre at practice , and cross-train .
Reactions Of Aldehydes And Ketones
Nucleophilic Additions to the Carbonyl Group: general consideration of steric and electronic effects. Summary of Common Nucleophilic Addition Reactions including those with water, alcohols, thiols, and amines. Acetals and hemiacetals and application in organic synthesis, reductive amination, The Wittig Reaction, Protecting Groups for Aldehydes and Ketones, Reduction of Aldehydes and Ketones using LiAlH4 NaBH4 Raney Ni, Pt/H2 and DIBAL-H.
Reactions with Organolithiums and Grignard reagent, 1,2- and 1,4-Additions, The Baeyer-Villiger oxidation
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What Is Organic Chemistry
Organic chemistry is the study of organic compounds and materials . Its a huge area of study that has applied uses in medicine, biology, engineering, and many other fields.
But is organic chemistry the hardest college course and, if so, why?
A lot of pre-med students think so! Heres one reason: The number of inorganic chemical compounds known to science is around 100,000, but the number of organic compounds clocks in at over 15 million, and that number is rising rapidly as scientists study and isolate further compounds.
The second reason ochem is so difficult to learn is that its a memorization nightmare. Not only are there more than 15 million organic compounds, but there are different rules governing the reactions and properties of each of these compounds. The trickiest part is how often the rules change. Depending on the environment in which a reaction takes place, the same conditions can lead to wildly different results. The rules are flexible, and there are always exceptions.
Minimal Goals For The Student With Little Time:
Your orgo 1 professor will expect you to have covered some basics in gen chem.Your gen chem professor may have assumed youll cover it in orgo.Each one passes the buck, leaving you stranded in the middle.
If nothing else: aim to review the following topics, starting with topics 1-4 below:
Orgo Study Hall Members: Review this video for a members-only walkthrough of pre-study topics.
If you get through nothing else but the above topics, you can already consider your prestudying a success. The videos linked above will take no more than 2-3 hours if you dont have time to sit and practice.
Yes, practice is ideal, but youll still be ahead with just a video review.
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Set Time Out Every Week To Practice
Here is an example of my weekly schedule, I had a set hour of time after every class where I would review the material that we just learned and start practicing. I think that this really helped me to be way above average on exams because when most students started studying for the exam I was just reviewing or learning the most currently thought material. This is a MAJOR TIP. You need to keep up with this class all the time. You CAN NOT CRAM for this class, you won’t do well. Your best bet is to keep practicing to the point that you not only have memorized but you understand the material. You will learn a lot of reactions and it can be very overwhelming when all those reactions and theories pile up, by taking the material week by week it becomes way more manageable.
Study More Efficiently Not Just More
- One of the first steps in coming up with an efficient study strategy is to assess what – in all of the things you are doing to study – seems to help you the most? What gave you the most confidence? If there are some things that you are already comfortable with, perhaps spend less time reviewing those and more time on concepts that are still challenging.
- Take some time to assess where are you having difficulty on the exams. When you get an exam back, retry all of the problems you missed . Do you get farther then you did during the exam? Are you really able to finish them with more time or in a less stressful environment? Do you get stuck on concepts or definitions? on math? on starting the problem?
- Debriefing the exam helps you indentify the conceptual gaps that you need to relearn versus errors that may have resulted from test stress or a misreading of a question.
- If you can start to identify where/how you are struggling with the exam, then you can think about how to make better use of your study time as you prepare for the next one.
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