REALLY HELPFUL
Oh god. I wish I discovered this sooner. My midterm is tomorrow in the morning. That website is really helping me with synthesis.
How to get an A in Organic Chemistry
It made me
Apathetic about life 
"It made me sadder and angrier than watching Hotel Rwanda."
How I did it: The trick to doing this is to take it at a place where they don't force you to memorize everything, but instead teach you guiding principles.
I used the Carey textbook and read the entire thing. I did most of the practice problems and I used the website (http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/classware/selfstudy.do?isbn=0073047872) to get good at retrosynthesis. I'm definitely not an organic chemist, but between those two habits, I did fine.
Lessons & tips: Carbocations? Not so stable. Resonance? Really important. Ketone enol
tautomerization? Messes up everything. Watch out for stereochemistry, it comes back to haunt you all the time.
Resources: ACS review book saved my life for reviewing for the ACS exam. I heartily recommend it!
Comments:
Anna Nguyen is making my New Year's Resolutions list for 2012
Hi eveningsparkle,
So glad to read your advice.
It’s so true that I always learn everything based on the principles, not on memorising things.
However, unfortunately, my teachers told me: “you don’t need to understand the underlying principles, not required in your syllabus. just need to memorise all the facts and that’s it!”
And that’s why i’m doing badly for organic chemistry, despite the fact that I’m excellent in all other topics.
That’s sad. But now, I’ll try look through the books that you give the link to and try to study deeper on my own. Hope i’ll be able to manage organic chem before my upcoming final exam.
Thanks!
