The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry: A Student's Guide to Success

The organic chemistry course is typically recognized as the most difficult hurdle between a biology student and medical school. The Nuts and Bolts of Organic Chemistry will help students change their learning habits so they can master the Organic Chemistry course. This text is designed for students to use early in the course before they dive too far into a traditional textbook. It prepares students to think about and use the fundamental concepts; it develops in students the right mindset for learning organic chemistry. This brief book shows students that understanding fundamental concepts is absolutely essential for success, and helps them develop a good feel for how to apply those concepts to many different situations.  The text helps convince students that brute memorization is not the right way to approach the course; instead, they should master fundamental concepts and important reaction mechanisms.  By following the same philosophy as those who write the MCAT exams, Karty focuses on improving students’ thinking ability and powers of logical deduction.

 

Table of Contents

1. Why do most students struggle in Organic Chemistry?
2. Lewis dot structures and the chemical bond
3. Molecular geometry and dipole moments
4. Isomerism
5. Charge Stability – Charge is bad!
6. Reaction Mechanisms – electron rich to electron poor
7. Intermolecular forces
8. Sn1/Sn2/E1/E2 Reactions: The whole story