Chemistry is so cool
I really fell in love with Organic Chemistry while taking this class. I'm sure there are too many things to name that made my experience with this course, but I genuinely had a good time every day. I had fun.
Out of the many things, here are a few I think worth mentioning:
If you're looking for a challenge, I would definitely recommend taking this class. These past two quarters with this material really helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my time in college. I'm sure if you are on the edge, taking these classes would help you decide what you really want to do too, for better or worse.
Out of the many things, here are a few I think worth mentioning:
- The professor. This year the class was taught by Professor Alshakim Nelson, and he probably is the most organized professor, no person, that I've ever encountered. His lectures were incredibly well organized, he laid out exactly what he wanted us to learn, and his tests, while definitely hard, were incredibly stimulating and really made you think. I believe he definitely gave me a new systematic way of problem solving and approaching challenges that I will keep using.
- The people. I have many friends in the normal organic chemistry sequence, and whenever I talked to them, asked them about what they were learning in class or how their quarters in OChem were going, they always sounded detached. I would say the opposite was true about the people in mine. We were always excited to be there and thought what we were learning was incredibly interesting. Just to clarify, I don't want to make the impression that anyone not in the honors sequence wasn't trying to succeed, but the atmosphere of that 40 or so person lecture hall was so incredible that it made you want to learn as much as you could. And then some.
- The material. I know organic chemistry isn't for everyone. There's a reason it has the reputation it does across college campuses, and I too honestly had moments where I wanted nothing to do with the Grubbs Catalyst or Sharpless Epoxidation. But at the end of every 4 hour, incredibly tiring study session - I was glad that I had stuck it out and amazed with what I had learned.
If you're looking for a challenge, I would definitely recommend taking this class. These past two quarters with this material really helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my time in college. I'm sure if you are on the edge, taking these classes would help you decide what you really want to do too, for better or worse.
One chapters worth of reactions. All memorized and then used in retro synthetic analysis problems
or for other synthesis. Someone in our class counted, and I think the final number for all the
reactions we had to memorize before the final was around 120.
or for other synthesis. Someone in our class counted, and I think the final number for all the
reactions we had to memorize before the final was around 120.