WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS ORGANIC CHEM COURSE?

In view of this we have certain objectives regarding what we feel it is appropriate that we all accomplish over the next two semesters. These accomplishments fall into 5 main categories.
        Information acquisition
        Laboratory skill acquisition
        Intellectual skill development (including problem solving)
        Team/cooperative skill development
        Development of a scientific curiosity

Much of the pre-requisite status of organic chemistry derives from the acquisition of information that is relevant to higher courses in chemistry itself or cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, medical science, geochemistry, toxicology and so on. Organic molecules have the same structure and behaviour, whatever the context in which you are studying them.

Here are a couple of quotes that summarises the root cause of the problems students encounter with organic chemistry....
Consider them and how they relate to your study techniques and habits, and expectations for a course....

"Learning consists of evaluating new information in relation to information which we have previously understood."

We are interested in this type of learning and it will serve you well for this course and way beyond, for the following reasons...

"What has been called "rote" learning or "conditioned-response" learning or "remembering-it-long-enough-to-pass-the-exam" learning is not learning at all in the meaning of our definition. This type of rigid-response conditioning is not desirable or useful in a human sense. The human is capable under certain severe pressures of doing a great deal of this kind of rote absorption but it is not really useful to anyone."

from Harvey Jackins, The Human Situation, Rational Island Publishers, Seattle, 1991.

How do these statements relate to Chem 351 / 353 ?

In the exercises that you are required to complete during the semester, be it in the laboratory, the CAL assessments, or in the mid-term and final examinations, many of the questions will involve applying the course materials to new situations that you have not specifically encountered before. This means that there is little benefit to be gained from memorising the answers to specific questions, but that you should be trying to learn how to apply the tools of organic chemistry to solve problems. This requires that you develop the skills associated with learning how to solve problems, as an example, from Chem 351: how to solve spectroscopy problems.
In organic chemistry, the temptation is to try to memorise reactions. This is very boring and not all that useful at the end of the day. It is much more valuable to try to recognise the type of reaction involved (e.g. nucleophilic substitution) and then think about what factors control that type of reaction and apply this to the question you are being asked. However, in order to be able to achieve this, it will require that you spend time working through examples and trying to recognise the similarities and differences between the various processes, before the "big picture" emerges that negates the need to memorise all the reactions.

See also our expectations and some reasons why students underperform.