Organic

On the news today they were discussing the Chemistry professor who was fired because the students said his class was too hard. This caught my attention since I have some experience in this area. I took organic chemistry the first time when I was in college in the 50's and then again some 30 years later when my daughter was in college. There are two things that changed for me during that time. First off the text book is important. In college I used Brewster and the course was interesting and easy. It was all about combining compounds to form new compounds and the rules that guide these combinations. The second time things were different and the course was more difficult. First off the text book was Fieser and Fieser. Second the course was mostly about mechanisms meaning the steps in between the basic reaction. In the first course it was about A + B = C + D but in the second course is was all about what happens between A and B and that is more complicated especially when you introduce that math that takes place. While this is a hard course people who have aptitude for math can understand with some effort. One of the down sides to any science course is lab. A four hour organic class meets one hour a day four days a week but you also have four hours of lab and the lab reports are lengthy and take a lot of time. If you are majoring in chemistry, chemical engineering or going into medicine this is a required course and if you can't get it you should look for another major. This is particularly true in medicine because you will be required to take biochemistry which is like advanced organic. Another option is to get a tutor.