Course Overview
Chem 2OA3 (Organic chemistry, also known as "orgo") covers introductory topics in organic chemistry: chemical bonding, molecular orbitals, acid/base chemistry, stereochemistry, spectroscopy techniques (infrared spec, mass spec, proton & C13 NMR), functional group...

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Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

I'd also really like to know about Brook! Also, do you think a 10+ is possible in the course and how would one go about actually doing well in the course?
Thanks!

yeah its definitely possible to achieve a 10 in this course. just make sure you keep up with the lessons. this is NOT a course where u can study last minute and do well. thats how i found it.. and well.. i did relatively well

Originally Posted by jordan19

yeah its definitely possible to achieve a 10 in this course. just make sure you keep up with the lessons. this is NOT a course where u can study last minute and do well. thats how i found it.. and well.. i did relatively well

Awesome, thanks. How did you find the labs?

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Awesome, thanks. How did you find the labs?

labs are your friend. they are really easy, fun - unlike 1a03/1aa3 labs... but everyone gets 9s at least

Originally Posted by jordan19

labs are your friend. they are really easy, fun - unlike 1a03/1aa3 labs... but everyone gets 9s at least

Phew! That makes me feel so much better, thanks!

Notes/past tests, etc for 2OA3 - Summer 2010 w/Gullon
LINK: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NU8RYVJZ

Recently took this in the Summer 2010 session w/Professor Gullon. She's very clear, helpful, but her lectures can get quite dry at times. The course itself was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I personally think the difficulty of Orgo I is overhyped. If you're able to do the tutorial problems, and understand the general concepts (organic chem is essentially just electron movement, acid/base relationships and sterics/electronics factors), there's no reason why you shouldn't get a high mark. As well, I personally did not use the textbook often, as I relied on the Internet + tutorial for practice problems.

Course assessments involved a midterm (25%), a final (50%), 5 labs (each worth 4%) and 2 written assignments (each worth 2.5%). Labs were marked easy by TAs, but they were mindlessly dull. As like the labs, written assignments were meant to be mark boosters; most people got >90% on both labs and assignments. Midterm and final was very fair. Good mix of challenging and easy problems. If your final exam mark > midterm mark, your final exam mark would replace your midterm mark, which was nice.

All in all, a reasonably easy course if you put the time and effort into it.

I loved ORGO.
I took it this summer - had the choice to stop, but decided to keep going.

I thought the course was not that much harder than CHEM 1AA3 - I actually thought it was easier. It makes a lot more sense and had less jumps than CHEM 1AA3. That being said, since the course is more coherent, you do need to keep up or you will always remain behind. I find tutorials being immensely helpful.

I took it in the summer, so I had Teri.
Teri is going to be your lab coordinator - and she's just amazing and she really wants you to do well. She answers all your questions (especially if you go into office hours) in detail - and she's one of the funniest professors I've had.

The midterm needs studying - and for you to be up to date, but since there is the written section, you are less easily screwed over.

Overall, this course while requires work is possible to obtain a good mark. I thought it's easier to obtain a twelve in this course than CHEM 1AA3 - partly due to labs being ridiculously clear as to how to obtain marks. The material is so much more interesting than 1AA3 - and everything makes sense. It's all about understanding Orgo - rather than memorizing. Overall, I think people will learn to like this course if they were at least indifferent about first year Chemistry. It will revive your love for it. : )

The midterm needs studying - and for you to be up to date, but since there is the written section, you are less easily screwed over.

Written sections can still MAJORLY screw you over.

I've heard (from several people that took orgo in both summer and fall/winter) that orgo is less work/easier in the summer, although that could be because you have more time to devote to it. We definitely got screwed over in the written section

At least if it's difficult MC, you can guess, and it's only 2 marks that you'll lose...if you have no idea what to write for, say, a roadmap question, you're losing 10-15 marks right there, since if you don't get the first structure you can't get any of the others.

On our 2OA3 exam, there was one question where we had 8 steps or something to get from molecule A to molecule B, but it was just a series of 8 empty boxes...and I could get from A to B in 7 steps, but for the life of me couldn't figure out how to make it 8 steps. A lot of orgo, particularly wrt synthesis, is the ability to "see" what they want you to do.

heard this is a horrible horrible class!

Originally Posted by Ridz

heard this is a horrible horrible class!

Not really. If you keep up with the work it's not too bad. For the first month or so, it was a total bird course and required almost no work at all. My problem was, I didn't start doing the work when it came--It took me until the midterm to realize that we had started learning new/harder things, and that I should have actually paid attention in class

Originally Posted by nerual

Not really. If you keep up with the work it's not too bad. For the first month or so, it was a total bird course and required almost no work at all. My problem was, I didn't start doing the work when it came--It took me until the midterm to realize that we had started learning new/harder things, and that I should have actually paid attention in class

Lol, the same thing pretty much happened to me >.<

How much of a focus was there on acid/base relationships in this course? I had the most difficulty with those concepts in 1AA3... never fully grasped it... I'm actually so scared for 2OA3 in september lol :(

Originally Posted by marcie

How much of a focus was there on acid/base relationships in this course? I had the most difficulty with those concepts in 1AA3... never fully grasped it... I'm actually so scared for 2OA3 in september lol :(

It depends what you mean by "acid-base"...If you mean determining pH of solutions and dealing with buffers & stuff like that, then there isn't really any of that. But in a broader sense, acid-base reactions can be thought of as reactions between nucleophiles and electrophiles, and there is a LOT of nucleophiles and electrophiles in both 2OA3 and 2OB3, and some of the reactions you learn are explicitly acid-base.

Will I be fine with older editions of the textbook in this course? Thanks

Originally Posted by meddling

Will I be fine with older editions of the textbook in this course? Thanks

The 8th, 9th and 10th editions are listed on Titles, which seems to indicate that the prof is fine with any of these versions. The 10th edition is new this year, and the 9th edition was new last year.