The Course - super summary:
This course is basically filling up your chemistry toolbox. You will learn a whole bunch of different organic reactions based on discoveries in the past up to the present. You will learn the importance of chemical selectivity and specificity as well as meeting a new
[email protected]#$% call chirality. It is a lot of memorizing the reagents and conditions as well as predicting where a particular reaction would occur, if it does occur. Retro synthesis is a useful thing to be familiar with along with all the chemical reactions taught in Chem 2OA3/2OB3. With almost every reaction there is some sort of catalyst and the behaviour of the particular catalyst within the solution/reaction conditions may shift the equilibrium to favour a particular outcome more than the other (i.e. R or S chirality, or E/Z isomers).
The course is broken down into three major parts. 1) Review, focusing mainly on the importance of chirality, catalysts, and all the organic chemistry theories from Chem 2OA3/2OB3. 2) Functional group manipulation, focusing on reduction, oxidation, protecting groups using addition, elimination, substitution methods throwing in a bit of inorganic metals as catalyst reagents. 3) Carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, focusing on observing carbocations/carbanions, adol and its derivatives (the evil relatives), alkylation, acylation, conjugate addition, and cycloadditions.
It may sound all scary but most of it is based on what you have (or should have) learnt in Chem 2OA3/2OB3. If you are not in honours chem, or have not taken some of their inorganic 2nd year courses you may have a bit of trouble understanding the orbital patterns that drive reactions such as in the cycloaddition chapter. But in the end, good knowledge of all the content in Chem 2OA3/2OB3 is crucial because if the cart moves quite fast and is not easy to catch if you've fallen off. I'm not sure what they teach in Chem 2D03 but as a chem bio student, I was fine with just going in with 2OA3 and 2OB3 knowledge.
The Course - components and prof:
There are 2 assignments and 2 tests, no labs or tutorials. Dr. McNulty does everything on the chalkboard as his "chalk-talk" so be sure to bring your good glasses and a cup of coffee because he draws organic compounds faster than the eye can blink. I find he doesn't really like to spend too much time answering questions or repeating things during lecture but he's more than welcome to answer them during his office hours.
The Blah:
To succeed in this course I recommend you attend all classes because he often provides useful or important tips as he's "chalk-talking" that is not on the lecture notes. Making a good-copy or small study cards can be extremely helpful in remembering the many reactions, reagents, and conditions. The assignments (2) are generally harder than the tests (2), the latter takes place inclass. The exam is something you may want to drop everything, isolate yourself and study your brains out for. The course overall is VERY content rich, but not overly difficult as long as you ask if you're stuck. Easy to score 10 or higher.
