So there's lots of threads being started up asking about exams... now I'm joining the club.

I've heard that the Orgo final is hard/brutal/murder, etc. Is there any particular reason for this?

The course is being taught by Dr Capretta this year, and I'm curious to know what his exams were like in the past, i.e. same level of difficulty as the midterms or harder? Does he ask the types of questions that, if you prepared really well by doing lots of old tutorials/midterms/assignments, you'd do fine? Or does he ask random questions that came out of nowhere?

If anyone has any 'tips for success' I'd love to hear them!!

Thanks

I took the course last year and it was also taught by Dr. Capretta,

Our exam was pretty brutal. Although, he may have made it harder to compensate for our easy midterm (avg of mid-high 70's)

Originally Posted by Pay919

I took the course last year and it was also taught by Dr. Capretta,

Our exam was pretty brutal. Although, he may have made it harder to compensate for our easy midterm (avg of mid-high 70's)

So why exactly do you say it was brutal? Not enough time? Unfair questions?

Originally Posted by Pay919

I took the course last year and it was also taught by Dr. Capretta,

Our exam was pretty brutal. Although, he may have made it harder to compensate for our easy midterm (avg of mid-high 70's)

Yeah it was probably because of the midterms...our midterm averages were closer to the 50s I think, so I don't think our exam will be as hard ^_^

i dont understand that concept... what is wrong with 70 averages?

Last year (also with Capretta), some people's marks dropped 3-4 grade points from the exam...
It was NOT a fun one.

Originally Posted by nerual

Last year (also with Capretta), some people's marks dropped 3-4 grade points from the exam...
It was NOT a fun one.

What's not fun to you might me fun to other people : )

studying for orgo right now....easy peasy shit gunna ace this exam

what exactly was so hard about the exam? What would you recommend studying more of?

Its been a year since I had the exam, but I remember that a lot of the questions required you to think WAY outside of the box.

Its easy, finished the class with a 12

Now I definitely don't know what to expect for this exam haha... Dr Capretta gave us this practice assignment with a somewhat challenging question and says "this is more complicated than something I would give you on an exam" and that he wouldn't test us on anything we haven't seen before in lecture notes/tutorial/etc... which leads me to believe the exam will be fair and doable.

I need some positive reinforcement here, lol.

How difficult was your midterm/midterms? What is the average?

Last year the midterm average was quite high, which is why I think the exam was more difficult. Just an idea though, however I have seen similar trends with a lot of courses (hard midterm = easy exam, easy midterm = hard exam)

Btw, pretty sure that stock guy is trolling. Join date is 2011, and he's in second year. Doubt he's taken orgo...

Originally Posted by Pay919

How difficult was your midterm/midterms? What is the average?

Last year the midterm average was quite high, which is why I think the exam was more difficult. Just an idea though, however I have seen similar trends with a lot of courses (hard midterm = easy exam, easy midterm = hard exam)

well our midterms were pretty bad, 67 and 57 averages.

(67 is actually not that bad considering the size of the class)

but he did say in the past the average on the exam has been ~68%, which i think is quite high considering how "brutal" everyone says it was. there is hope