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Chemistry 1

I am sure it has been many years since you stepped inside the doors of the organic chemistry classroom. For most people, the professor confused the class by presenting complicated examples and focusing on memorization. This is an inefficent way of studying for the MCAT. We have created a series of notes which serve and encourgae a THOROUGH understanding and which discourages memorization. It has been shown that with this method, you can ace the organic chemistry part of the biological science section.

We have divided our journey into organic chemistry into two parts:

1. Part 1: Intro and Reactivtity - The first part gives you all the tools you need so you can understand all the reactions that are thrown at you in the second part. Each tool is very important and as you continue to study these sections, you will really understand and apply them.

2. Part 2: Reactions. This part covers all the reactions that one must know for the MCAT. We emphasize relevant mechanisms that have known to creep up on the MCAT. Again we hope that you understand the MCAT so if you see something similar on the MCAT you will know what to do. Lastly, we briefly have a lecture on spectroscopy.

Part 1 consists of nine sections:

  1. Nomenclature - How to name molecules?
  2. Bonding- How do we connect molecules together
  3. Electronegativity- Why are certain bonds different than other bonds?
  4. Resonance- Why delocalizing charge is so important
  5. Confirmation Analysis 1 - How different conformers of the same molecule influence the state of the molecule
  6. Confirmation Analysis 2 - We talk about chair cylcohexane structure and how strain affects stability of the molecule?
  7. Isomerization - This serves to introduce the concept that different connectivity of the same molecule could have large different properties (constitutional isomers). It also introduces how to understand stability of alkenes (E/Z or cis/trans nomenclature)
  8. Stereoisomers - This is the most important section here. It says how two molecules which have the same chemical properties behave so radically different within the human body. Stereoisomers are everywhere and is they key behind synthesizing small molecule drugs which help cure various illnesses.
  9. Acids and Bases - We conclude this section by talking about acids and bases. How to tell the strength of an acid or bases by considiering the stability of the resulting anion and how to tell which direction equilibrium lies. These ideas will be used over and over again in the other sections.