You had a poor organic course. Even orgo 1 should have you thinking about resonance + electron-rich or -deficient areas of molecules and how those lead to reactions.
replyOf course we talked about those. But if you went off only those you'd miss the edge cases and gotchas the prof laid for you in step 8 of the synthesis. Couldn't get around just doing worksheet after worksheet after worksheet of reactions to try and drive it into your head. Going to office hours to beg for more practice reactions. Everyone scheduled the rest of their major around when they would have to take ochem to make sure the rest of it was as light as possible. Uncurved class averages would be in the 50s.
replyThat sounds like Caltech. The ochem major is notorious for how hard it is.
replyI was lucky enough to have Morrison and Boyd as my undergrad ochem textbook. they built the material up really well from first principles.
replyAnd people clutch their pearls at ai not really understanding anything when people describe university experiences and lessons like this...
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