The only way of mastering any topic in Organic Chemistry is doing lots of practice problems. And I know, seeing my students, that starting to work on a practice problem may be the hardest part as you don’t know where to start. It is difficult to visualize what where the double bond would be moved if you follow the five curved arrows crammed in one step. Here is the trick:
We are always told to think before doing something. Fair enough. But let me tell you, it is also strangely enough, that in Organic Chemistry, it is often better to draw and then think about what you did (not in the lab though). It is much easier to have a structure in front of you and check for errors and improvements.
Do the first step, take the pencil and you will see that the ball gets rolling.
You have all these Organic Chemistry Practice Problems waiting to be solved!
In the previous few posts, we have talked about the nomenclature of carboxylic acid derivatives such as acids, esters, amides, nitriles, and also the strategy for naming compounds with multiple functional groups. Most of the following examples contain more than … Read more
In the IUPAC nomenclature, carboxylic acids are named by adding a suffix to the parent name of the longest chain. If the parent chain is noncyclic, you need to first find the longest carbon chain containing the -COOH group and change the … Read more
Before we start talking about naming bicyclic compounds, let’s first go over some terminology for their classification. Bicyclic compounds are a specific type of polycyclic compounds, classified as compounds that contain more than one ring with at least two common … Read more
Here are some practice problems for naming bicyclic compounds. Remember, to start numbering from one of the bridgehead carbon atoms. The numbering continues to include the largest ring towards the second bridgehead carbon, then the second-largest, and etc. (ring priority). … Read more
In the previous post, we talked about the standard valences and formal charges in organic chemistry. Today, we will focus on the number of lone pairs of electrons. While determining this is extensively covered in the Lewis structures and VSEPR … Read more
In the last few articles, we talked about the key electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions and the synthetic strategies based on the ortho, meta, para directing effects. Below is a summary of electrophilic aromatic substitution practice problems from different topics. … Read more
A comprehensive set of practice problems on the reactions of alcohols including substitution, elimination, oxidation, as well as multistep synthesis through the formation of alkenes and subsequent addition reactions.
In this review, we will try to summarize what topics and types of questions from organic chemistry are covered in the MCAT test. Organic chemistry is tested as part of the Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems Section. You … Read more
The Wohl degradation cleaves the C1–C2 bond of an aldose chain, shortening it by one carbon. Like in the Kiliani–Fischer synthesis, the transformation relies on first converting the aldehyde group to a cyanohydrin. Notice, however, the key difference: the (red) … Read more
The Kiliani–Fischer synthesis lengthens the carbon chain of carbohydrates by adding one carbon to the aldehyde group of an aldose. For example, using this method, D-arabinose can be converted into a mixture of D-glucose and D-mannose: Notice that … Read more
