Apparently It has the highest failure rate, lowest class average and more retakes than any other science course.

I'm taking it next semester and I'm kind of scared. If you've taken and passed it, what kind of things do you recommend for me to do to pass the class effortlessly?

Establish a good relationship with God.

Idk tbh, in high school I didn't find it that hard. Maybe college is different

don't do it unless you want to be a doctor/dentist or work in science. It's not worth the struggle to lower your GPA

Omg, I'm taking it now, and it's so hard. Something like this can only emerge from the pits of hell. Runaway and turn back while you can, sistah!

I haven't taken it, but my roommates told me that it's so cumulative that missing one tiny thing can mess up the rest of the semester.

I have to take it to finish my Biology degree.

may god be with u

I took Orgo 3 years ago. All you need to do is understand the materials, use organic models a lot when you do homework that involves the molecule arrangement and always do the practice test. Luckily my instructor was super nice and she was easy to understand. I ended up getting an A. I was nervous at first because a lot of people didn't like that course but I ended up liking the course a lot

I thought it was easier and much more interesting than General Chemistry

A lot of it is knowing reaction mechanisms, so I bought a dry erase board/markers just wrote reactions over and over again

Judging by my future Professors "rate my professor" account, I don't think I'll have the same experience you had.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-o...so-hard-2014-1

This article provides an interesting perspective.

Most people fall into one of two camps: good at memorization or good at problem solving. Since organic chemistry requires both it challenges a large percentage of students.

Can't confirm, though -- haven't taken it yet.

How?!

I guess if you don't like math, then general chem could be a pain, but still... It's nothing compared to organic imo.

Orgo is my least favorite subject ever. It just never clicked with me regardless of how hard I tried.

The biggest issue with it (to me), was that there was never anything concrete. There's no mechanism which has a 100% chance of going to something. There's hardly any laws or facts. Just theories. It's a lot to memorize and also a lot to understand and just overwhelming.

For some reason, my school makes the Chemical Engineering (my major) students take the advanced version of Organic Chemistry & the Chemistry majors have to take the regular version...

In mt class of last year, 10% passed the test

Seems like good organization will help...

I've taken two Orgo classes and a lab

It's difficult but can be mitigated with the right teacher and mode of studying. What makes it hard is the amount of work, the fact the work builds on previous material, and how abstract the concepts are if you aren't taking a lab

So if you miss or don't understand an early chapter, every (well almost) every subsequent chapter there's gonna be a part you won't understand (and that's if you understand the rest of it) and that's annoying because you have to retrace your steps to understand. Once you fall behind you're done. It's not easy at all but it's not difficult either. If you are good at memorizing patterns and solving problems step by step it shouldn't be hard for you at all. The problem with that is most people are good at one or the other (if they are good at either ) so while you work on building up the other one you have to make sure everything else is in place.

Final verdict: The second toughest class I've ever had as an undergrad so far (I'm almost done my 7th semester) but even then I got A-'s. It's just you need to buckle down

I got away with two Bs without never really having understood anything. Now i'm in Advanced O chem lab and it's hell

organic chem is more interesting than physical chem... you just have to remember a lot of mechanisms etc..

I LOVED OC. Most of my friends were seething at how I was slaying it the whole sem because I got almost perfect marks for every test and lab assignment

It's just understanding the mechanisms. Once you understand, memorise a bit and keep revising so you won't keep forgetting them.