12-24-2025, 04:17 PM
I'm a second-year pre-med student currently drowning in my organic chemistry course, specifically struggling with the sheer volume of reaction mechanisms I'm expected to memorize for the upcoming midterm. I understand the basic concepts like nucleophiles and electrophiles, but when faced with a synthesis problem, I freeze and can't map out the logical steps. For those who have successfully navigated this class, what study techniques or resources helped you move from rote memorization to actually applying the principles to solve problems? I've tried flashcards for the mechanisms, but I need a better way to see the big picture and understand how everything connects, especially for multi-step syntheses.