Many of my organic chemistry tutor students tell me that they have studied, studied and studied, solved all the problems in the book, and still find it difficult to understand the information and apply concepts to problems. In discussing practical problems with these students, I understand that the reason they know the answers is because they looked for them and ended up remembering what to do without understanding how to apply the concepts to the questions.
In organic chemistry, if you cannot apply a concept to a question, you cannot apply information to a problem that is presented in a way that you are not familiar with.
Therefore, when you study organic chemistry, you must constantly ask yourself why and how. Why does this reaction occur? How did these electrons attack? Why is this molecule attracted and attacked and how do electrons bond? All concepts and mechanisms boil down to why and how.
So when you solve a problem, it is not that A goes to B and that is the end of the problem. Instead, ask yourself what it is about A that makes you react. What functional groups do a have? What are the properties of molecule A? How do electrons, bonds, orbitals, and anything else proportional contribute to the overall chemistry of this molecule?
Then do a similar analysis for molecule B. When you analyze two molecules together, you should be able to or try to visualize the reactions between the two molecules. So much so that you can understand the specific interactions that make the two of you interact the way they do.
After the first step or attack of an electron, an intermediate link is obtained. What about what makes it stable or unstable? What makes it profitable? What makes it a shape?
If you can understand these concepts, you can get to that intermission and then move on to the next step. If you understand how the intermediate reacts, then you know how to get the final product.
If you run into a problem that you cannot solve, find the correct answer. Check out the chemistry tutor solutions guide and see how they fixed it. But don’t leave it that way. Return to the question. Try to analyze the details based on the information provided and see if you can recreate not only the mechanism, but also the thought process and logic underlying the problem.
Once this becomes clear, try solving the problem again. It can be difficult the first few times, but if you try again and again, you will find yourself mastering the material. If you constantly solve problems in this way, you will find that even when you are faced with a problem that you do not recognize, or with a molecule that is completely unknown, you can still apply the reasoning and logic you have learned from your research.
james