きれいな

When you’re looking at two compounds and wondering how they may react, pay attention to the carbons - if they are bonded to a halogen or something more electronegative than them, then they have a partial positive charge and they’re going to want anything that will give them more electrons (a.k.a. a nucleophillic attack). If they’re bonded to hydrogen, they have a partial negative charge and they become your nucleophile, which will want to give those electrons to something that’s lacking them. Once you get these basics down, mechanisms become much easier to memorize because you can see the logic in them and sometimes predict them.

Get the basic mechanisms ingrained in your brain. Think of SN1, SN2, E1 and E2 as your new multiplication table. Make flashcards about them and take them to class. Or put them at the back or front of your notebook. Just have them handy at all times.

Draw the final steps in 3D. ALWAYS. You can draw the mechanisms and the first steps in 2D because it will make it easier to understand, but never forget that you’re working with a 3D structure that can flipped (and attacked by nucleophiles) every which way. Also, if you don’t know the basic perspectives used in orgo (Fischer, Newmans, sawhorse, wedge-dash) please take half an hour to learn them. Mainly wedge-dash and Fischer, but Newman is very useful when deciding which position you should put your atoms in if you’re dealing with sin and anti.

Colors. If you’re one of those people who ONLY writes in black pen, awesome, keep using it for WRITING. For reactions though, you’re going to want options. you’ll need to differentiate between:

The molecules (same color for atoms and bonds, unless you want to finish your notes on your deathbed).

Your three types of arrows: electron flow, actual steps in the reaction (think intermediates) and steps you may take to make it clearer for you but that happen at the same time.

Formal charges

The electrons that stay with its original atom and the ones that are given/shared, if you’re like me and you like your mechanisms to be spelled out.

This is not an excuse to go nuts with the coloring, 3 colors are enough. Personally, I use purple for molecules, electrons and reaction arrows, black for electron flow arrows and charges and light blue for clarification step arrows. Also optional but to denote a homolytic fission I usually write a blue line perpendicular to the bond. Similarly, if two atoms share one electron each, instead of just one them donating both electrons, I link said electrons with blue.

Remember to be consistent, otherwise you’ll end up like me, looking at your notes from the beginning of the semester and wondering if that dash is a bond or a -1 formal charge (to avoid this, preferably circle formal charges. Lol I never do this but I should).

Flashcards are so helpful! Write the reactants on one side and the mecanism and products on the other. Test yourself until you are one with the electrons.

If it’s a concerted mechanism, number the arrows. You’ll thank yourself a month from now.

Khanacademy. Khanacademy will save your butt when it comes to mechanisms. Chemwiki is likely to have anything that Khanacademy doesn’t. If it isn’t in either of those, Google images just became your new best friend. Books also tend to explain those nicely but I personally find them to be poorly structured and they usually include much more info than what you’ll actually be requiered to know. If you have the time to read two pages on a reaction though, by all means go for it.

Study in advance. Good luck studying for your final two days before if you don’t understand the mechanisms and you don’t have your material organized. Seriously, don’t do it. A week before the exam you could make those flashcards mentioned above. They’re a great way to review but it will be impossible if you are learning these things from scratch.

Get your hands on past tests. This goes for any subject but especially for orgo. Try to get a past test or at least ask an upper-classman who’s taken orgo with that professor. Does his/her tests focus on mechanisms? Retrosynthesis? Or does he/she give you the reactants and ask what the product is or what environment they should be in to obtain x? Ideally, you should be able to answer any of these if you know the material. However, if they focus on retrosynthesis, it may be a little tricky, so make sure to cater your study techniques to that.

You should also check out @colllegeruled’s Surviving Organic Chemistry, it’s super helpful and it has lots of resources (seriously, you introduced me to Khanacademy, I OWE YOU MY LIFE).

So, this is what I can offer so far. I hope it shines at least a faint light into the dark path that is organic chemistry.

Other masterposts

How To Stop Procrastinating

Memorization Tips

Skincare 101

Last year I wrote two blog posts on book recommendations, the first was about girl power books, which you can read HERE and the second one was for psychology book recommendations, HERE. Since I have received requests to share some recommendations for Neuroscience books, I decided to compile a separate list. I’m including books written by scientists, as well as neurologists covering different topics within Neuroscience. I think this list will be useful for those of you who are interested in the field of Neuroscience but aren’t sure which books would be suitable to start with! 

NON-FICTION:

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

Migraine by Oliver Sacks

The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks

The Man With a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound by Alexander Luria

The Brain That Changes Itself: Plasticity by Norman Doidge

The Hidden Brain by Shankar Vedantam 

He also hosts The Hidden Brain podcast, which I highly recommend to check out!

The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman

Also check out his BBC mini-series, HERE’s the link to the playlist!

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (decision making)

The Human Brain Coloring Book by Diamond, Scheibel and Elson (direct shopping link)

FICTION:

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan (memoir)

Still Alice by Lisa Genova 

Both of these books have movie adaptations!

Not all of these were a 5 star read for me; however, I’m still including them on the list (because the ratings are based on my opinions, which could be different from yours). I have linked Goodreads pages for book descriptions! I’m not including personal reviews because I would like this to be a reference list, rather than a book review blog post, but if you would like to discuss a particular book with me you can send me a private message (I always respond!).

I also have a GoodReads account, which you can follow to know what I’m currently reading HERE. 

chemistry: neat, monochromatic notes, late night cups of tea, staying after class to ask the professor questions

mathematics: the sound of pencils scratching on paper, perfectionism at its peak, empty library halls with filtered light

physics: the buzz of excitement before the first lecture of the semester, messy handwriting on chalkboards, the relieved exhaustion after an exam is finished

psychology: flashcards and textbooks strewn across a desk, group study sessions with great music, reading scientific journals to learn more about what’s discussed in lecture

engineering: early morning study sessions with really good coffee, whispered jokes during lecture, putting homework off until the last minute but still managing to do okay

biology: notes full of color and highlights, spending hours watching videos on  KhanAcademy but not really getting any work done, great study snacks

neuroscience: whiteboards full of terms and labelled diagrams, messy hair and tired smiles, a to-do list five miles long

astronomy: late nights with windows thrown open, daydreaming in class, doodles in the margins of textbooks

Top tip - Paypal, and indeed almost every legitimate business you have email contact with, will always use your name rather than a generic honorific like “client” or “Sir/Madam”.

Second thought: If English wasn’t my first language would I notice the clunks?

As @justhere4coffee points out, real business contacts address you by the name you gave them when you signed up (and it wasn’t Sir/Madam Client, was it…?)

Here’s another tip: When you hover your cursor over a click-button, the destination URL will appear on a pop-up or at the bottom of the screen. Know what the correct one should be. If the email pop-up is different, it’s a fake.

(If you don’t know the correct URL for PayPal, eBay, Amazon or wherever the email claims to come from, find out.)

If you’re thinking ” why am I seeing this? I haven’t used PayPal / eBay / Amazon in weeks”, check your account information on the actual business website.

Finally, forget the “I hit reblog SO FAST” stuff.

Think before you click, especially if an unexpected email has ominous phrases like: “please respond within 24 hours or…”, “penalties may be incurred if…” That’s very, very dodgy.

I saw this garden in a dream, petals pink and leaves of green