I have just posted a new homework assignment: HW #6. You can download it from the homework page.
This assignment signals a switch from an emphasis on modeling to an emphasis on chemical transformations. It is essential at this point that you adjust your study techniques so that you learn about transformations from several angles:
- knowing what to expect from certain reactions (fill in the product)
- knowing how to bring certain transformations about (fill in the reagent)
- knowing how to produce desired materials (fill in the starting material + plan a synthesis)
- knowing how to rationalize why things are the way they are (draw a plausible mechanism).
I hope that the new direction in homework assignments will encourage you in this.
A Study Guide and Solutions Manual essay that is particularly worthwhile: 5.2 How to Study Organic Reactions (p. 70). I hope you will incorporate the suggestions that this essay makes into your study habits. Some other valuable essays:
- 5.3 Solving Structure Problems (p. 74)
- 11.1 Learning New Reactions from Earlier Reactions (p. 211)
- 11.2 Common Intermediates from Different Starting Materials (p. 211).