After the 1st exam:

That was not bad, very similar to practice exams. Now I have to wait for the answer key!

hardest exam ever in the history of the world

Too hard. Not very much like the practice tests.

this exam was nothing like the practice exams. if it was i would have an A instead of a C.

It's amazing how you could get asked a question that's nearly identical to one on a practice exam, and yet have no idea what the right answer is. Much harder than I expected. At least the nightmares will stop for now.

meh

My head hurts!

I really think that if the test was like the practice exams than everyone would have done a lot better. It was a little ridiculous.

I thought the exam was fairly difficult. It was a combination of easy questions and hard ones. Overall it was a fair exam.

I thought it was considerably harder than the practice exams, but I also made a lot of stupid errors.

this exam was so frickin hard!

that exam was really challenging, my head is spinning right now. i pretty much spent all 2 hours there, but im pretty satisfied with my grade. A =)

that was easily the hardest test i have ever taken. it was much harder than any of the practice exams or anything we went over in class. i got a 74, the good news is i could have studied another 10 hours and not have done any better. mad girls are gonna drop, hope the curve is generous

The test was absurd. It was nothing like the practice exams, or the "Training Set." It was basically a collection of problems not to be found in the text, lectures notes, or anywhere else. Good riddance.

wow, ridiculous! understood almost all the questions on the practice exam and yet had difficulty with this one..... way too hard!

It was nice that it was 35 so there was more room for error...but all the ones I got wrong seemed to be blatantly misleading. It wasn't horrible but some questions seemed to be a little unfair. I got a 72 :-/

I would like to go over the test in class to see how some of the answers were generated. This test was ridiculously difficult!

All of you complain, but I just did a check. Only for 5 questions (out of 35) I could not find a similar one on practice exam or quizzes. And that was a very quick check.

This was a very difficult exam. I thought there wasn't enough time and many of the problems were unlike the ones in the practice tests and training sets

This exam was like the practice exams, in that it covered the material. Many questions were related, but this exam was by far much more difficult than the practice exams. I'll tell you I got a 50% (yes already compared to the key) and that is better than I expected to do considering how difficult I thought the exam was. Overall I believe our understanding of the subject can be determined with an easier exam.

This test was extremely difficult. I did all of the practice exams and did fairly well (high 60's - low 80's) yet on this exam i only got a 50.

Isn't the answer to 33 on Form A c and not d? ---overall a challenging test. [please use ANGEL discussion forum for chemistry question]

So that exam was really difficult. really difficult.

Hardest Test ever, very sad how most of the class does so poorly and the chemistry department does nothing to help, thank you {Nothing? See Help, and check the number of questions answered on ANGEL]

Shouldn't the chemistry department want us to do well? It was the hardest test I think I have ever taken. I thought I was as prepared as possible and still managed to fail. Way harder than the practice exams.

The exam was very difficult for me. I did spend adequate time studying. I dont like how to the lecture notes do not match textbook.

I thought the test was comparable to practice test C, but I wish we had done a little more on the bronsted/lewis material in class. It seemed like we brushed over it in class and nothing was put online about it. That was probably a big reason why I got under a 60

Probably the hardest test ever given. Completely unfair. The resources and "help" available for this class are not enough. The TA office hours are too crowded and there is limited space. The tutors in 211 whitmore do not know any more about the material than you do and are pretty much worthless.

I would have appreciated for the exam to be more similar to the practice ones or for Dr. Maslak to have gone over some of the more difficult concepts in class

Whoever did the check and said that its "only" five out of thirty five questions needs to realize that those five qeustions account for nearly 15% of the total grade.

This was a difficult test. I was very suprised. The amount of time spent covering certain topics in class (or lack there of) was not relected by the test questions. I really hope the format of the lectures improves.

Wow, this exam was very challenging. Most of the questions were like the practice tests, but there were several questions that really asked us to apply the concepts we learned on a higher level. The hardest exam I've ever taken bar none.

Did anyone else find the constant popping and snapping sounds from the models extremely distracting (especially in 100 Thomas)? Other than that, this exam wasn't an equal representation of our lectures (that is, some info was heavily used and other was barely even included). It wasn't impossible though

I have made some stupid mistakes, but I must honestly say that ALL questions on the test were on the material covered in class and similar to questions on practice tests.

It made me think for a change. I could use a bit more of that in my life.

I made too many stupid mistakes. In a lot of cases I was stuck between two and picked the wrong one. I don't like thinking.

There is no doubt the test was hard, but I think it was fair. It challenged me to think about what we have gone over in class and try to apply it to new situations. I averaged an ~87 on the practice exams and got an 84 on this one.

I averaged around a 90 on the practice exams and I got a 62 on this one. Accounting for stupid errors that I shouldn't have made, I would have gotten a 74. This is still well below what I thought I would get (~80-85, according to the estimation method posted on the website). Either the test was too hard, or I got dumber.

The worst thing about this class is it requires you to think - something most people aren't able to do. You've got to take collections of facts and apply them to situations you haven't seen before. Tests aren't written to see what you know, they're written to see what you DON'T know. I felt like the test was just like the practice questions/training set/textbook problems. Did you read quantum primer? Did you read the lecture notes or take good lecture notes? Nothing undoable. I love this class.

wow, i got a 50 and am happy..

Form B #26: I don't understand why letter D is not sp^3 hybridization type. 3 bonds formed with other Carbons and there is one lone pair electrons on the underlined Carbon. #35: To have quaternary carbons with 6 carbon ring shape, I believe there is only 2 possible way to form. One is cyclobutane and the other is cyclopropane. Cyclopentane is not possible to make to quaternary form with 6 carbons. I don't understand how it can have 3 isomers.  [We have another forum on ANGEL for chemistry questions]

Organic chemistry is not a class, its a lifestyle. Make it part of your daily routine like eating or working out and you will be surprised how easy the exams are. This is not like other classes where you can sleep through the lectures and expect to pass by cramming the weekend before the exam. I know because this is exactly what I did the first time I took this class and that's exactly why I had to drop it.

This was by far one the hardest exams I have taken. I did think it was fair and the questions did seem similar to the practice tests. Although I did make some stupid mistakes, I am very happy with my grade of 76.

Im switching to business because of this tremendously difficult exam.

An underlying pedagogical weakness in this courses curriculum accounts for the struggle most of us are encountering. Although we are given the "quantum primer" we have yet to look into detail about what causes this to be necessary. We are told about schroedingers equation, but what about the mind-warping cause...that is the simultaneous wave/ particle nature of matter? Have they told us anything about Heisenbergs uncertainty principle, or even mentioned the name Feynberg? We are expected to memorize a pattern of behaviors that attempt to shortcut a solid qualitative understanding of shall we call it the true Quantum Weirdness that governs the microscopic realm we all want to study. The negligence in instruction of these fundamental ideas makes the detailed understanding of quantum interactions very difficult to grasp. Take heart everyone, it's not entirely your fault if you don't get it.

98,100,88 = practice exam scores 72 = this exam At least they were similar? *sarcasm*

^^^ Out of curiosity, which questions did you miss (form A)?

I looked everywhere and I just don't think I brought my exam with me when I left the 102 Forum. I think I left it on the front desk when I handed in the scantron. Did anyone pick it up? Please email nrc5020@psu.edu!

This was quite a bit harder than the practice exams, which I did really well on. The pracice exams gave me a false sense of security. I just hope there is one heck of a curve!

Easier than your mom.

More difficult than I thought it would be given the training set and practice exams, but less horrifying than what older students led me to believe. Overall, I am glad that there are three more exams and I pray there will be a curve.

This exam was definitely difficult and I am rather happy with my 78. However, I do feel like in class we spent so much time on the MO and hybridization (which I completely knew how to do and understand) but didn't spend enough time on other stuff. Also, I think that the textbook is not much help since the lecture notes are a bit more indepth..

It was a challenging exam but I felt all the material necessary was provided via lecture, book, and web. I feel strongly that the exam was in the vicinity of Practice exam "C". I couldn't stop laughing thinking about what kind of comments Maslak would have made if he was sitting next to me. "Come on... it's right there... did the electron look at Playboy?..."

When I saw my score, I started laughing hysterically. Then I downed a pint of ice cream and cried.

I don't like the logic behind taking this organic chemistry exam where so much thought is put into the process of finding the answer only to get no credit or full credit on your answer. That is why i hate big schools and large classes. I did all the work i thought i would need to getting an average of 90s on the practice exams and a 72 on this one. Made a few mistakes that were my own fault that would have brought me up to mid 80's but thats life of taking an exam from 8-10 pm with a bio 230w exam before that. could have used an extra 15 min to correct the stupid mistakes i brushed over in the beginning

amen, ice cream eater. lets get together after exam 2.

^ I am afraid you will need a gallon per person :-)

I would like to join this ice cream gathering. I also agree with the gallon per person deal.

Couldn't my knowledge of the material be tested in a way that doesn't make me feel like a dumbass? I got an average grade, indicating, presumably, that I have average knowledge of the subject material, but somehow I still feel like I failed. Maybe this is motivational to some, but it makes me less inclined to care about the material.

56% average on the first exam? Jesus Christ. That was our SECOND exam average a few years ago. Hey Maslak, can we take bets on that one? I'll email you. ;)

Congratulations people we have set a new record (not a very good record though)!!! Let's break the record for exam 2 as a class too (and hope my grade goes up).

Disclaimer: This is obviously long, but I think worth reading if you’re struggling early on. hello current chem 210 sufferers. I took this class and chem 212, and I'm here to offer a bit of advice, wisdom, etc. I actually just sort of stumbled on the chem 210 website and said to myself, hey i wonder if they took the exam yet? it's hysterical how similar your reactions are compared to when i took it a year ago. first and foremost, DON'T GIVE UP!! This class will challenge you and take you out of your comfort zone. most of you haven't taken a class this hard before, and so you're just astounded by the exam. It's understandable; but you need to make adjustments. A lot of lower level classes have exams that model, quite nicely, to practice exams. You're in ochem now, those days are over. See, the problem with practice exams are: you tend to MEMORIZE how to do a particular problem and HOPE DESPERATELY that it will show up. Guess what, Maslak knows this!! That's why his questions might look similar, but aren't solvable on the same level of thinking used on a practice exam. i.e. you need to UNDERSTAND exactly what’s going on, what they’re asking for, and how to approach problems that you see on practice exams from every possible angle. It’s like memorizing the equation: 2+4=6, then on the exam you see 2+6=x. if you just memorize the answer, or similarly, ACCEPT an answer instead of questioning and understanding it, you’re going to be someone to says, x=4. If you got 90s on the practice exams and got a 50 on this exam, guess what, you’re one of those people. But you can change! The single most important word in organic chemistry is “WHY?” NEVER stop questioning, or you’ll fall behind. One question that is more common than a benzene ring is: why is this class so hard? The answer to that is easy. (1) this is penn state, a highly respectable university in the sciences/engineering/research, (2) this is PENN STATE!! If you wanted easy, take this class at a community college, (3) many people are going to take the MCAT. guess what, the MCAT makes you wish this class was harder because you will not feel adequately prepared for it, (4) MED SCHOOL. If you don’t realize how hard it is in med school, you shouldn’t be premed, and yes, ochem is studies extensively in med school (so I’ve heard since I’m still here), (5) chem 212 is harder. Chem 210 is really just the fundamentals of ochem. Once you get into 212, you’ll have to know about 50 reactions intimately for an exam (no exaggeration, I counted). I can probably give you a 6, 7, up to about 15, but I think you get the point. Ochem is hard, a lot of material needs to be covered, and it’s important. DON’T BLAME MASLAK!!! About 90% of you are going to hate maslak at some point -- mainly because you want to blame SOMEONE for your grades. I think this needs to be addressed for a simple reason. You need to realize that you need to earn your grade. Not everything is going to be handed to you in life, sometimes you need to work at it on your own. Maslak can only teach you fundamentals, YOU need to be able to apply them. Simply put, it’s NOT POSSIBLE for Maslak to teach you how to solve every problem you’re going to encounter in your professional careers. What he can do (and does very well) is teach you the basic laws of organic chem and how to apply them to problem solving. [As an aside: Probably about the ONLY thing I didn’t like about Maslak was that he showed mechanisms on the slides rather than on the blackboard. That’s something I didn’t really think too much about until 212 when Katie Masters used the blackboard for the entire class, which I liked a lot more.] But bottom line, if you keep blaming Maslak, you’re not likely to have the motivation to keep moving forward. Think about that for a second and you’ll know what I mean. There’s a lot more that I can say, but I think I’ll end it here. If you got anything out of what I said, I hope it’s this: Keep asking “why?” The WHY is more important than what’s actually going on. You’re going to learn about 100 reactions by the time you’re done with organic chemistry… and you’re going to forget about 100 of them. BUT if you know WHY the reactions proceeded the way they did, then you literally know the mechanisms of thousands of reactions, even though you don’t remember a single reaction you learned in class. Now take the student who MEMORIZED 100 reactions without knowing why the mechanism proceeded the way they did. Which is better off in the real world?

I got the 96 suckas!

exam was easy to be honest,. however, it was very tricky enough to cost several problems.

well said

makes sense but I'm too stupid

WE ARE PENN STATE!!

after the first exam, i went home and cried.

I am actually quite offended by the comment "I got the 96, suckas!" To whomever you are, Congratulations! You are a very smart person, BUT that does not give you the right to be rude and condescending to the rest of the class.Didn't anyone ever tell you that if you don't have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all? I studied harder for this exam than I ever have before, and I got a 56. So thank you for making me feel inferior.

I did pretty horrible on the exam a 52%. I can honestly say that I made a few stupid mistakes which I'm kicking myself in the butt for. However, doing this bad on an exam makes me feel like giving up and not work harder. I know I can't do this though. Anybody have any advice on what worked for them? I tried the hour a day through doing homework problems, reading the book and reviewing the day's concepts. I went to the review session and tried the practice exams. I'm not sure where I went wrong. It is very discouraging.

^ I think, your problem might be that you have "tried practice exams". One has to KNOW how to do all problems on these exams (and quizzes) to be prepared.

if you need help, email me at pm@chem.psu.edu

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

It does suck how people like to discourage other people. But one thing you have to remember: this is an anonymous feedback page, so I would put good money that some (not all) of the people who claim to have gotten 90's really got average scores.

I dropped this class during the spring and am taking it again now. One recurring theme last spring that I haven't heard this time around was: People who got average scores studied A LOT, but the people who got stellar scores (90s) studied significantly less. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but if it is, then what are the people who are getting average scores doing wrong?? I studied my ass off and had to drop the class. I studied my ass off AGAIN and still didn't do that much better...... so to you people who got good grades and didn't study that much, can you give any advice?

^ Such people are like elfs, just a myth...

yea it's not possible for people to get in the 90's and not study. how would that make any sense?

in all likelihood, the people who score in the 90s probably don't have any social life at all -- they probably just study an ungodly amount. i don't envy those people at all. sure they have good grades, but they're social outcasts

I wonder if Maslak still reads these comments......... boobs

The person who got a 96 has no friends/social life. They're idea of a party is sitting around playing beer pong with root beer while doing chemistry problems

fun party lmao

I don't have any friends or a social life and I didn't get a 96.

lmfao... umm

if you got a 96 on this or any ochem exam, chances are you've never been laid. there i said it

"i don't envy those people at all. sure they have good grades, but they're social outcasts" "The person who got a 96 has no friends/social life. They're idea of a party is sitting around playing beer pong with root beer while doing chemistry problems" "if you got a 96 on this or any ochem exam, chances are you've never been laid. there i said it" Why are you people saying these things? Are you just jealous of those people (sour grapes) or do you actually believe they live those types of lives? I WISH I got a 96 on that exam, but does that mean that I have to live like THAT in order to get it? If you are just jealous, then don't post comments like that, because that just discourages people. It would be much more comforting to know that there are people who do have friends/social life who 96's. But you know what, even if you're right, and those people don't have many friends and don't party on weekends, and EVEN IF they've never been laid, who cares?!! I DO envy those people, because they're the ones who are getting into med school and living their dreams. They're the ones who're going to save countless lives when they inevitably become amazing doctors. And who are we??? We're the ones making fun of them as we drink our futures away and realize, when it's too late, that our dreams will never come to fruition.

that's where you're wrong. there are plenty of people who get into med school who aren't complete losers like these people who get 96's. An A is a 75. that's all you need to get into med school. people who get 96's are wasting their time

^^ that has to be one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard.... i sincerely hope you're not premed

hmm: 96 on chem exam OR sex. i choose sex

good for you

If i was guaranteed sex every day, I would chose a 40% over no sex and a 96%. See the thing is, without getting into med school and becoming a doctor, you will not have money. You need money to get laid. So 40% on chem test = no med school= no doctor= no sex. It's simple so we must do better

[......} irrelevant comments  removed

just when we were finally getting interested in organic chemistry, maslak has to go and censor us

German chemists made a replica of a trophy the size of one molecule

It's so sad because chemistry is the only science that can be broken into 2 categories: "making drugs" and "blowing stuff up." Unfortunately, chemistry isn't always fun and games because professors are always bitching about things like cis vs. trans or significant figures

I am only taking organic chemistry to learn how to make drugs so I can care less about my test grades as long as I learn

that's the spirit!

i'm taking organic chemistry because my academic adviser told me it was good for my major. when i asked her if it was hard, she's like, no not really.... stupid  [... edited for language]

im taking orgo for my major, pre-meth.

^^ LOL. I'm taking org. chem. to learn the safe way of making methamphetamine so I dont have my house blow up. I also want to learn how to extract pseudoephedrine from Nyquil and caffeine from caffeine pills to make an extreme energy concoction

you know what they say about big electron field.......big polarizability! you know what they say about big polarizability...small electronegativity difference! you know what they say about small electronegativity difference...small [....] 

Please post comments that are relevant to Chem 210, and keep them at the level appropriate for PSU students.

Dr. Maslak, are the questions on the MCAT similar to the ones on your exams?

MCAT Organic questions are a joke compared to what you are learning. You have to know basic concepts and mechanisms, but knowledge won't hurt you. If you do well in this class, you can get at least a 10 on the MCAT bio section.

seriously?? NICE

Gentlemen (and Ladies): this is a site about organic chemistry. Let's  stick to the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRA6fuS_JU who thinks maslak should do this? let's take a vote!!

Orgo is such a cruel and demanding mistress. i have to..............study it every night

i hope you all are studying organic chemistry instead of partying right now...

Hey, I want to start a study group for the second exam now, instead of putting it off until two days before the exam. Is anyone interested?

Yes, i am interested in joining an orgo orgy for the second exam

Of topic comments have been removed. Please stick to the subject of this forum (Chem 210).

Aspirin was the first drug offered as a water-soluble tablet in 1900.

Thank You Maslak! That garbage was getting on my nerves