Failed my first Organic Chemistry Test?

[Anonymous]

I studied for hours daily weeks before the exam and cranked it up the week prior. Felt very comfortable with all the material and felt like I would do well on the exam. Turns out I failed it. I did not complete about 40% of the exam due to not finishing it. That had to do with me being a slow test taker and a slow learner in general. The exams are geared towards making you go through very quickly. Am I too dumb to pass this class? I put the time in to study and understood the concepts, but alas I am slow as usual.

[Jonny_]

I do hate the fact they put time limits on a lot of the testing now... I recently had to do an online test for a job. For each 'phase' there were about 30 questions, but to do them you had to read 3 pages /understand them, then take the information and arrange it into new formulas to then do 30 questions... and they gave you twenty minutes to do everything including reading the pages. I barely passed it and didn't get the job, although I could easily answer everything the amount of time I had was just stupid.

I'd try not to worry about it, I think that you just need to practice answering to time limits... I can't give any proper advice on it since I was care free about my education. I never studied and could fly through a test paper very quickly, I got a lot of hate from classmates for it. One thing I would say is that studying too much can eventually drain you mentally. If I tried to think about something too much eventually all I would do is start getting confused with everything that I already learnt.

[EngineeringStudent]

As aMuse said, you probably aren't alone. When I took O-chem, I epic failed the first exam. Despite that, I managed to get through the class with a B -, and I ended up doing very well in O-Chem 2 (63 on the ACS Ochem exam). So try not to feel completely discouraged. You can definitely spring back from this.

As a starting point, you should make sure you understand what you got wrong on the exam. Perhaps have a chat with the professor? As anon said, when you take an exam, make sure you at least attempt all of the problems. If you get stuck, move on to the next problem and come back to it if there's enough time.

What were your study methods? In my experience, the best way to increase your problem solving speed is to do loads of practice problems to increase your problem solving fluency.

[TheoryOfAvarice]

You might understand the material alright but you need to learn how to take tests better. Not being able to complete a test is a problem. I've heard awful things about O-Chem so I'm not trying to say that getting through a test is easy or whatever, but you need to figure out how to pace yourself when you're taking a test... otherwise I imagine you're going to see similar results on future tests.

[Anonymous]

You just need more practice doing exam questions under strict time limits. This should have been part of your revision process already.

One of the things you need to realize is that when doing exam questions, you can get almost 40% of the marks just by showing that you know the correct method to solve the question. The remaining 60% of it is in the specifics of the answer. Knowing this means you don't have to finish every answer, you can save time by not completing all the questions, but at least attempting them all.

[aMuse]

Oh well, you're probably not alone. When I went through OChem 50% of the class was gone by half way through the semester. lol It's challenging for a lot of people to grasp. I remember cramming like a beast the day before the exam and coming out OK. =P What specifically are you having trouble with?

[Asker]

I crammed a week before. Only thing I have trouble with is finishing the test on time. Conceptually, I pretty much understand/understood all of the material.

[aMuse]

Well, then I guess just get use to looking for the low hanging fruit. Skim through the test looking for the easiest questions and answer as many as you can as well as you can, and then go back to the more complicated ones on your second pass. That way you don't get caught up on something that might be a little more challenging for you..