Last year, I nonchalantly signed up to take second-semester organic chemistry, a k a Orgo. My friends thought I was a maso-chist. The class is reputed to be the hardest at Brown, and rumor has it that its sole purpose is to weed out pre-meds. Nobody else takes it except chemistry majors. I had come to the conclusion that I was not going to apply to medical school, and it was unnecessary for me to take the course for any other reason. Still, I figured I could always change my mind about the med school thing. And how bad could it be?EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS
According to statistics posted by the Orgo professors, averages on the midterm exams ranged from 47 to 65 points out of 100; by semester’s end, half of the class got C’s or failed (there are no D’s at Brown). This does not take into account the large percentage who ended up dropping the class. I know many students who failed the first time and had to take it a second or even a third time. Others retook it over the summer at pushover schools like Stanford and waltzed out with an A+.
SUBJECTS
Orgo students in pre-med carry the textbook with them wherever they go, and they always seem on the verge of panic. The chemistry majors always have smiles on their faces, either because they relish the pre-meds’ pain or because they truly get a kick out of doing organic chemistry.
One of my friends is a chemistry major, and sometimes he would help me study. When I would ask him how to do a problem, he would just tell me the correct answer. He could never explain how he had found the solution, only that my answer was wrong and his was correct. This led me to conclude that chemistry students are born with an innate and nontransferable ability to understand Orgo.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ORGO
I sometimes found it interesting to study my own reactions as I sat in class or tried to do homework problems. I found that Orgo activated my sympathetic autonomic nervous system, more commonly referred to as the “fight-or-flight response.” The response is frequently activated when a creature is placed in a situation in which it needs to attack or run away. Unfortunately, it was difficult to “attack” Orgo, and running away did not seem like a useful alternative, either.
