Chemistry Online

For Those Who have taken Organic Chemistry and Physical Chemistry in College, which is harder?

I have just taken my Organic Chemistry Final Exam. After two semesters of organic chemistry, I have to say this is the hardest class I have taken because of the volume of information that I have to memorize. I have already scheduled Physical Chemistry for the fall semester, and I am asking those who have taken both Physical Chemistry and Organic Chemistry in college. Which is harder, and...how much harder is it than the other? Should the blood the sweat I poured into Organic Chemistry help me in Physical Chemistry?, or will I be in for a rude awakening?

Public Comments

1. Organic Chemistry was WAY WAY harder
2. For me, physical chemistry was 100x harder. I remember my first PChem exam. It was open book and open notes. There were over 120 equations. 60% of the class got an F. I got a D. Only one kid in the class got an A. As a point of reference, I got As in OChem 1 and 2.
3. They're different. Org is a whole lot of memorizing. Although technically you should understand and be able to work out reaction mechanisms, you still have to do alot of memorizing trivial things. P. Chem has a lot of theory and calculations in it, and it may be more difficult to understand at first, but once you get it, there's not much you have to commit to memory. So really it depends on what you're good at. If you found memorizing the large volume of material in org difficult you may find the concepts easier in P. Chem, but adversely, you may find P. chem difficult to wrap your head around. In the end, don't worry about it, these are classes all chemists have to take, So just go at it one piece at a time.