Misconceptions In Organic Chemistry W.E. Harris Teaching Workshop Concepts and Misconceptions in Chemistry May 24–25, 2012

Misconceptions in Organic Chemistry That you can succeed in organic chemistry by memorizing That you *must* memorize to succeed That organic chemistry is an impossibly hard course That you can just study the night(s) before the exam and don’t need to do regular homework That doing/reading/seeing something once is enough to learn it That concepts from general chemistry don’t apply That organic chemistry is not related to [my] field of study (oil, lubricants, medicine, biology, nutrition, environment, etc.)

Misconceptions in Organic Chemistry Rings are “special”. Reactivity of 2-chlorohexane will be completely different from reactivity of chlorocyclohexane! Because it’s a ring! Molecules bounce back-and-forth between resonance structures. So resonance arrows are just a special case of equilibrium arrows. Students tend not to appreciate that scientists use models as tools. They’re not a perfect depiction of reality. 3