Calling all chemists

[Eggroll]

So organic chem is kicking my ass this semester, and I was wondering if anyone out there had a good flow chart or list of chemical reactions. I've done some digging around, but the only ones I can find are way more detailed than I would like and sifting through the information is getting to be pretty aggravating. The wiki page is about the best I've found so far, but I was just wondering if anyone has anything better. It's only a 2nd year course so it's reactions like oxymercuration and grignard reactions. Thanks in advance.

[Enkidu]

Don't memorize reactions from the start.

Study up on all of the standard reactions Sn1, Sn2, E1, and E2. Learn how to "push electrons", there's a great book called "pushing electrons". It's paperback, not too big, and about $30 I think...

Finally, never break bonding rules. If you have 5 bonds to Carbon, ur doin' it wrong. If you have 3 bonds to Oxygen, it's positively charged. 4 to Nitrogen and it's positively charged, etc... Watch the lone pairs on heteroatoms, they're usually involved in the reaction.

After that take a look at the reactions you've learned in class. Most you'll be able to do without even knowing what the product should be, just by pushing the electrons around and making the most stable configurations. For some you'll have to memorize some aspects of the reaction, but in a more general case. For example if you learn the mechanism for making esters from carboxylic acids (hopefully you know this by now), the same sort of things occur in many other types of reactions.

[Restrat]

for more than half of the reactions you'll learn in ochem, just think:
-is it in acid type conditions? Then put a Hydrogen onto an Oxygen
-is it in basic type conditions? Then take a Hydrogen off of an -OH group
then move carbon bonds around till the result is most stable

[Slapper]

This may help alittle.
http://pages.towson.edu/ladon/orgrxs/reactsum.htm

[deft]

I'm at work right now, so I don't have access to my notes, but I'm currently in the second semester of OChem. Is that the one you're in?

I memorized the reactions basically, I just sorted them into categories. For instance KMnO4 and O3 both cleave double bonds. BH3 adds an -OH group and so does Oxymercuration. From there it's just remembering the subtle differences between the reactions that make the same basic result. Like, BH3 is anti-markovnikov addition and Oxymercuration is markovnikov. If you order them like this it wouldn't be too difficult to make acronyms for the various reactions if you wish, but I didn't.