Advice for success in organic chemistry ....

[Mayhem]

... with the intention of going into novel drug synthesis.

It might be a bit of a reach to ask this on a physics forum, but I see chemists among us, so I guess this is as good as any.

To those of you with experience in the field, what makes a good organic chemist? What makes a good medicinal chemist? Are there areas that a student only in undergraduate chemistry should focus on in their free time (outside of organic chemistry) which would aid them greatly? Hard work is a given, I'm looking for extra advice.

Thank you.

 

[Jody]

I'm not a chemist, but I took organic chemistry. It was a challenging class! Something that helped me a lot was note cards. I had all sorts of them with definitions and functional groups. I'm very bad at memorizing things, which was not very good for that class... I remember doing those note cards really saved me in the class and I'd take them everywhere with me to sneak in a study... even up to the minute before the exams. Practice drawing a lot of the structures too...

 

[Zap]

The two most renowned chemistry students in my graduating class were super intense and absolutely obsessed with organic chemistry. One of them was accepted to Cornell University. They also lived in the lab. I remember one of them showing me his sleeping bag that he would use to sleep on the floor of his office. I never really understood those guys, tbh. However, one thing was for sure. They loved organic chemistry.

They also worked as a team and partitioned their school work. This is something that I never did, but I think a lot of people have benefited from it.

 

[Mayhem]

The two most renowned chemistry students in my graduating class were super intense and absolutely obsessed with organic chemistry. One of them was accepted to Cornell University. They also lived in the lab. I remember one of them showing me his sleeping bag that he would use to sleep on the floor of his office. I never really understood those guys, tbh. However, one thing was for sure. They loved organic chemistry.

They also worked as a team and partitioned their school work. This is something that I never did, but I think a lot of people have benefited from it.

I really like this! Shows the importance of passion and dedication rather than just possessing pure wits.