Hints for Passing Organic Chemistry Do you want to pass your course in organic chemistry? Here is my best advice, based on over thirty years of observing students learning organic chemistry: Hint #1: Do the problems. It seems straightforward, but humans, including students, try to take the easy way out until they discover there is no short-cut. Unless you have a measured IQ above 200 and comfortably cruise in the top 1 % of your class, do the problems. Usually your teacher (professor or teaching assistant) will recommend certain ones; try to do all those recommended. If you do half of them, you will be half-prepared at test time. (Do you want your surgeon coming to your appendectomy having practiced only hal/the procedure?) And when you do the problems, keep this Solutions Manual CLOSED. A void looking at my answer before you write your answer-your trying and struggling with the problem is the most valuable part of the problem. Discovery is a major part of learning. Remember that the primary goal of doing these problems is not just getting the right answer, but understanding the material well enough to get right answers to the questions you haven't seen yet. Hint #2: Keep up. Getting behind in your work in a course that moves as quickly as this one is the Kiss of Death. For most students, organic chemistry is the most rigorous intellectual challenge they have faced so far in their studies. Some are taken by surprise at the diligence it requires. Don't think that you can study all of the material the couple of days before the exam -well, you can, but you won't pass. Study organic chemistry like a foreign language: try to do some every day so that the freshlytrained neurons stay sharp. Hint #3: Get help when you need it. Use your teacher's office hours when you have difficulty. Many schools have tutoring centers (in which organic chemistry is a popular offering). Here's a secret: absolutely the best way to cement this material in your brain is to get together with a few of your fellow students and make up problems for each other, then correct and discuss them. When you write the problems, you will gain great insight into what this is all about. Purpose of this Solutions Manual So w hat is the point of this Solutions Manual? First, I can't do your studying for you. Second, since I am not leaning over your shoulder as you write your answers, I can't give you direct feedback on what you write and think-the print medium is limited in its usefulness. What I can do for you is: I) provide correct answers; the publishers, Professor Wade, Professor Kantorowski (my reviewer), and I have gone to great lengths to assure that what I have written is correct, for we all understand how it can shake a student's confidence to discover that the answer book flubbed up; 2) provide a considerable degree of rigor; beyond the fundamental requirement of correctness, I have tried to flesh out these answers, being complete but succinct; 3) provide insight into how to solve a problem and into where the sticky intellectual points are. Insight is the toughest to accomplish, but over the years, I have come to understand where students have trouble, so I have tried to anticipate your questions and to add enough detail so that the concept, as well as the answer, is clear. It is difficult for students to understand or acknowledge that their teachers are human (some are more human than others). Since I am human (despite what my students might report), I can and do make mistakes. If there are mistakes in this book, they are my sole responsibility, and I am sorry. If you find one, PLEASE let me know so that it can be corrected in future printings. Nip it in the bud. What's New in this edition? Better answers! Part of my goal in this edition has been to add more explanatory material to clarify how to arrive at the answer. The possibility of more than one answer to a problem has been noted. The IUPAC Nomenclature appendix has been expanded to include bicyclics, heteroatom replacements, and the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog system of stereochemical designation. Better graphics! The print medium is very limited in its ability to convey three-dimensional structural i�formation, . a problem that has plagued organic chemists for over a century. I have added some graphiCS created 1I1 the software, Chem3D®, to try to show atoms in space where that information is a key part of the solution. In drawing NMR spectra, representational line drawings have replaced rudimentary attempts at drawing peaks from previous editions. Better jokes? Too much to hop