The diary game week36 ||23-06-2025||How I organized a study section to Tackle CHM422: Organic Synthesis

A very warm greetings to everyone here in this amazing community steemkidss and parents. Am so excited to share with you all how I spent my day in a contest organized by @m-fdo, this contest is always so important because it gives opportunity to all Steemian to accounts on daily basis how he or she make good used of each passing day. Here is how I spent my day 23rd June 2025.

Today was a very fun and successful day for me and some of my school friends/colleagues as we organized a reading section to prepare ourselves against the upcoming final year examination in 6days time.
I left house about 10am in the morning to school, University of Uyo permanent site.
Not minding the continuous shifting of our examination date , we set out our mind and focus to tackle one of the toughest and challenging courses in our final year CHM 422 -Organic Synthesis.

Just hearing the name was enough to make most of us sigh or roll our eyes but not me as Organic Courses are my best Chemistry courses in the University. Though It is complex, detailed, and filled with endless reaction mechanisms, reagents, protecting groups, and synthesis routes that seemed to stretch the limits of our brains. To overcome this for me and my friends, I had to organized a study section that is solely for CHM 422 to break down in simpler way all the reaction mechanism and synthetic route for a clearer understanding for my friends.

Knowing fully well that our exams that has been shifted about 2times will finally be starting on Monday 30th, that is about 6days from today, we there fixed today to tackle first the killer challenging course.

We picked a quiet place in the science block, brought our textbooks, notes, and past questions. The idea was simple: I break the course down topic by topic, explain it to each other, solve past questions, and make the confusing parts clearer. It was very interesting and fun because most I the things I didn't get while reading alone were contributed by my friends and we all learned.

But before then I had prepared myself very well and also prepared a study materials I will used in carrying out the study section.

On the first topic, I started with explaining the meaning of Synthesis, I stated the importance of Organic Synthesis.

The next topic I explained was "Designing and planning of Synthesis" I explained what features will contribute to having a best synthesis such as having the least number of steps, using the cheapest or accessible starting materials and having the best yield of product.
We move to explaining retrosynthesis and functional group transformations. This topic first seems challenging moving from the product to the starting material, but at the end everyone understood how it works.

We then turn our focus to the B part of the course. This part was brainstorming because it dealt with the actual synthesis of some organic compounds.

We began with the reaction of Acetylene, we treated the uses of Organometallic reagents like the Grignard reagent and OrganoLithium and their usefulness in the conversation of Carbonyl function to Alcohol function. We talk about the Simmons Smith reaction, and it uses in conversation of alkene to cyclopropane.

The next topic I took time to explain was the Dickmann and the Claisen condensation reaction, which took us to the Aceto-acetic ester synthesis, where we looked at how to convert from esters to a ketone function. We did some exercises and everyone were able to carry out the synthesis.

Though our brain were becoming heat up but I still introduced some other topics like the used of DEM to synthesize Barbituric acid. And I talk about the Robinson annulation which took us to Michael addition and Claisen condensation.
We finally ended the study section with Ozonolysis reaction.

We went from being confused to confidently drawing reaction pathways and understanding why certain reagents worked better than others.

We tackled past questions together, timed ourselves like in real exam conditions, and corrected each other when mistakes came up. Sometimes we argued over which mechanism was better or why a reaction didn’t go a certain way—but those arguments often led to deeper understanding.

Of course, it wasn’t all serious. We had moments where someone gave a wrong reagent and we’d all burst into laughter, or when someone pronounced a compound name hilariously wrong. But in the middle of all that, we were learning and having fun.

By the end of the day CHM 422 didn’t feel like a monster anymore. It was still hard, yes, but we were no longer afraid of it. We had decoded most of the confusing parts and built the confidence to face whatever questions that will come our way comes Monday.

That reading session didn’t just prepare us for the exam, it bonded us. It reminded us about the importance of having good friends and serious minded friends in school.

CHM 422 is tough, but with this determination I can say we are set to make an A all of us as usual, and that will surely made all the difference.

My friend where making some comments like "If I pass this course (which I believe I will), it won’t just be because I studied hard. It’ll be because I studied smart, with friends who turned fear into focus, confusion into clarity, and pressure into progress. And I was so happy to be that friend and all of us. There is joy in true friendship.

Comes Monday we will synthesize CHM 422.

I used this opportunity to invite my Steemian friends and also colleague @bossj23 @basil20 @nsijoro @arella1 to this contest.