Disclaimer: This diatribe has nothing to do with baseball!
Yeah, it is disheartening to teach a class that challenges student goals. Here are some of my observations/recommendations from over the years.
First, why is organic so troublesome: A. most college classes (for example, gen chem) take a subject students have learned previously and build on it with more detail/depth. However, organic really comes out of left field (appropriate forum/thread for that slang!) and thus students don't have much preparation for it coming in. B. Based on the students who enroll, it tends to be highly competitive, since it is usually the first course in which everyone in there is pre-health or in some kind of science major.
Here are my suggestions:
1. (Doesn't sound like this is a problem for your daughter), but you absolutely cannot use the strategy where you wait until a few days before the exam to study. The problem is that every single lecture I'm building upon what we learned in the last class. So, if they wait to study, students won't understand what I'm talking about as we build up.
2. I strongly recommend against trying to memorize organic (some faculty even teach it that way, which I despise!) Many students (tends to especially be pre-health) will ignore this advice because they have succeeded in other courses this way and it has become the natural approach to learn. The problem with organic is that I can dream up hundreds of different problems/reactions that are all testing the same concept. Memorizing all of the permutations would be extremely challenging, and by doing so students will miss the underlying concept. It is really about pattern recognition and understanding why molecules behave in a certain way that, over time, becomes predictable. When you get to medical school, there's a lot of info that can only realistically be learned by memorization, but for organic that is a no-no (IMHO).
3. The best way to learn organic as I see it is to work through as many problems as possible, and if you aren't getting the right answers, go meet with the instructor. Beyond the homework for the class, there are additional examples to work through all over the internet. There are a lot of problem solving strategies that we don't have time to cover in class because there's so much core material, but we can work through those in office hours. Students think they won't get time with the instructor since the classes are large, but the reality is very few students actually come to my office hours.
Finally, there is no shame in struggling in organic. I know of award-winning researchers at the top of the field who will (only occasionally) admit that they got a C in Organic I. I myself struggled with it at first, which helps me in teaching since I understand the challenges. On the other hand, for some students it just clicks. It can be dangerous when such a person teaches it because they won't understand why it causes many others trouble. Finally, due to the reputation of the course, it can be overlooked by admissions to medical programs. I know of students who received Cs and even Ds in organic and still got into medical programs, although that could have certainly changed and is risky and not ideal. Anyways, I hope there may be something in here that is helpful and I wish your daughter all the best!
