Functional Groups with Memorization Tips

This video breaks down the common functional groups in organic chemistry, from the 'R' group to carbon chains, amines, alkyl halides, alcohols, thiols, ketones, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, esters, amides, phenyl vs phenol and more. Learn what the functional groups look like, how to identify them, and tricks to help you memorize groups for organic chemistry.

Resources mentioned in this video:

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[laurenomalley]

You taught me in 20 minutes what my chemistry teacher couldn't teach in 3 years. You hero.

[duomcvk]

Dear Leah At a rather old age, close to retirement from 45 years as a physics teacher at the faculty of Agriculture in Israel, I decided it's about time to try yet again to learn organic chemistry, especially the nomenclature. I found your videos very helpful. Cheers. German

[daricnd]

You explained well in 21 minutes for what was taught in class for 50 minutes... one word, AMAZING!

[heatherbellehunt]

THANK YOU!! My professor said "yeah you should memorize those for the test" you actually taught it! On my way to your website to practice :)

[christinavernoia]

this is pure genius.. i have to memorize most of the functional groups and this has definitely helped!

[brynnaschauer]

I've been struggling to learn these for 4 months and you just helped me memorize every single one in less than half an hour. You're incredible thank you so much

[lahchaichi]

Just started a course in organic chemistry, my teacher's lecture was 2 hrs and I didn't understand what she was talking about. I watched this for 20 minutes, which covered exactly what my teacher was trying to explain for 2 hrs, and it was super helpful. Going to watch your nomenclature videos up next, I bet they are as helpful as this video was! Thank you so much!!

Greetings from Sweden :)

[Emk]

You may not fully understand how much of help you have been to a lot of us. From the bottom of my heart i say thank you. (:

[RajStarMusic]

You are awesome. I've been struggling with ochem and you seem to just... make it click in my head by explaining everything so clearly and in a way that people will remember and understand. Thank you very very much, Leah!

[TheycallmeShek]

Thank God my teacher told us about you. You have made my life much more simple. I hope to watch all of your videos. Thank you and God bless <3

[AllTheButtons]

This video has been incredibly helpful to better remember and distinguish between the functional groups! Thank you so much. My favorite mneumonic was the one for ether - "on ether side is an R group." It just makes a ton of sense to me.

[jameslafleur]

just wanted to tell you that you are a great teacher that i can actually understand (i can never understand what my chemistry teacher in my university is saying) and i wanted to thank you for all the great videos you do on you-tube. to be honest your probably the only reason why i survived my 1 semester chem. class with a B. YOUR A LIFE SAVER!!!

[doracassel]

hiiii! i'm brazilian & this truly helped me waaaay more than any video in my first language. thank youuu:)

[rtrautman]

Incredibly helpful!!!! Cramming for an anesthesia exam requiring basic knowledge of functional groups and this is a life-saver! I sat through a 3+ hour lecture and took away less from that class than I did this 21 minute video.

[relafen]

Went on the Christmas break just brushing up before I dive back in, a lot of the concepts and placing are all so simple and detailed thank you.

[ethanboyd]

As a medical student somewhat removed from the classroom with residency and internships, this is so well taught it's my first stop.

[migsfiel]

Yes, it did help me a lot. Our finals is tomorrow and I barely passed all our previous exams, but this video made me understand one of the supposed-to-be basic lessons in OrgChem. I liked the ketone which did not like to be alone the most. Hahaha. Thank you!

[Japan]

Thank you so much I know this vdo already have lot of views and comments but Im here to say Im glad to be one of the people that found this vdo! it's a really good resource!

[angelic]

I thought I knew everything about functional groups already, but this video actually helped me learn even more! I learned that an epoxide is a 3-atom ring and it's also an ether. I learned that THF is a cyclic ether. I also learned that a thiol contains a -SH group! Thanks for helping me identify and fill in gaps in my knowledge.

[marswoes]

Clear Explanation! I'm recently running into some chemical nouns. I have to relearn them in English and they're really driving me mad. But thanks to you they won't bother me any more~Very nice of you!