Organic Chemistry

During the past few months I have been taking my first technical course since my engineering degree almost 20 years ago. The course was Organic Chemistry at NVCC for three hours every Saturday morning. I genuinely enjoyed the practical application, and mental disipline in taking the class.


A few notes from the semester:

• The average class age was about 20 years old (excluding me).
  
• After the first exam 1/3 of the class dropped.
• I had to take two exams after coming off West coast Friday night "red eye" flights that arrived in Virginia on a Saturday morning.
• I was encouraged by my wife who tried to keep up with the class. She did a pretty good job of learning the general principles in spite of the many demands in a household with 6 kids.

The funniest episode relating to Organic Chemistry concerned my 10 year old Conall. Conall loves technical subjects. He asked Danielle to teach him Organic Chemistry. So he has been learning Lewis Structures and Organic naming conventions, etc. While we were in Jamaica, there was a talent show for the kids. Conall decides to do a comedy routine based on Organic Chemistry. He assumed that all grown-ups are like his parents who talk about Organic Chemistry. He launched into his comedy routine with, "Everyone know about Alkanes and Alkenes, ..." Everyone around was totally perplexed except for Danielle and I who were laughing.

I would like to thank God for His mercy in helping me succesfully complete the class and learning so much.

You can check out our course practice exams and material at my teacher's website.