r/chemhelp • • Aug 31 '26

Discussion Start of term check-in

10 Upvotes

Hello all!

School terms are beginning and this is typically when we see an influx of posts asking for general advice, guidance on getting through a class, or seeking assurance that everything will be okay. Let us know what courses you are in this term, your biggest concerns, or whatever may be on your mind!

Best of luck!


r/chemhelp • • Aug 21 '25

Announcements New Ownership

21 Upvotes

Hello fellow Chemists! I just wanted to introduce myself as the new head mod of this subreddit. A little about myself: I am a PhD Candidate in Chemical Biology. For me, this means that 60% of my work involves organic synthesis and the other 40% is applying my novel compounds to mammalian cells. Specifically, I am interested in early detection of diseases. In addition to my research, I have TA'd for both general and organic chemistry labs and have been tutoring students in organic chemistry for three years. Aside from my academic qualifications, I am also a moderator for another rather large subreddit. I saw that this sub needed a little bit of updating, but it did not seem like the moderators were active any longer. So, I gained ownership through r/redditrequest. I did not realize it would remove all the other moderators, but alas here we are.

Overall, I feel like this sub is fairly self-regulating. I frequently see good discussions and people generally are following the already existing rules. With that said, there are some changes I was considering, and would love input:

  1. New rule prohibiting commenters from solving the problem for the OP. To enforce this, the violating comment can be reported and removed by moderators. I don't see this happen often, but I have seen it occur and put an end to an otherwise good discussion thread.
  2. Mandate students include their work in their submission. Frequently, students post a picture of the question, with no work done and the caption "help please." Then in the comments you end up with people asking the OP to show their work, but from what I have seen they seldom do so. Mandating that students show work would entail removal of low effort posts by moderators. This may not be necessary since generally, commenters request more info from OP anyways, but was curious if people would like to see more enforcement on this end.
  3. What do you want to see? Those are the immediate things I was considering adding, but I would love to know if there is anything else people may want to see. I had other ideas, but I don't want to complicate a sub that I feel is already doing pretty well. Please let me know your ideas, I would love to hear them. Talk to you all soon!

Note: Please do not reach out to me about becoming a moderator. I will looking into recruiting in the near future. For now, I just wanted to get oriented.


r/chemhelp • • 48m ago

Organic How do you know when to draw the halogen on a wedge or dash

Thumbnail
gallery
• Upvotes

I’m currently learning about Sn2 mechanism, how do you determine when you should draw your halogen on a wedge or dash when drawing the reactants?

I initially thought it was (R) = place halogen on a wedge, (S) = place halogen on a dash, but it turns out that’s not accurate lol.

I tried looking up YouTube videos, but none of them have problems where they only give you the name of a alkyl halide and leave you to draw the reactants yourself, the videos always start with the reactants already drawn


r/chemhelp • • 5h ago

General/High School organic chemistry help

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

guys i’m so confused how does 2-pentyl butanoate make sense. I have no idea how to draw it bc i thought we didn’t have to number esters. I would appreciate any help, i’m in a grade 12U class


r/chemhelp • • 2h ago

Organic can someone grade my ochem exam

0 Upvotes

basically my prof is offering extra credit for rechecking your work before she releases the rubric and i want to make sure i know whats wrong and whats right. much appreciated


r/chemhelp • • 6h ago

Organic Could someone help me out on this? Does the statement of high regioselectivity imply to only consider the major product? Currently learning stereochemistry. Does the answer I put work?

Post image
2 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 4h ago

General/High School I don't understand my honors chemistry work

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 4h ago

Other Struggling with Chemistry

1 Upvotes

The chemistry teachers in my area aren't good and the chemistry department in my area is notorious for being bad. I am currently struggling with chemistry. On top of this I believe my professor is borderline schizophrenic. Sometimes he doesn't really even teach for half the class and is just crashing out about his personal life. It seems he has lost his touch for teaching imo. I try to be nice to him but it is never reciprocated back. I am trying to understand his teaching style but it seems disorganized. Class lecture is just always unorganized and I can't seem to understand what is going on. I get a gist of it but I struggle mainly with math part/unit conversion/dimensional analysis. He gets off on the fact not passing people. And I have tried to ask him questions during tutoring but no one actually goes. Every time I go he looks annoyed that I asked a question and or looks at me like I'm stupid. I've being watching organic chemistry tutor I get a gist of what they are talking about but in reality I still struggle with the topics on the test and on top of this the worksheets he gives out are really simple concepts but it does not translate and is not specific of what he wants....but when I get to the test it is very specific which makes it hard to understand because he says do the "worksheets and review" and you should be fine...yet the tests look nothing like the review or worksheets...so how do I know what he wants when I can't understand what he wants...and then he gets annoyed when I don't understand what he wants...it's been really frustrating. On top of this he says stuff like sometimes people aren't meant for certain things


r/chemhelp • • 18h ago

Organic How does a base catalyze the formation of barbituric acid

Post image
7 Upvotes

I don't see how the ethoxide catalyzes this reaction. The only thing that comes to mind is if it deprotonates the amino groups but it can't do that due to the difference in Pk


r/chemhelp • • 7h ago

Other deionised water makes allergy worse pls help?

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes

Hi :)

I had something odd happen and I was wondering if anyone has an explanation I used this product fine for a long time on my hair (my hair touches my face) anyway I decided as I couldn’t use tap water long story I had some deionised water and used that to put it on my hair and then was gonna walk 30 mins to the gym in that time I got severe contact dermatitis from it and the product still wouldn’t wash out properly and irritating me? Does anyone know if I’m allergic to the product and this just made it work better as no hard water or whether I accidentally changed the formulation? Even somehow my eyelids blistered eyelashes fell out whole face burning this happened pretty instantly before one time when I combined a product with deionised so idk and the deionised is fine on its own


r/chemhelp • • 14h ago

General/High School Confusing regarding molecular polarity

Post image
2 Upvotes

I understand how u can draw out and cancel vectors to determine polarity but I’m so confused on how dro do this when there are multiple central atoms? Ik u look at them differently and be like ok this part is polar but idk what else since if one part is polar cant the whole molecule still be polar?


r/chemhelp • • 10h ago

Biochemisty Dixon and LWB Plot Confusion

1 Upvotes

In lab, we are determining the type of inhibition D-Phe and L-Phe will have on Alkaline Phosphatase. Now, I believe the enzyme is an L-stereoisomer so D-Phe will show no inhibition. Still, I'm confused as to why my Dixon plot looks like this. I feel like I messed up the fixed time assay. Please, let me know how these look to you. (they are NOT finished; I made them 5 mins ago).


r/chemhelp • • 11h ago

Organic Doubt chem

Post image
0 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 12h ago

General/High School how do we know the amount of electrons in a shell?

1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 16h ago

General/High School Trying to figure out the lewis structure for Disulfur dioxide

Post image
2 Upvotes

I know that both s's have to be bonded together and that the formal chargers have to be minimized, but I have tried various different ways but I still keep getting it wrong. Any solutions for the issue?


r/chemhelp • • 13h ago

General/High School i was doings pps and cant help but struggle on stochio topicals

Post image
0 Upvotes

can someine ezplain statemnt 2 as if im an amateur


r/chemhelp • • 20h ago

Organic Organic chemistry effects

1 Upvotes

Hello! Could someone halp me? Are these right lewis structure, mesomeric and inductive effect, resonance structure?


r/chemhelp • • 20h ago

General/High School Is this molecule considered non-polar although it is assymetrical because the electronegativity diffrence is insignificant? and if yes, would a double or triple bond in one of the carbon enough to change it to be polar?

1 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 21h ago

General/High School [chemistry CONCEPTUAL resources for Y12 A* student?

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic Which is the more stable chair?

Post image
4 Upvotes

I understand that during a flip axial becomes equatorial. How do I know which one is a flip? Are these not both equatorial and therefore both equally stable?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic How many chiral centers are here?

Post image
3 Upvotes

Some people said 2, some said 4.


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Career/Advice Has anyone used The Organic Chemistry Teachers practice problem? Is the price worth it?

0 Upvotes

I was looking at it today. He has a patreon where you can subscribe for practice problems, practice exams, a bunch of helpful stuff.

The problem is how incredibly expensive it is. Because of how much stuff that it comes with (as he does calculus, physics, trig, stats, you get my point.

I am a poor college student. I struggle really heavily with math and science because of a lack of any good math and science classes in high school. I'm planning to take college algebra next semester instead of jumping right into chem 2.

Anyways, I have found his videos so helpful. I feel like I actually get the concepts. The problem is the math. I get the math when he explains it, and then I do my homework with the stuff I remember. But I forget it easy. I figured if I have practice sets and stuff that I can work on over a few days, I'll retain it better.

Is the 50 dollars a month worth it for all the practice problems? If anyone here has used them, please tell me! (I could also try to convince my mom to pay part of it cause she's amazing and cares for my wellbeing and knows I'm struggling)


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic I need help regarding reaction mechanisms

Post image
0 Upvotes

I got started on this one, and I just kind of quit because I didn't know what to do next. We've done reaction mechanisms before, but I think this one is combining more than one and it's just so overwhelming to deal with? Any tips?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

Organic Newman projection help

Post image
1 Upvotes

Can someone explain to me what carbon bonds we are looking down on this picture?


r/chemhelp • • 1d ago

General/High School Deltamath but for chemistry?

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes