Organic Chemistry: My personal favourite

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Organic chemistry, as almost every JEE Ranker says, is the most important, logical and also interesting part of the JEE Chemistry syllabus. I still remember, my first night-out study (10:00 pm-5:00 am) was completely dedicated to Organic Chemistry. I seriously, couldn't keep track of time and studied the whole night.

This post is to help you guys formulate your strategy for Organic Chemistry so that you can enjoy it while mastering the subject. Let's go:


1. Resources

As we all know hundreds of Organic Chemistry for JEE books are available in the market, Indian Authors, Foreign Authors, Problem Solving banks, etc. It is important to carefully select the best as given the vast syllabus of JEE we don't want to waste our time in irrelevant or not up to the mark books. I ended up wasting time on many books authors of some of which were - 


  • Himanshu Pandey
  • Morrison & Boyd
  • O P Tandon
  • Solomons & Fryhle (International Version)
  • Solomons & Fryhle (MS Chauhan version)
  • I L Finar
  • M S Chauhan Advanced Problems in Organic Chemistry
  • M S Chauhan Elementary Problems in Organic Chemistry 
  • L G Wade

Believe me! I literally tried to go through all these books before I realized what needed to be done. Let me help you cut the chaos and get straight to what I think is the best book(s) for JEE Organic Chemistry. I recommend what I personally chose, Solomons & Fryhle (MS Chauhan Version) along with Elementary Problems in Organic Chemistry by M S Chauhan. Never forget NCERT, it will always remain the God Book for every subject.


Why I chose these books? These books appealed to me for many reasons:


  1. Organic Chemistry is an approach based subject. Different teachers have different terminologies of teaching the subject and problem solving can be a bit confusing if we choose the approach of one teacher and problems by another. So, I chose the question bank and theory book from the same author. The point I am saying does not mean you will not be able to solve other book's question; understand it with a scenario - One reaction is taught in the Alcohols Chapter of one book while in some other book it may have been taught in Aldehydes and Ketones. So, Problems by the same author gives you a better view of your preparation.
  2. The presentation in the theory book (Adapted Solomons & Fryhle) is very efficient. The theory is very casually presented - very easy to read and understand. Separate boxes for mechanisms were given which were very well explained as compared to others.
  3. Usually, we find that foreign authors have a more logical approach towards Organic Chemistry while Indian Authors focus more on teaching complex reactions but they are more confined to JEE Syllabus. Thus, this mix where a foreign author approach has been taken to teach the syllabus of JEE made me enjoy Organic Chemistry.
  4. Last but not the least, Advanced problems in Organic Chemistry by the same author had questions which I thought were not relevant to the JEE level of Organic Chemistry. The Elementary Problems book had questions from the theory book and were of JEE Level which gave me a clearer idea of my standing.

I did not go for Himanshu Pandey book as many teachers and online reviewers suggest that the book contains many wrong questions and the solutions are not completely correct. Apart from my choice, my second recommendation would be Morrison & Boyd. This is a very simply written book for beginners. I seriously don't recommend I L Finar Books (any of the two volumes) as it is far beyond JEE Level and it demands a moderate pre-requisite knowledge of Organic Chemistry.


2. Approach

A systematic approach towards Organic Chemistry is the key factor that decides if you’ll enjoy acing the subject or find it difficult completing it for sake of syllabus. I divide the syllabus into the following segments –

  • Nomenclature
  • General Organic Chemistry
  • Isomerism
  • Qualitative Analysis
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Functional Groups in Organic Chemistry (Alcohols, Ketones, Aldehydes etc.)

I suggest you go through the syllabus in the mentioned order.

For Nomenclature, start with NCERT, followed by NCERT Exemplar and then move on the theory and exercises given in your reference books (MS Chauhan in my case). Finally attempt the previous year questions to make sure you haven’t missed out any important IUPAC guidelines for naming Organic Compounds. This topic is really fun.

For General Organic Chemistry, this is the part that will form the basis of the further syllabus of Organic chemistry. You really need to understand how Induction effects, resonance, para bonding, etc. affect the stability and reaction affinities of compounds. Start with the basic NCERT (it will also cover the Qualitative Analysis Part) and your coaching notes. Since I took no coaching, I found some really helpful videos on YouTube. I’ll find and share the link in the comments soon. You can yourself find them just search “GOC+etoos” on YouTube and you’ll find some really insightful videos by RRD sir, DT sir and NJ sir. They were really well explained videos of GOC. I suggest you watch them and make/add to your notes accordingly after going through NCERT. Followed by those videos go through your theory reference book and further refine and learn the concepts. Then solve exercise problems so you learn how to apply these concepts and get a view of how questions are framed. Finally, go through previous year questions to check if you can understand the ideology of solving JEE level questions.

The next topic, Isomerism can be confusing for many students. I recommend first go through the NCERT and your coaching material followed by some questions on the same. After this move on to the reference book (Stereo isomerism is very nicely explained in Solomons and Fryhle – MS Chauhan adaptation). Moving on, solve questions from the problem book. Finally, I again recommend to watch the “etoos stereo isomerism” videos on YouTube to full-proof your preparation.

If you’ve followed the given approach, by now, you’ll develop a curiosity for Organic Chemistry. The next part is where you put all the concepts you’ve learned so far in understanding actual reactions in Organic Chemistry (Hydrocarbons and Functional Groups). For this I recommend the following plan – First, go through the NCERT to get an idea of how mechanisms are explained and different important Name reactions in Organic Chemistry. Then, directly move on to previous year JEE problems and realize the importance of different reactions. Finally, with a broad idea in mind of what is relevant to the syllabus and what is not, move on to reference book alongside your coaching material and thoroughly understand what each reaction is all about and how mechanisms are presented. Further solve ample amount of questions (don’t try to leave the basic ones) so that the concept gets embedded into your mind and you can easily recognize which reaction is being demonstrated in the question. I strongly suggest to make notes in this segment of Organic Chemistry.

This may seem a lot of effort to put in the subject but believe me, Organic is one the most important and deciding part of JEE. A lot can change if you perform your best. Also, if you feel a better strategy can be opted or some modifications need to be made in the given approach, please mention it in the comments, I’ll personally review it and suggest if there is a scope for improvement.

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