Dear all,
I'm british, studying for the MCAT, just got a bit confused by the chemical Ethylene. In the UK we say Ethene and according to IUPAC nomenclature, Ethylene is out of fashion since 1993.
Does the MCAT use old fashioned terms and is there a glossary of terms I can look at to avoid getting questions wrong simply because I have forever learnt the updated phrases?
Thanks
Danielle
Hi Danielle, ethylene is considered the common name and not the "proper" name in the US too, but since the name is so common the students are expected to know it. You should not use it yourself if you have a chance to select the input - except if you are asked to match common names with IUPAC names.
I checked that the name ethylene was is use in an MCAT prep book still sold, but 2y old. When I googled the names, ethylene had about 28,200,000 hits and ethene 29,100,000 so there's every reason to consider it common enough for MCAT.
It's hard to come up with the full list, as in reality the full list exists only in the head of those composing the exam. The people writing exams are often not young, and they are unlikely to stop calling ethene ethylene. So in practice "common" could mean what has been common in the last 30 years or so.
The carbohydrate common names have a video to themselves, so those common names are definitely expected knowledge. KAPLAN's guide says carboxylic acid common names show up fairly often on the tests. Presumably you've bought a MCAT chemistry study book, and most likely you won't encounter common names that aren't listed there.
I'm sorry I can't give you a better answer. This is a difficult issue, and from a teaching perspective it's hardly any easier.
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