CHEM 2421

The concepts behind the experiments aren't hard. It's predicting how it's going to be graded that makes everything hard.
Take a Wednesday or Thursday lab to give you the most time to go to office hours, and recitation (which is usually on Sunday) and get advice from the TAs on how to write that week's lab report. If you're going to have a Monday or Tuesday lab you'd better have the a LOT of discipline to pull yourself to office hours throughout the week. But also if your lab is too early during the week, the TAs won't have the rubric yet and will still be helping others on the previous week's lab. I was actually crying every week when preparing to submit my lab report and postlab because I usually started writing on the weekend the day before recitation and two days before my lab, which is a horrible timeline to be writing weekly reports on but that's what my schedule made me have time for. Would've appreciated a Wednesday/Thursday lab so much.
I think the final for this course is way harder than the orgo lab I final, and way harder than the previous year's final that Chruma gives you as practice. For this final, I went through and compiled Chruma's slides (which usually contain all the mechanisms you need to know), the experimental procedures, D&A and postlab problems, and the TA's final review slides into a big review doc. That at least prepared me a little.
Put a lot of effort into your lab reports (50% of your grade) so that you can slack on the final (15% of your grade). Most people I knew, if they did well on the lab reports (as in only lost 1-2 points each report, which shouldn't be hard if you go to office hours and know how your TA grades), only needed around a 60-70% on the final to get an A. I really needed that wiggle room because that final was hard for me. I got around a 74% on the final, which was good enough but a big step down from the 87% I got on the final from orgo lab I. Definitely try hard(er) throughout the semester (than you did for semester 1) so you don't have to worry about the final.
As for Chruma, he's good. His slides get more detailed this semester (more mechanisms, flow charts, schematics). And he still records his lectures, except for the final reviews.

Not a horrible course but not super easy either. I had the 9am Monday lab and my TA didn't know what to do for experiments. Expect to do a lot of distillations which will take you forever if you actually follow the procedure, so I always turn up my hot plate when the TA isn't looking...