How to Ace Diels-Alder Questions on Your Exam

Are you consistently losing points on Diels-Alder because of messing up the endo/exo rule? If so, you're making the exact same error as 80% of your class.

Inside the Professor's Mind

Professors don't write Diels-Alder questions to test your basic memorization. They write them to test if you will fall for the classic pitfall: messing up the endo/exo rule.

When you sit down for the exam, write that specific trap at the top of your paper so you don't forget it.

What A Correct Answer Looks Like

In a Diels-Alder reaction forming a bicyclic system, the electron-withdrawing groups prefer the 'endo' position due to secondary orbital overlap.

If your scratch paper doesn't look like that, you are losing points.

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