How to Ace SN1 Reactions Questions on Your Exam

Let's be brutally honest: SN1 Reactions is usually taught terribly in textbooks. You don't need to be a genius to master this; you just need to understand one specific mental model.

Inside the Professor's Mind

Professors don't write SN1 Reactions questions to test your basic memorization. They write them to test if you will fall for the classic pitfall: forgetting carbocation rearrangement shifts.

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

If you form a secondary carbocation next to a tertiary carbon, a hydride or methyl shift WILL occur to create a more stable carbocation before the nucleophile attacks.

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

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