How do you solve questions on mechanisms in organic chemistry?

How do you solve questions on mechanisms in organic chemistry?

1. First learn basics like resonance , inductive effect , hyperconjugation , electronegativity etc .
   
2. When reading a reaction first time try to read its mechanism and understand it like when you are studying Ozonolysis first learn about its mechanism and how it proceeds . Then you can learn shortcuts for solving the questions fastly like in the Ozonolysis case we can simply cut the carbon - carbon double bonds and paste oxygen on them respectively which saves our time from writing a really long mechanism .
3. Learn and understand the basic rules very clearly like Morkonikov Rule , Saytzeff Rule because if you don't know these terms then you can do nothing in reaction mechanism .
4. You can make your organic more strong by this trick : Draw one compound and decide to make any other . Keep doing reactions until you get on your final compound . This tests your knowledge about different reactions which you know and you get to learn a lot while doing reactions on compounds other than given in books .
5. In the end try to solve more and more questions because in organic chemistry there are lot of exceptions , when you think your answer is correct in many cases it won't . 
   

Preface: I will tell you a unique method that uses the subconscious mind to learn:

• reactions of inorganic chemistry,
• the trends in properties across a period or a group or
• like remembering ores of metallurgy.

This is the method I used during my preparation of JEE.

• Firstly, what everyone does before the revision phase is mugging up all of the reactions of inorganic chemistry and the trends which are followed in the periodic table of that particular group. This is to be done necessarily.
• Secondly, when you are completely familiar with all topics (all groups of the periodic table), you can recognize some patterns in the reactions or trends.

For example,

There’s a pattern in the reaction of certain d-block elements with dil. and conc. Nitric acid:
Mainly we divide into two groups: a) Fe, Zn, Snand b) Cu, Hg, Ag

Here, when ‘group a)’ elements react with dil. HNO3, N2O is released with the formation of nitrate of that element and water.
On the other hand, when group b) elements react with dil. HNO3, NO is released with its nitrate and water.

And, when both ‘group a)’ and ‘group b)’ elements react with conc. HNO3, NO2 is released.

This kind of grouping decreases the efforts to learn. And we, humans, are fond of recognising patterns. So, the second step is interesting to do.

• Now comes the step which uses the subconscious mind to remember the reactions and trends.
  All you have to do is gather all of the reactions and trends from crucial books like NCERT, take your mobile (which is mostly a Nokia handset, when you prepare for competitive exams) and open Voice Recorder.

Then start dictating the chemical reactions which you want to stay on your fingertips till the exam is over.

You can dictate the colour of precipitates, trends like electronegativity down the group, flame test colours, name of ores, etc.

Create separate recording for each group (13, 14, …), s-block, d-block, metallurgy and qualitative analysis.

Once the recordings are ready, grab headphones and then you can listen to those recordings whenever you are travelling (to coaching or to home).

For me, listening to these recordings before sleeping worked the best. This way it helped me in two ways: to remember the reactions and to make me sleepy.

In this way, you have kept the reactions in visual memory (when you memorized in the first step) as well as in echoic memory (where auditory information is stored).

For example, you can make one for Metallurgy which includes the name of ores with their chemical formula, definitions of different procedures and chemical reactions for extraction of metals like Fe, Cu, etc.

At first, it might feel a bit cringy to listen to your own voice through headphones (everyone does), but slowly you would become habitual of it.