What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9701 Chemistry papers and filtered to an introduction to organic chemistry. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
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What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on an introduction to organic chemistry, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Saying cis-trans isomerism happens whenever there is a C=C bond. Each carbon of the double bond needs two different groups.
- Saying a chiral centre needs four groups. It needs four different groups.
- Numbering a chain from the wrong end. The functional group takes the lowest number.
- Drawing a curly arrow from an atom rather than from the electrons, or from a positive charge instead of towards it.
- Confusing nucleophile and electrophile. A nucleophile donates a pair; an electrophile accepts one.
- Calling a racemic mixture optically active. The two enantiomers cancel exactly.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: An introduction to organic chemistry revision notes.