Guides

Each guide explains how a family of names maps onto structures, with worked examples and the mistakes students make most often. Read one, then practise the same topic.

• Reading and drawing skeletal structures

  Lines, corners and implied hydrogens: the drawing conventions every exercise relies on.

• Alkanes and cycloalkanes

  Parent chains, alkyl substituents, locants and alphabetical order.

  6 practice exercises

• Alkenes and alkynes

  Placing C=C and C≡C bonds with -ene and -yne, numbering, dienes and rings.

  6 practice exercises

• Haloalkanes

  Halogen prefixes, numbering with alkyl groups, and primary, secondary and tertiary haloalkanes.

  5 practice exercises

• Alcohols and ethers

  The -ol suffix, diols, the hydroxy prefix and alkoxy names for ethers.

  6 practice exercises

• Aldehydes and ketones

  Where the C=O goes for -al and -one names, ring carbonyls and the oxo prefix.

  6 practice exercises

• Carboxylic acids and derivatives

  Acids, esters, amides and acyl chlorides: C1, two-word ester names and N-substituents.

  6 practice exercises

• Amines and nitriles

  The -amine suffix, N-substituents, amine classes and -nitrile names.

  4 practice exercises

• Benzene derivatives

  Ring numbering, ortho/meta/para and parents such as phenol, aniline and benzoic acid.

  5 practice exercises

• Stereochemistry: E/Z and R/S

  CIP priorities, assigning E/Z and R/S, and drawing wedge and hash bonds.

  6 practice exercises