Octet · Organic chemistry
Organic Chemistry Study Guides
Free, in-depth guides written around the same material in the Octet workspace - how to reason through reactions instead of memorizing them, how to tell mechanisms apart, and how to study for exams that reward understanding.
How to Study Organic Chemistry Reactions Without Memorizing Them
Stop memorizing hundreds of orgo reactions. Learn the mechanistic logic - nucleophiles, electrophiles, electron flow - that lets you predict products.
SN1 vs SN2: A Decision Guide That Actually Works
How to tell SN1 from SN2 every time - substrate, nucleophile, leaving group, and solvent - with a clear decision order and the stereochemistry each gives.
Functional Group Identification: A Practical Field Guide
Recognize the main organic functional groups by structure and reactivity - alcohols, carbonyls, acids, amines, and more - and why they behave as they do.
How to Ace Organic Chemistry Exams: A Study System That Works
A study system for orgo exams: understand mechanisms, use retrieval and spaced practice, work synthesis problems backward, and manage exam time.
Understanding Reaction Mechanisms: Arrow Pushing Made Clear
Master curved-arrow notation - the language of mechanisms. What arrows mean, the rules for drawing them, and how to build any mechanism from a few moves.
E1 vs E2: A Clear Guide to Elimination Reactions
Tell E1 from E2 with confidence - mechanism, rate, base strength, regiochemistry, stereochemistry - plus how elimination competes with substitution.
NMR Reading Basics: How to Interpret a Proton Spectrum
A beginner's guide to reading H NMR spectra - chemical shift, integration, and splitting - and how to turn those three clues into a structure.
IR Spectroscopy Basics: Finding Functional Groups Fast
How to read an infrared spectrum to identify functional groups - the key absorption ranges for O-H, N-H, and C=O, and how to use the diagnostic region.
Markovnikov vs Anti-Markovnikov Addition, Explained by Intermediate Stability
How to predict which carbon gets the H and which gets the X or OH in alkene additions - and why peroxides and hydroboration flip the outcome.
Oxidation and Reduction Reagents: A Cheat Sheet That Explains the Why
Which oxidant stops at the aldehyde, which reducing agent touches an ester, and how to read any redox reagent from what it does to C-H and C-O bonds.
How to Do Retrosynthesis: Working Backward From the Target
A practical method for retrosynthetic analysis: disconnections, synthons, and reading reactions in reverse to make multi-step synthesis systematic.
Resonance and Electron Delocalization: Drawing It Right and Knowing Why It Matters
How to draw valid resonance structures, rank which ones matter, and use delocalization to explain acidity, stability, and reactivity in orgo.
How to Name Organic Compounds: IUPAC Nomenclature Step by Step
A repeatable IUPAC naming procedure: find the principal group, choose and number the parent chain, order the substituents, then assemble the name.
Acids and Bases in Organic Chemistry: pKa, Stability, and Predicting Proton Transfers
How to read pKa, rank conjugate base stability with charge, atom, resonance, induction and orbital, and predict which way a proton transfer goes.
Stereochemistry: Chirality, R and S, and Telling Isomers Apart
Assign R and S with the CIP rules, handle the tricky orientations, and tell enantiomers, diastereomers and meso compounds apart with confidence.
Reading Line-Angle Structures: Seeing the Molecule Behind the Zigzag
How to read skeletal structures fluently: where the carbons hide, how to count implicit hydrogens, and how to convert a zigzag into a molecular formula.
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