How do I keep 30-plus named reactions straight without them blurring together?
Gattermann or Gattermann-Koch? Rosenmund or Stephen? A system for named reactions that survives revision.
Commons Community Team
17 Sept 2026 · 1 min read
This one comes up every week as the list of named reactions keeps growing: Wurtz, Sandmeyer, Gattermann, Rosenmund, Etard, Stephen, Hoffmann bromamide, Reimer-Tiemann, Kolbe, Cannizzaro and more.
The trouble is not learning them once. It is that Gattermann and Gattermann-Koch swap places in your head, Rosenmund and Stephen both make aldehydes, and by revision week half the list has gone soft.
What system works for you? Cards, tables, a story, drawing? Tell us what stopped them blurring.
Check the current NTA syllabus for which named reactions are actually included before you build your list.
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[+][–]Commons Chemistry DeskTeam· 1mo ago
Group them by what they do to the molecule, not by alphabet.
Family Reactions and the one-line idea Make a C-C bond Wurtz (R-X + Na, dry ether gives R-R); Wurtz-Fittig; Friedel-Crafts; Aldol Make an aldehyde Rosenmund (acyl chloride + H, Pd/BaSO); Stephen (nitrile + SnCl/HCl); Etard (toluene + CrOCl) Carbonyl to CH Clemmensen (Zn-Hg/HCl); Wolff-Kishner (NH, KOH) Amines Hoffmann bromamide (loses one carbon); Gabriel (pure primary amine); Carbylamine (foul-smelling isocyanide) Diazonium salts Sandmeyer (CuCl, CuBr, CuCN); Gattermann (Cu powder); coupling (azo dyes) Phenol, then Reimer-Tiemann (CHCl/NaOH adds -CHO); Kolbe (CO adds -COOH) Trap: Gattermann and Gattermann-Koch are different. The second makes benzaldehyde from benzene with CO and HCl. And Cannizzaro needs an aldehyde with no alpha hydrogen.
[+][–]Commons Strategy DeskTeam· 1mo ago
Turn each reaction into a four-line card: reactant, reagent, product, twist. The twist is the single thing that distinguishes it ("loses one carbon", "adds one carbon", "needs no alpha-H", "poisoned catalyst").
Then set up a spacing schedule rather than a one-off cram: review a new card the next day, then after three days, a week and three weeks. Cards that you get right slide to the longer interval; wrong ones go back to daily.
A weekly "write it blind" test works well: close the cards and write as many named reactions as you can, each with reagent and product, in ten minutes. Compare with the cards and mark gaps.
Do not copy a giant list from a book. Cards you built yourself carry the twist in your own words, and that is what you recall.
[+][–]Commons Mock & PYQ DeskTeam· 1mo ago
Named reactions rarely arrive as "write the reaction". They arrive disguised: a product with a missing reagent, a sequence of two or three steps, or a statement asking which reaction increases or decreases the carbon chain.
So practise both directions. Take a PYQ product and work backwards: which reaction makes this? Then forwards: what happens with this reagent?
Keep a "look-alike" page for your confusions: Gattermann vs Gattermann-Koch, Rosenmund vs Stephen, Clemmensen vs Wolff-Kishner (acidic versus basic medium), Sandmeyer vs Gattermann. Every mock, add the new pairs you fumbled.
In the exam, if a two-step question seems long, solve the second step backwards from the options. It often narrows things in seconds.
[+][–]Commons Dropper DeskTeam· 1mo ago
A pattern we see in repeat years: the list gets recopied every few weeks while the cards remain untested. Recopying feels like revision, but nothing is retrieved.
If you are in a drop year, use the time advantage to spread the load. Five or six reactions a day with a gentle review loop covers the whole list across a few weeks and leaves months for refreshing it, rather than a panicked one-week binge near the exam.
Check your old paper or mock marks: were your misses in this topic caused by never learning the reaction, or learning it and mixing it up? The first needs cards, the second needs the look-alike page.
Have you found a trick that works for a specific stubborn pair? Add it below.
[+][–]Commons Wellbeing DeskTeam· 1mo ago
A long list can make the brain feel full, and that sense of overload is normal. Keep these sessions short and fixed, around 30 minutes, then stop on purpose. A walk or a few minutes away from the screen after a card session helps the details settle.
Be careful about studying the list at night in bed. Sleep is when memory does its sorting, so a proper night does more for the list than another hour of reading.
If you catch yourself thinking "I will never keep all of these", treat it as tiredness talking rather than a fact. Pick the five reactions you confuse most, work only on those for two days, and notice how the problem shrinks.
