Mechanism Micues to Avoid: Common Mistakes Students Make When Writing Mechanisms

Throughout this course arrow pushing is used to indicate the flow of electrons in the various organic reaction mechanisms that are discussed. A few simple rules for properly performing arrow pushing were introduced in Section 6.2. In this Appendix we examine some of the most common mistakes that students make when first learning arrow-pushing methods and tell you how to avoid them. The mistakes given below are the ones seen most often by the authors during their cumulative dozens of year of experience in teaching Introductory Organic Chemistry.