[tilly94]

My exam in organic chemistry is coming up and I've always had a lot of trouble with one question in the test (I'm doing the test for the 4Th time because I've failed all previous attempts  ). In this question, we get  two molecules and most of the times a solvent (sometimes it is a solvolysis reaction). The question is always what type of reaction takes place and what the products of the reactions are. The idea of the question is that you have to use our knowledge of the whole course to figure out what kind of reaction it is. In the course we deal with SN1, E1, SN2, E2, electrophilic substitution, electrophilic addition and nucleophilic addition (and some other reactions, but I've never seen them on the test). Now, I have a lot of difficulty with differentiating between all these reactions. Is there someone who can help me with a few tips to identify which type of reaction I'm dealing with? I already know:
- if there's an alkene or alkyne involved it is probably an electrophilic addition
- if there's a benzene ring involved it is probably an electrophilic substitution
- if there's a electron-withdrawing group binded to a double bond, it's probably a nucleophilic addition
- SN2 and E2 usually only happen on a primary carbocation
- SN2 doesn't work well in a protic solvent
- large nucleophiles mean poor nucleophiles
- tertiary carbocations promote SN1 or E1 (because the carbocation is stabilised very much)

I don't know if all these bullitpoints are true though, I hope they are haha. the last thing is that I have difficulties with identifying if something is a strong nucleophile/ base. The halogens are good nucleophiles and weak bases, that's practically all I know. Because we are not allowed any kind of books/sheets during the test I cannot look up how strong a conjugate base of certain acids is...

Thankyou very much!