Before I learned any ochem, I learned it was possible to answer various reactions based on buzzwords. Now that I have taken a whole year of ochem (I went through ALL of Loudon), most of the tricks still stand. The arrow notation is thus:

A <-> B
C -> D

If you hear A, answer B. If you hear B, answer A. If you hear C, answer D. If you hear D, do NOT automatically answer C.

Author's comments: A carbonyl implies a ketone or aldehyde, but not always. There are other similar cases (too tired to think of them now). Keep that in mind and don't always try for verbatim. Here I use the terms that were used in lecture and the book (and are the terms that make the most sense when studying the chemistry), but some writer could claim that you combine two carbonyl-bearing compounds in an Aldol reaction.

Disclaimer: I will not be blamed for your negs. Also, use common sense. If they don't want a reaction and you hear "phosphorous", for Heaven's sake, don't answer "Wittig".



Catch Word(s) <-> Partial [Full Name]

Magnesium <-> Grignard [Reagent]
Phosphorous OR phosphonium OR ylid -> Wittig [Reaction]
Diene <-> Diels-Alder [Reaction]
Aromatic OR Aryl -> Friedel-Crafts [Acylation if "carbonyl", Alkylation if not]
Carbene OR cyclopropane <-> Simmons-Smith [Reaction]
Ether <-> Williamson [Ether Synthesis]
Ester -> Fischer [Esterification]*
Indole -> Fischer [Indole Synthesis]*
Aldehyde OR ketone (especially with "beta") -> Aldol [Condensation]**
Ester AND (beta OR condensation OR Aldol) -> Claisen [Condensation]
Claisen AND intramolecular -> Dieckmann [Condensation]
Carbonyl AND (Acid OR Zinc) -> Clemmenson [Reduction]
Carbonyl AND (Base) -> Wolff-Kishner [Reduction]
Carbonyl AND Nickel -> Raney-Nickle [Reduction]***
Amine (especially with "pthalimide" and/or "primary") -> Gabriel [Primary Amine Synthesis]
Quaternary Salt -> Hoffman [Elimination]
Rearrangement AND Azide -> Curtius [Rearrangement]
Rearrangement AND Amine AND (bromine OR base) -> Hoffman [Rearrangement]
Sigmatropic AND oxygen -> Claisen [Rearrangement]
Sigmatropic AND NOT oxygen -> Cope [Rearrangement]
Aldose (especially with "cyanide") -> Kiliani-Fischer [Synthesis]


Notes:
*Two entirely different reactions. Fischer did way too much.
**Aldol is not a person's name, it's the name of the product. That may help, since most ochem rxn's are named after some guy in the lab.
***Rare.