Question Practice & Grader

What it does

The Grader is the flagship Atomly tool. Pick a topic and difficulty, get a university-level exam question, write your answer, and Clara marks it the way a tutor would — point-by-point against an explicit mark scheme, with notes on what you nailed and what you missed.

Highlights

• ✓Year 1, Year 2, and MSc-level question difficulty
• ✓19 topics across organic, inorganic, physical, analytical, and biochemistry — from substitution and stereochemistry through to NMR, coordination chemistry, and pericyclic reactions
• ✓Marks are awarded per criterion — with reasoning
• ✓Tells you the structural feature an examiner would actually credit

What you get back

• →The exam question, marks total, topic, difficulty
• →Your score per individual mark scheme criterion
• →A written critique explaining where you lost marks and why
• →Specific suggestions for how to tighten your reasoning

What it looks like

A real example of what Clara returns. (Rendered from the same data the live tool produces.)

atomly · Question Practice & Grader

Nucleophilic Substitution (SN1/SN2)6 marks · Year 2

Predict the major product of the reaction between (S)-2-bromobutane and sodium iodide in dry acetone. State the mechanism by name, the stereochemistry of the product (with absolute configuration), and explain why this is the dominant pathway under these conditions, referring to the nucleophile, the leaving group, and the solvent. [6 marks]

Result

4 / 6

Strong answer — you've identified the mechanism, nucleophile, solvent, and stereochemical outcome correctly. Two areas to tighten: (1) be careful when assigning CIP descriptors after substitution; (2) when describing SN2, explicitly state 'concerted' or 'one-step', because that's the structural feature that distinguishes it from SN1.

Mark scheme breakdown

Identifies mechanism as SN2

1/1

Correctly identified.

Identifies iodide as a strong nucleophile

1/1

Correctly identified, with reasoning around polarisability — iodide is large, soft, and highly polarisable, making it an excellent nucleophile despite being a weak base.

Identifies acetone as a polar aprotic solvent that favours SN2

1/1

Stated correctly. To tighten further: polar aprotic solvents do not hydrogen-bond to the nucleophile, leaving it 'naked' and more reactive — this is the structural reason SN2 is accelerated.

+3 more criteria…