Die Chemieseite

Hello,

I'm having a great deal of trouble wrapping my head around organic chem mechanisms. It's repeated throughout the course work that memorizing individual reactions isn't so helpful (or at all practical) as understanding the underlying mechanisms and being able to generally apply them to figure out reaction outcomes.
If we learn all of the generalized reactions, for example for Alkanes 1) electrophilic addition, 2) halohydrin formation, 3) addition of HX ect is this what you're referring to as the general underlying principals or is even more basic then that? If so what are these principles and what actually needs memorizing?

I had a look at some of the organic chem flash cards you provided and wasn't at all sure how we were meant to arrive know any of it other then by memorization?

Thanks,