NEET UG · Chemistry · Class 12

Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers: NEET previous year questions

15 questions in ten years of NEET, asked in 7 of 10 years. Here is what this chapter tests and how.

Asked in 10 years: 15; 7 of 10 papers
10-year average: 1.4; a paper · 0.3 since 2024 -1.6
Typical range: 0–2; questions a paper; fewest 0, most 4
Weighted estimate: 1.0; model, recent papers count more · about 4 marks

Typical range (fact)
10-year average (fact)
Weighted estimate (model)

Typical range: questions per paper in the middle eight of the ten papers, leaving out the single highest and lowest year (about the 10th to 90th percentile), each paper scaled to 180 questions. The ten-year average and the range are historical fact. The weighted estimate is a model: each paper's share, with recent papers counting more (half-life three years), and dropped syllabus removed. It is a guide to effort, not a forecast.

What to do

How to spend time on Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers

Priority

Lower priority

Among the chapters that shared the last fifth of the questions. How bands are set

Past questions: 15in 7 of 10 papers
Study plan gives it: 8 hover 12 months; 6 h over 6

Study this chapter →Practise →

Ideas asked most often

Cleavage of Ethers by HI3×
Lucas Test2×
Cumene Process2×

78 of the 83 ideas in Lumi’s map of this chapter have not been asked or touched in ten years. New questions often come from ideas like these, so learn the whole chapter, not just the list above.

Questions per year

Kind of question

SHARE OF 10 YEARS

Application33%
Concept27%
Recall13%
Two statements13%
Calculation7%
Figure-based7%

Most common asks: predict product of reaction (5); identify compounds in reaction sequence (1); identify electrophile in named reaction (1).

Profile

This chapter in numbers

Where it ranks, how steady it is, and what it costs to study.

Rank, all NEET chapters: #75; of 80 by weighted estimate
Rank in Chemistry: #21; of 21 chapters
Share of the paper: 0.8%; ten-year average
Busiest year: 2018; 4 questions
Year to year: Some swing; varies by about 1.2 questions
Long-run direction: -0.31; questions per paper, per year
Easy questions: 53%; 45% of ideas rated hard
With a figure: 60%; graph, diagram or structure
Study time: 8 h; 6 h on a 6-month plan
Marks per study hour: 0.52; #59 of 80 chapters
Foundation for others: 38%; of its ideas are used in other chapters

Difficulty, year by year

Each question rated easy, medium or hard against NCERT.

20172
20184
20192
20202
2021
20222
20232
20241
2025
2026

Easy
Medium
Hard

What it asks you to do

SHARE OF QUESTIONS

Application33%
Concept33%
Recall27%
Multi-step7%

Coverage

How much of the chapter NEET has used

We split the chapter into 83 ideas. In ten years NEET built a question around 3 of them. Most of the chapter has never been asked, which is why learning it whole beats memorising past questions.

Asked as the main idea: 3
Touched on in a question: 2
Never asked: 78

Topics

What repeats, topic by topic

Questions per topic in each year's paper. Topics that come every year are worth learning first.

Alcohols and Phenols · Every year15
2422221

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Topic	2017	’18	2019	’20	2021	’22	2023	’24	2025	’26	Total
Alcohols and PhenolsEvery year	2	4	2	2	·	2	2	1	·	·	15

04+questions in that year’s paper

Drill down

Topic, idea, question

Open a topic to see every idea NEET tested inside it, then open an idea to read the questions. Each row shows its ten papers.

topicAskedShareYears’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26

Open15 · 100%100%7/10242222
11 ideas inside
- Repeated3 · 20%20%3/10
- Repeated2 · 13%13%2/10
- Repeated2 · 13%13%2/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10
- 1 · 7%7%1/10

Squares are the ten papers, 2017 to 2026; darker means more questions. Share is of the level above.

Ideas

The exact ideas NEET has asked

Inside the topics, 11 different ideas were tested. These came more than once, or are new since 2024.

Cleavage of Ethers by HI3×
predict product of reaction
Lucas Test2×
statement i/ii on alcohol tests
Cumene Process2×
predict product of reaction

Idea	Times	Usually asked as
Cleavage of Ethers by HIpredict product of reaction	3	One-line MCQ
Lucas Teststatement i/ii on alcohol tests	2	One-line MCQ
Cumene Processpredict product of reaction	2	Figure-based

Every question

Alcohols, Phenols and Ethers questions, year by year

The opening words of each question as it appeared in the official paper.

NEET 20241 question

Q63Which one of the following alcohols reacts instantaneously with Lucas reagent?One-line MCQ

NEET 20232 questions

Q87Consider the following reaction : $\mathrm{C_6H_5-CH_2-O-C_6H_5 \xrightarrow[\Delta]{HI} A + B}$ (benzyl phenyl ether) Identify products A…One-line MCQ · figure
Q91Which amongst the following will be most readily dehydrated under acidic conditions ?One-line MCQ · figure

NEET 20222 questions

Q74Given below are two statements : Statement I : The acidic strength of monosubstituted nitrophenol is higher than phenol because of…Two statements
Q97Given below are two statements : Statement I : In Lucas test, primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols are distinguished on the basis of…Two statements

NEET 20202 questions

Q100Reaction between acetone and methylmagnesium chloride followed by hydrolysis will give :One-line MCQ
Q135Anisole on cleavage with HI gives :One-line MCQ · figure

NEET 20192 questions

Q47The structure of intermediate A in the following reaction, is : C₆H₅–CH(CH₃)₂ (cumene) $\xrightarrow{O_2}$ A $\xrightarrow{H^+, H_2O}$ …Figure-based · figure
Q69The compound that is most difficult to protonate is :One-line MCQ · figure

NEET 20184 questions

Q52Identify the major products P, Q and R in the following sequence of reactions : Benzene + $\mathrm{CH_3CH_2CH_2Cl}$ …Other · figure
Q60The compound A on treatment with Na gives B, and with $\mathrm{PCl_5}$ gives C. B and C react together to give diethyl ether. A, B and C…One-line MCQ
Q66In the reaction Phenol ( $\mathrm{C_6H_5OH}$ ) + $\mathrm{CHCl_3}$ + NaOH $\longrightarrow$ sodium 2-formylphenoxide (ring with…One-line MCQ · figure
Q68Compound A, $\mathrm{C_8H_{10}O}$ , is found to react with NaOI (produced by reacting Y with NaOH) and yields a yellow precipitate with…One-line MCQ · figure

NEET 20172 questions

Q55Which one is the most acidic compound ?One-line MCQ · figure
Q83The heating of phenyl-methyl ethers with HI produces.One-line MCQ

Questions from the official NEET UG papers published by NTA (CBSE before 2019). Topic and idea tags, counts and notes are Lumi’s.

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