The fourth theme was observed with participant 5, who selected an E1 stepwise pathway because of the tertiary alkyl halide. Tertiary alkyl halides do undergo E1 eliminations but in the presence of weak bases. The problem provided used a strong base, which promoted E2 elimination. In learning substitution and elimination reactions, analyzing the alkyl halide structure is generally the first step in the problem-solving strategy; therefore, it is not surprising that this is the first resource that is activated.