Acquiring mechanistic reasoning skills to explain how and why reactions occur is a central learning outcome in organic chemistry. The Morrison and Boyd 1 electron pushing formalism (EPF) representations have been widely adopted in undergraduate organic chemistry since their textbook was first published in 1959, and EPFs are perhaps the most important representation in organic chemistry. EPFs illustrate the movement of electrons to explain the lowest energy and most kinetically favored pathway. Despite the goal of EPFs to promote understanding and the development of mechanistic reasoning skills, students often memorize EPF representations and attempt to regurgitate these representations on formative and summative assessments. Students' reliance on memorization of EPFs is 50 further supported by findings reporting students are unsure of the physical meaning and interpretation of EPFs. Students' understanding of the physical meaning of EPFs is improved by incorporating kinetics and thermodynamics when discussing reaction mechanisms. Kinetic and thermodynamic arguments can be coupled with EPFs using Reaction Coordinate Diagrams (RCDs), which are two-dimensional graphical representations 55 of the energy changes as a function of structure. Coupling EPFs and RCDs provides a multidimensional representation depicting the sequence in which bonds are broken and formed and the relative energy changes of a structure over a reaction. This research study expands on existing research on RCDs in general chemistry and was specifically guided by Popova's research in organic chemistry. The general chemistry 60 studies provided insight into how students interpret and analyze RCDs. Parobek et al. analyzed students' conceptions of the x-axis on RCDs and associated challenges with making inferences about reaction rates. Parobek et al. emphasized the importance of using RCDs across the curriculum, such as while discussing organic mechanisms. Lamichhane et al. likewise identified students' challenges with interpreting the x-axis. Atkinson developed a 65 Reaction Coordinate Diagram (RCD) Inventory that analyzed students' understanding and confidence in interpreting RCDs. Atkinson reported an improvement in interpreting RCDs as students progress across the chemistry curriculum. Additionally, Atkinson reported a correlation between performance and student confidence. starting and ending points of RCDs, the chemical interpretation of peak height and peak width, and the meaning of peaks and valleys in RCDs. The study provided insight into common challenges that organic chemistry students face when analyzing RCDs. Popova 75 reported that students tend to focus predominately on the major product when analyzing RCDs and ignore nuanced details, which is a key finding because of the significance of the nuanced information in explaining kinetics and thermodynamics. This study extends on Popova's studies by considering how students rationalize the major and minor products formed in different reaction contexts -specifically when the product distribution must be 80 rationalized by a careful analysis of the kinetics and thermodynamics.