CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

What's the deal with transition metals?
How would I go about finding their valence electrons? Would I do the same as I do to any other element outside of transitions?

Transition metals' valence electrons would be removed first from the s-orbitals before the d-orbitals. So for example, scandium would be [Ar]3d14s2 not [Ar]4s23d1 because 3d orbitals are lower in energy than 4s, so the valence electrons would be the 3d1 and 4s2. The explanation for it is on page 59 in the course reader.