Finding out the likely ion that forms

[Emmaraf 1K]

For question 2A15, the anticipated ion formed by Cadmium is a +2 which I understand because it has 2 electron in its 5s orbital which it wants to get rid of but what about the exceptions to electron configurations in the transition metals like copper and chromium (since while we don't need to know the 4d shell which contains Cd, we do need to know the 3d)? Since those metals only have 1 electron in their 5s orbitals, do they generally form +1 ions? Do we need to even know ions that form for transition metals for the test?

[Kessandra Ng 1K]

I think it's hard to figure out what ions form from the transition metals, so for example copper can form 1+, 2+, 3+, etc. ions. I don't think we'd need to know the ions that the transition metals would form for the test other than the really simple ones? All we need to know is that the electron is always lost from the 4s subshell before the 3d, for example).

[Rithana Srikanth 3L]

It's difficult to predict the most likely ion that would form, because they can take several different oxidation states. I think just having a general idea of the possible transition metal oxidation states (+1, +2, +3, etc) is enough.