Methyl methacrylate was polymerized with tert-butyl lithium in the presence of triethylaluminium or triisobutylaluminium at -78 degrees C in toluene. As indicated by GPC and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, the polymerization is accompanied by side reactions. The lower oligomers were fractionated by distillation and characterised by NMR, FT-IR, UV and electron impact (EI) mass spectrometry. Ah these data show that part of the polymer chains are carrying exactly one tert-butyl isoprenyl ketone unit. In order to avoid the formation of tert-butyl isoprenyl ketone a molar ratio of A1/Li > 2 is necessary.