Winter 2016 Midterm Q1A

[Mindy Zhang 3F]

I'm having some trouble understanding the diagram given. What exactly do the arrows on the diagram mean?

[MelanieAu1G]

The arrows that point to and from the same element have been added to assist you in identifying which bonds are broken and formed; this means that they are trying to highlight important bonding sites in which the bonds in the products differ from those in the reactants. You can still do the problem correctly without paying any regard to the arrows; otherwise, this is just a standard bond diagram.

[Belicia Tang 1B]

I found Q1A to be particularly tricky. When we have a complicated molecule like this, would the simplest way to go about solving the problem be to break all the bonds and form all of them again?

If someone could show how they got the answer, I would really appreciate it!