Solve a PEMDAS (Order of Operations) Problem
Many of my students have tremendous difficulty with PEMDAS (Order of Operations) problems, but there is no reason for this. Just follow the simple steps and tips below, and you will get them all correct.
Instructions
1. First do anything that you see in parentheses. Ignore anything else that you see. If you have nested brackets, such as this pattern: [()], then work you way from the inner set to the outer, one step at a time.
2. Next, simplify exponents. Remember that an exponent tells you how many times to multiply the number times itself.
3. Next, do multiplication and division left to right. That right there is the key. You must do the division first, if it comes to the left of the multiplication. However, this step is always fully completed before the next one. For example, in the problem 4+15/5*2, we first do the division to get 3. Then we multiply 3 times 2 to get 6. Only then do we add 4 to get 10 (see below).
4. Finally, do addition and subtraction left to right. Again, the subtraction could come first, if it is to the left of the addition.
Tags: Order Operations, left right, Operations Problem, Order Operations Problem, PEMDAS Order