🚧 Avoid common mistakes · 1 min read
Order of operations (BODMAS)
Brackets, Of, Division and Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction, in that order.
BODMAS
Brackets, Of (powers and 'of'), Division and Multiplication (left to right), Addition and Subtraction (left to right).
Division and multiplication have the same rank. So do addition and subtraction. Work them from left to right.
Examples
Work these out
- 3 + 4 × 2 = 3 + 8 = 11 (not 14)
- (3 + 4) × 2 = 7 × 2 = 14
- 20 − 8 ÷ 2 = 20 − 4 = 16
- 12 ÷ 3 × 2 = 4 × 2 = 8 (left to right, not 12 ÷ 6)
- 2 × 32 = 2 × 9 = 18 (not 62 = 36)