Parsing algebraic expressions is always a pain. If you need to compute, say, 2+4*2, the answer should be the same as (2 + (4 *2)), not ((2 + 4) * 2) — in other words, the right answer is 10, not 12.

To remove brackets is to multiply the term outside the brackets by each term inside. Factorising an expression is to write it as a product of its factors. Check your understanding of the process with ...

In algebra, letters are used to stand for values that can change (variables) or for values that aren’t known (unknowns). A term is a combination of letters and/or numbers, often multiplied together, ...