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Worksheets · 24 questions

Brackets First: Order of Operations Sheet

Work out the bracket first. Everything on this sheet depends on doing that.

Brackets first · Sheet 1 Name:
  1. (3 + 8) × 5
  2. (6 - 3) × 4
  3. (6 + 2) × 3
  4. (6 - 4) × 3
  5. (7 - 5) × 2
  6. (9 - 7) × 3
  7. (5 + 6) × 3
  8. (7 + 9) × 2
  9. (6 - 3) × 5
  10. (3 + 5) × 5
  11. (5 + 5) × 2
  12. (7 + 6) × 3
  13. (5 + 3) × 3
  14. (7 + 9) × 4
  15. (2 + 3) × 2
  16. (9 - 4) × 4
  17. (6 + 3) × 2
  18. (5 + 3) × 4
  19. (6 + 9) × 5
  20. (3 + 5) × 4
  21. (4 - 3) × 5
  22. (2 + 6) × 3
  23. (8 + 8) × 3
  24. (3 + 2) × 4
Brackets first · Sheet 2 Name:
  1. (6 - 5) × 4
  2. (8 - 7) × 2
  3. (6 + 7) × 3
  4. (2 + 9) × 4
  5. (3 + 4) × 5
  6. (6 + 8) × 4
  7. (7 + 3) × 3
  8. (2 + 7) × 4
  9. (2 + 3) × 4
  10. (4 + 4) × 5
  11. (4 + 9) × 4
  12. (9 + 5) × 4
  13. (9 + 2) × 3
  14. (8 + 5) × 5
  15. (7 + 5) × 4
  16. (9 + 9) × 2
  17. (3 + 8) × 3
  18. (9 - 7) × 3
  19. (7 + 5) × 2
  20. (4 + 9) × 2
  21. (5 - 4) × 4
  22. (6 - 2) × 4
  23. (6 + 8) × 3
  24. (4 - 2) × 4
Brackets first · Sheet 3 Name:
  1. (7 + 5) × 5
  2. (8 + 4) × 5
  3. (9 + 3) × 3
  4. (2 + 6) × 2
  5. (9 - 5) × 3
  6. (9 - 4) × 2
  7. (7 - 5) × 2
  8. (4 + 3) × 4
  9. (5 + 7) × 4
  10. (7 - 4) × 5
  11. (6 - 4) × 3
  12. (3 + 4) × 3
  13. (2 + 8) × 3
  14. (4 + 2) × 2
  15. (7 + 7) × 4
  16. (4 + 8) × 3
  17. (4 + 3) × 2
  18. (7 + 5) × 3
  19. (6 + 6) × 2
  20. (2 + 2) × 2
  21. (9 - 2) × 3
  22. (9 - 5) × 5
  23. (8 + 8) × 2
  24. (2 + 3) × 2

Answers

Sheet 1 1. 55 2. 12 3. 24 4. 6 5. 4 6. 6 7. 33 8. 32 9. 15 10. 40 11. 20 12. 39 13. 24 14. 64 15. 10 16. 20 17. 18 18. 32 19. 75 20. 32 21. 5 22. 24 23. 48 24. 20

Sheet 2 1. 4 2. 2 3. 39 4. 44 5. 35 6. 56 7. 30 8. 36 9. 20 10. 40 11. 52 12. 56 13. 33 14. 65 15. 48 16. 36 17. 33 18. 6 19. 24 20. 26 21. 4 22. 16 23. 42 24. 8

Sheet 3 1. 60 2. 60 3. 36 4. 16 5. 12 6. 10 7. 4 8. 28 9. 48 10. 15 11. 6 12. 21 13. 30 14. 12 15. 56 16. 36 17. 14 18. 36 19. 24 20. 8 21. 21 22. 20 23. 32 24. 10

What this practises

That brackets decide what happens first, and that this changes the result. (3 + 4) × 2 is 14 and 3 + 4 × 2 is 11, and nothing about the numbers changed.

It is the first rule in maths that is a convention rather than a fact about quantity, and children accept it far more readily after seeing two answers side by side.

How to use it

Ask for the bracket to be written out on its own line before the answer. A child who shows that step almost never gets these wrong, and a child who does not almost always does.

What to look for

The usual mistake is working left to right and ignoring the brackets entirely. The answers will then be consistently wrong in the same direction, which is easy to spot on a marked sheet.

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