Step 5 Objective

Know and use the order of operations including brackets.


What if pupils find this a barrier?

The most common mistake is for pupils to read from left to right and to 'ignore' the order of operations.

Give pupils practice in 'reading' a calculation. Get pupils to talk through what a calculation is asking them to do.

Use a basic and scientific calculator and explore the different answers given to questions such as 2 + 4 × 3.