BODMAS pre-load

Hi all,

Apologies for the delay in getting these next lessons to you, but here's your next instalment: BODMAS!

To make this a little more fun, as always, I have found a video/ song that you might want to have a little listen to to help you remember the order of operations. Just click the image and you should be taken there!


BODMAS is an important part of maths that helps us to agree on the order in which we should do things. Without it, we could tackle the same question, without making mistakes, and get completely different answers.

I'll show you what I mean:

4 + 5 x 10

I could do 4 + 5 first which would equal 9 and then multiply that by 10 to get 90
OR
I could do 5 x 10 first to get 50 and then add 4 to make a total of 54


Luckily, BODMAS helps to guide us... 

1) As shown in the image above, whatever is in brackets needs to be done first
e.g. 4 x ( 5- 3)
because 5 - 3 is in brackets, I MUST do that part of the calculation first, so now I have:
4 x 2 which equals 8. Simple!

2) O stands for orders, or indices or powers- this would cover things like square numbers etc.
e.g.

2 + 3² =

Because there is a 'power' number  in there, we must do that before the addition. Three squared just means 3 x 3 which equals 9, so now we have:
2 + 9 which equals 11!

3) Division is next
e.g.
2 + 9 ÷ 3
Because it contains a division, we must do that first, so then we have
2 + 3 which equals 5!

4) Multiplication after that
e.g.

4 + 2 x 5

Because it contains a multiplication, we must do that first, so now we have:

4 + 10 which equals 14. Easy!

5)Addition
e.g.
15 - 8 + 4
Because it contains an addition, we do that before the subtraction part, so now we have:
15 - 12 which equals 3!

6) Subtraction comes last after ALL the other operations...
Look how I tackle the example below:

Now you have see how I do it, have a go for yourself with the following calculations... Bring your answers in once you've had a go and I will mark them for you :)