Order of operations
Understand and apply the conventional order of operations (PEMDAS/BODMAS) to carry out calculations involving the four operations
Lesson
Set out your lesson
Use brackets, powers and the two equal-priority operation pairs to calculate and explain an expression.
Before teaching
Use this short check, then start teaching.
Ask the learner to evaluate 2 × (3 + 4) and explain the first step. Expect 14 with the bracket first. Ask for 20 ÷ 5 and 7 − 3. Expect 4 for each. Revisit Brackets in Expressions if grouping is not secure.
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Use brackets, powers and the two equal-priority operation pairs to calculate and explain an expression.
Use brackets, powers and the two equal-priority operation pairs to calculate and explain an expression.
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Learning resources
Extra practice links — they do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.
Illustrative Mathematics · Practice link — not the full lesson
Why Do We Need an Order of Operations?
Before you open · source notes
Discussing order of operations supports reliable multi-operation evaluation. Not every calculus limit.
Free, no sign-in. A teacher solution is on the same page, so use the student view with your child.
Before you openAsk the learner to explain why two operations need a shared order and evaluate one expression.
Opening this link does not save learning or assess mastery.
Source, access and review notes
Public Illustrative Mathematics task page. The .html address responds HTTP 308 to this URL. An anonymous GET of this URL on 2026-11-12 returned HTTP 200 with no login or payment prompt. Where a teacher solution is present, it is on the same page as the student task; this check did not find a separate locked student view. An adult can use the student view section and should not read a solution aloud. Advertising was not observed in the fetched HTML text; that is not a browser, device, or ad-free guarantee. This is a paper or discussion task, not an automatically marked interactive game. Opening the link does not save practice or assess mastery. Diagrams on the page use missing or filename-only alt text, so they are not an accessible image equivalent. Accessibility still depends on an adult describing the picture.
Illustrative Mathematics. “Why Do We Need an Order of Operations?.” Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. External task; Gakuva does not copy, host, embed, or redistribute it.
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — link only
Check understanding
- Explain why 8 + 2 × 5 = 18 (not 50) by referencing multiplication before addition
- Evaluate a multi-step expression like 12 ÷ 3 + 4 × 2 correctly as 12
- State the correct order: brackets, then orders/exponents, then multiplication/division (L→R), then addition/subtraction (L→R)
“If your child sees '8 + 4 × 3', do they get 20 — not 36 — because they know to do the multiplication before the addition?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Conceptual
- Subject
- Mathematics
- Domain
- Multiplication & Division
- Age range
- Ages 10–13
Standards