Order of Operations - PEDMAS

Hi Ellie!

Thanks for letting me know what you're working on. I've got some stuff here to help.

Before we get to that though I want to make sure that you've conquered the stuff I posted for you previously. Knowing your addition and multiplication facts is really important. We have to work on those until you're an expert! Have you won the races I left for you? If you haven't yet keep at it until you do -- and let me know how it's going -- how many are you getting right when the time runs out?

PEDMAS is a memory trick (mnemonic is a $10.00 word for memory trick) to help you remember the "order of operations." In other words, when you have a bunch of different operations in an expression all mixed together which one should you do first? PEDMAS stands for

Parentheses

Exponents

Division
Multiplication (first come, first served)

Addition
Subtraction (first come, first served)

Some people call it PEMDAS or BEDMAS, B for Brackets instead of Parentheses. It's all the same thing.

Watch this slide show. If you want more review, click on the tutorial, if you think you've got it try the pre-test. Keep taking the pre-test until you get it perfect. (10 questions)

You can find another review of this stuff here. There are several examples worked out step-by-step and 5 examples (including one word problem) you can try. The computer will tell you right away if you got it right. ;-) If you keep getting it wrong and can't figure out why look back over the lesson. If that still doesn't make sense, email me. Keep at it until you get all five right.

Let's Begin!

Some parts of learning math can be boring! Like your times tables. So we're going to try to make a game of it on the internet. If you have trouble at first, that's OK, it takes practice. Just don't give up; you'll get it in time. Here are the first set of games we're going to play ....

Addition and subtraction mixed practice -- get 20 right in one minute -- it's a race!

Multiplication practice -- get 20 right in one minute.

Here is a mutiplication mystery game -- have fun with it!

When you get a chance, look over this lesson on Prime Numbers. We'll be looking at primes, factors and multiples next time.

PS, please leave me a comment and let me know if you find this stuff too hard, too easy or just plain too much! We'll find a good balance that works for you. ;-)