What Is The Order Of Operations In Maths?

Students in Year 6 and entrants for the 11+ exam need to know about the particular order in which to carry out mathematical calculations. Without this knowledge, it is easy to achieve the wrong answer.

The order of operations is usually remembered using a mnemonic: BIDMAS or BODMAS

The letters stand for the sequence of operation.

B - Brackets

I - Indices ( or O for orders )

D - division

M - multiplication

A -addition

S - Subtraction

You work out brackets first.

Then come indices (squared and cubed numbers and square roots).

Division and multiplication carry equal weight, so you do these in the order in which they occur (after the operations mentioned above).

Addition and subtraction also carry equal weigh and, again, you do them in the order in which they occur in the calculation.

If you don`t follow the correct order, you can get strange results:

Correct: 7 x 3 +1=22

Incorrect: 7 x 3+1=28