Order of operations

When you see a math expression with several operations, you must follow a fixed hierarchy called the order of operations. First, evaluate anything inside parentheses or brackets. Next, handle exponents (including powers and roots). After that, perform all multiplications and divisions, moving from left to right because they share the same rank. Finally, carry out additions and subtractions, also from left to right. Remember the shortcut PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication/Division, Addition/Subtraction), but treat the multiplication‑division and addition‑subtraction pairs as equal steps performed left‑to‑right. Applying this rule consistently gives a single, unambiguous result for any expression.