# BIDMAS

## A self marking exercise testing the application of BIDMAS, an acronym describing the order of operations used when evaluating expressions.

##### Level 1Level 2Level 3HelpDescriptionGameMisconceptionMore ArithmeticMore Algebra

This is level 2; Evaluate the simple expressions using the correct order of operations. You can earn a trophy if you get at least 9 correct and you do this activity online.

 $$3 + 6 - 8$$ $$8 + 6 \times 3$$ $$8 + 18 \div 3$$ $$15 - 5 - 8$$ $$15 - 5 \times 8$$ $$15 - 40 \div 8$$ $$3(9 - 3)$$ $$2 + 6 \times 6 + 3$$ $$5 \times 3 + 4 \times 6$$ $$250 \div 10 \div 5$$ $$6 - 10 \div 5$$ $$(9 + 3) \times (8 + 8)$$
Check

This is BIDMAS level 2. You can also try:
Level 1 Level 3

## Instructions

Try your best to answer the questions above. Type your answers into the boxes provided leaving no spaces. As you work through the exercise regularly click the "check" button. If you have any wrong answers, do your best to do corrections but if there is anything you don't understand, please ask your teacher for help.

When you have got all of the questions correct you may want to print out this page and paste it into your exercise book. If you keep your work in an ePortfolio you could take a screen shot of your answers and paste that into your Maths file.

## Transum.org

This web site contains over a thousand free mathematical activities for teachers and pupils. Click here to go to the main page which links to all of the resources available.

## More Activities:

Mathematicians are not the people who find Maths easy; they are the people who enjoy how mystifying, puzzling and hard it is. Are you a mathematician?

Comment recorded on the 10 April 'Starter of the Day' page by Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.:

"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"

Comment recorded on the 25 June 'Starter of the Day' page by Inger.kisby@herts and essex.herts.sch.uk, :

"We all love your starters. It is so good to have such a collection. We use them for all age groups and abilities. Have particularly enjoyed KIM's game, as we have not used that for Mathematics before. Keep up the good work and thank you very much
Best wishes from Inger Kisby"

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#### Strategy Games

We have collected together lots of strategy games for you to enjoy. Many of them have mathematical principles involved in their design so would make a good activity for a Mathematics lesson.

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## Go Maths

Learning and understanding Mathematics, at every level, requires learner engagement. Mathematics is not a spectator sport. Sometimes traditional teaching fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of interactive activities and this web site provides many of those. The Go Maths page is an alphabetical list of free activities designed for students in Secondary/High school.

## Maths Map

Are you looking for something specific? An exercise to supplement the topic you are studying at school at the moment perhaps. Navigate using our Maths Map to find exercises, puzzles and Maths lesson starters grouped by topic.

## Teachers

If you found this activity useful don't forget to record it in your scheme of work or learning management system. The short URL, ready to be copied and pasted, is as follows:

Kai,

Monday, March 20, 2017

"

Transum,

Thursday, June 13, 2019

"I have just noticed something I hadn’t realised about the Windows calculator. When running in standard mode it operates LTR (2+3x5=25) while in scientific mode it obeys the normal order of operations (2+3x5=17). Worth knowing when learning about BIDMAS or PEMDAS

"

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for those learning Mathematics anywhere in the world. Click here to enter your comments.

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© Transum Mathematics :: This activity can be found online at:
www.transum.org/software/SW/Starter_of_the_day/Students/BIDMAS.asp?

## Description of Levels

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Level 1 - Click on the operations in the correct order.

Level 2 - Evaluate the simple expressions using the correct order of operations.

Level 3 - Evaluate the harder expressions using the correct order of operations.

Misconception - A video explaining a BIDMAS problem which went viral on Twitter.

X Divided by 2Y - A Maths Lesson Starter based on the BIDMAS misconception.

BIDMAS Game - A game for two or more players making BIDMAS calculations to claim squares on a grid.

Don't wait until you have finished the exercises before you click on the 'Check' button. Click it often as you work through the questions to see if you are answering them correctly. You can double-click the 'Check' button to make it float at the bottom of your screen.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

BIDMAS is an acronym reminding pupils of the order of operation used when evaluating expressions involving a number of different operations. The letters of BIDMAS stand for:

• Brackets,
• Indicies,
• Division,
• Multiplication,
• Subtraction.

When only addition and subtraction (or only multiplication and division) are left in an expression you should work them out in the order you find them, starting from the left and working towards the right. The blue image of the letters above has been designed to show that multiplication and division have the same importance as the letter M is in the same position as the letter D. The same can be said for the letters A and S.

For example, to evaluate the expression 32 + 5 x 7 - (4 - 3)

Work out the brackets first which gives 32 + 5 x 7 - 1

Then the indices 9 + 5 x 7 - 1

Then the multiplication 9 + 35 - 1

Then the addition and subtraction in the order they are given

PEMDAS is an alternative acronym.

• Parentheses,
• Exponents,
• Multiplication,
• Division,
• Subtraction.

Don't wait until you have finished the exercise before you click on the 'Check' button. Click it often as you work through the questions to see if you are answering them correctly. You can double-click the 'Check' button to make it float at the bottom of your screen.

Answers to this exercise are available lower down this page when you are logged in to your Transum account. If you don’t yet have a Transum subscription one can be very quickly set up if you are a teacher, tutor or parent.

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