Find the sign that joins two amounts: the plus. The divide and the times sit inside the amounts on either side of it.
Finish the first amount: 36 divided by 4 is 9.
Finish the second amount: 7 times 5 is 35.
Now the plus joins them: 9 plus 35 is 44.
With brackets round 36 divided by 4 plus 7, that amount is made first: 16 times 5 is 80, not 44.
Check for brackets before you start. This line has none, so its value is 44.
The plus joins two amounts, and each amount is finished first. 9 in the row, and 35 in the block. A bracket is a way of making a plus into an amount as well. Our line has no brackets, so its value is 44.
Practice questions with worked solutions
Question 1 is free to try. The other 13 open in the free trial, each with its full working.
How do you answer P5 order of operations questions with brackets?
This page teaches the order of operations and the use of brackets, two Primary 5 outcomes in Whole Numbers, both worked without a calculator.
What your child learns here
This page teaches the order of operations and the use of brackets, two Primary 5 outcomes in Whole Numbers, both worked without a calculator.
Work out what is inside brackets first.
Then do multiplication and division, working from left to right.
Then do addition and subtraction, working from left to right.
Inside a bracket the same order applies: multiply or divide before adding or subtracting.
Multiplication does not always come before division, and addition does not always come before subtraction: each pair shares a level and goes left to right.
Does the answer make sense?
Your child can size up the answer first: in 150 minus (36 plus 24) divided by 5, the division shrinks the bracket before anything is subtracted, so the answer stays close to 150. In the shopping questions, the change must be less than the notes handed over, since the bill is paid from them.
How to practise these questions
Basic questions train brackets first, then multiplication and division from left to right, then addition and subtraction, including brackets that hold more than one operation. Intermediate questions add a missing number inside a bracket and a word problem that has to be written as one expression. The Challenge questions ask where a pair of brackets must go to reach a given value, or need a bracket the question never prints. If the steps get out of order, watch that question's solution film and retry it from Revision. The multiple-choice Intermediate questions ask which of four expressions has the greatest value, or where the brackets go to give a stated value; their solutions work out every option in writing, with no film.
Questions parents ask
Is order of operations in the Primary 5 syllabus? Yes. The Primary 5 Whole Numbers strand lists order of operations and use of brackets, both without calculator.
What order does my child work out a calculation in? The syllabus calls it the order of operations (some parents know it as BODMAS): brackets first, then multiplication and division from left to right, then addition and subtraction from left to right. The lesson on this page teaches it in that order rather than with the letters.
Can my child use a calculator for these questions? No. The syllabus lists this outcome as without calculator, so a calculator is only useful at home for checking work done by hand.
