Common Mistakes

The biggest trap: thinking multiplication always comes before division. They share the same priority and are evaluated left to right. The same holds for addition and subtraction — equal priority, left to right. Getting this wrong changes the entire answer. The expression 8 divided by 2 times 4 equals 16, not 1.

Another frequent error: mishandling nested parentheses. Always work from the innermost parentheses outward. In 3 × (2 + (5 - 1)²), first compute 5 - 1 = 4, then 4² = 16, then 2 + 16 = 18, then 3 × 18 = 54. Patience with layers prevents mistakes.