Order of Operations Worksheets

A first look at the order of operations

When an expression has more than one operation, the order matters: $9 - 2 \times 4$ is 1, not 28. The rule students learn first is: work inside parentheses, then multiply, then add and subtract from left to right.

These worksheets are built to teach that rule one idea at a time. Every Easy and Medium problem has exactly one multiplication, so the question is always the same: where is the multiplication, and do parentheses change what happens first? Some answers are negative (roughly one problem in three or four), which is a good reason to practise integer operations alongside.

• Easy — three numbers from 2 to 9: one multiplication and one addition or subtraction.
• Medium — four numbers up to 12, one multiplication and one pair of parentheses.
• Hard — five numbers up to 15 with two groups of parentheses, or a multiplication inside the parentheses as well as outside.

In the Algebra level, Order of Operations I mixes the operations at random (several multiplications or none) as a fluency check, and Order of Operations II adds exponents and division.

Worked examples

Easy: $9 - 2 \times 4$

Medium: $(7 + 5) \times 3 - 10$

The parentheses come first, so the addition happens before the multiplication here:

Hard: $4 + (3 \times 6 - 5) \times 2$

Inside the parentheses, the order of operations still applies: multiply before subtracting.

Check your answers

Write one operation per line. Each line should have one operation fewer than the line above it.

Common mistakes

• Going strictly left to right. $9 - 2 \times 4$ is not $7 \times 4 = 28$.
• Forgetting the rule inside parentheses. $(3 \times 6 - 5)$ is $18 - 5 = 13$, not $3 \times 1 = 3$.
• Adding before subtracting. They go left to right: $10 - 4 + 3 = 9$.
• Dropping a negative answer. $3 - 4 \times 5 = 3 - 20 = -17$. The minus sign is part of the answer.

Sample problems

These problems come from the same generator as the worksheet above, three at each difficulty level. Press Generate for a fresh set.

Easy

1. $5 - 8 \times 2 =$
2. $2 \times 3 + 7 =$
3. $8 + 8 \times 6 =$

Medium

4. $6 - 2 \times (7 - 3) =$
5. $4 \times (5 + 6) - 12 =$
6. $7 \times (4 - 4) - 11 =$

Hard

7. $13 + (9 \times 5 - 12) \times 15 =$
8. $15 + (6 \times 2 - 6) \times 5 =$
9. $5 + (5 \times 9 - 5) \times 3 =$

Tips for teachers and parents

• On Easy worksheets, ask students to circle the multiplication before doing anything else.
• Medium problems come in three shapes (parentheses at the start, middle or end). Comparing $(7 + 5) \times 3$ with $7 + 5 \times 3$ shows why parentheses matter.
• Once Hard is comfortable, move on to the Algebra-level worksheets for mixed practice.

Related topics

• Integers Pre-Algebra
• Order of Operations I Algebra
• Order of Operations II Algebra