Order of Operations is commonly taught using PEMDAS. I would like to see everyone change the way they look at it!
Order of Operations is a very important concept in the course of learning mathematics. Mastery of this concept is critical before entering Algebra. Since math stacks knowledge, order of operations is for sure one of the concepts with which you want to be fluent.
As you can see from the video, my main concern about the way PEMDAS is used is the overuse of the order. When you get to the option of multiplication and division, these operations are actually equals in terms of when you should do them. When they are in an expression together and you aren’t concerned with P or E, you actually work multiplication and division from left to right. The same is true for addition and subtraction. However, PEMDAS misleads students to think that multiplication always comes before division and addition always comes before subtraction. FALSE!
For example:
10-5+2 would be 10-5=5 and then 5+2=7. You cannot do the addition first and then the subtraction, it changes the answer.
See the video above for two examples.
Here’s a link to a website that supports this idea of not strictly teaching it in the PEMDAS order. It also has more examples and explanations.
Test your knowledge here.
Here’s a printable order of operations worksheet and it has answers.