Order of Operations
Free order of operations game: evaluate expressions like 3 + 4 × 2 the right way. PEMDAS/BODMAS practice for grades 5+. No sign-up.
Grade 5+ · Free · No sign-up
How to play & why it works
Each round shows a mixed expression — 3 + 4 × 2, (5 + 1) × 3 — and asks for its value. Multiplication before addition, brackets first: one rule set, drilled until the wrong reading (left to right, no matter what) stops being tempting.
Order of operations is less about arithmetic than about reading mathematics as a language. Every formula a student will ever meet — in algebra, spreadsheets, code — assumes the convention is automatic. The classic viral "8 ÷ 2(2+2)" arguments exist precisely because most adults never automated it.
The discipline to practice: scan the whole expression before computing anything. Find brackets, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction. The distractor answers in each round are exactly the values you get by reading left to right — if you keep picking them, that is the diagnosis.
The free MathIt app runs order-of-operations into multi-step mental chains and its Working Memory track, with adaptive difficulty and 2–5 player battles.
PEMDAS and BODMAS are the same rule with different initials, and both mislead slightly: multiplication and division rank equally and are done left to right, as do addition and subtraction. Read as a strict six-step ladder, the acronym produces wrong answers on expressions like 8 ÷ 2 × 4.
The reflex worth building is scanning before calculating. Look at the whole expression, find the brackets, then the multiplication and division, and only then work left to right. Students who start computing at the first symbol they see get 3 + 4 × 2 wrong roughly half the time.
Skills you'll practice
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Frequently asked questions
What do PEMDAS and BODMAS stand for?
Parentheses/Brackets, Exponents/Orders, Multiplication and Division, Addition and Subtraction. They are the same rule — PEMDAS is the American wording, BODMAS the British one.
Is multiplication always done before division?
No, and this is the most common misreading. They have equal priority and are performed left to right. The same is true of addition and subtraction.
What is 3 + 4 × 2?
It is 11, not 14. Multiplication is done first, giving 3 + 8. Getting 14 means the expression was read strictly left to right, which is the error this drill is built to remove.
Get the full game
Adaptive difficulty, daily streaks, and live 2–5 player math battles — free on iOS and Android.