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This topic expands single and double brackets, and expands and simplifies products of expressions, taking care with signs and like terms. It's examined right across GCSE and iGCSE Maths. Learn it free on eClassroom through guided worked examples and instantly-marked exam-style questions.
How you do it
Multiply everything inside the bracket by what is outside, including the sign. For two brackets, multiply each term in the first by each term in the second — four products from two pairs — then collect like terms. Watch the middle terms; they are where marks are usually lost.
Before you start
The prerequisite is simplifying expressions. Getting it right here pays off in factorising and solving quadratics.
What you learn
To expand a bracket, multiply everything inside it by the term outside. We then simplify by collecting like terms. When there is more than one bracket, expand each one and then collect like terms. To expand two brackets, multiply each term in the first by each term in the second — four products in total. The course works through expanding a single bracket, expand and simplify and double brackets. Every section has instant-feedback practice questions matched to Edexcel iGCSE 4MA1 and the other major GCSE boards, and the course finishes with full exam-style questions you mark yourself.
Related Topics
We teach Expanding Brackets as one of the Algebra topics in our GCSE course library, at Foundation tier. It runs to 3 concepts, each followed by a check, with 2 worked examples along the way. Nearby topics in the same strand are Factorising, Functions and Gradients & Rates of Change. For unlimited practice, the Algebra revision engine builds new questions on demand and records your accuracy.
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