Question

• the correct answer is:

problem 3
$(5 + 3)^2 - 4 \times 2$
student work:
$5 + 3^2 - 4 \times 2$
$5 + 9 - 8$
$6$
what went wrong?

Explanation:

Step1: Identify correct order of operations

First calculate inside parentheses: $(5+3)=8$

Step2: Calculate the exponent

$8^2 = 64$

Step3: Calculate the multiplication

$4 \times 2 = 8$

Step4: Subtract the two results

$64 - 8 = 56$

Step5: Analyze student error

Student ignored parentheses, calculated $3^2$ first instead of $(5+3)^2$.

Answer:

The student failed to follow the order of operations (PEMDAS/BODMAS) by not calculating the sum inside the parentheses $(5+3)$ first. Instead, they incorrectly calculated $3^2$ before adding 5. The correct value of the expression is $\boldsymbol{56}$, while the student got 6 due to this mistake.