Polynomials are pretty much a bunch of unknown numbers, and it gets very hard to stay organized when dealing with so many variables. Therefore, collecting like terms is very important because it helps you stay organized while doing polynomial math.

What are like terms? Like terms are numbers with the same variable attached to them for example 4X and 2X are like terms. However, 4X and are not like terms because of the different exponent.

Collecting like terms is adding all the like terms in an equation. For example.

Before collecting like terms.

5X-3-5Y+12X+10Y-23

After collecting like terms.

17X + 5Y – 26.