This week i learned about how the box method is very useful for factoring with 4 terms to make it simpler. You use a box with four squares for each term, and find the like factors of the ones across and under/above each other, then you make those factors into a binomial. It’s also useful for finding a missing term. Another use is the terms diagonal to each other will always multiply to the same product, so thats how you know if you got the terms in the correct squares. Another rule is that if the first term is negative, then the common factor will be negative. There will always be two like terms, and it doesn’t matter which one is on which side, just that they’re in the correct 2 boxes. Factoring is the opposite of FOIL.