A couple weeks ago, we started our exponents unit. From using from using exponent laws to figure out the new simplified expression, I caught to the pretty early. One concept I struggled with, was the intergral exponents concept.

An example of a question which I made a mistake on:

I always messed up, whether it was not put the exponents in the wrong spots, to not calculating the expression properly.

Property simplified equation:

I learned to always deal with the outside exponent first. So I factor in exponent to get the proper exponents. Then you group the like terms, and most importantly get rid of the brackets. Then you get rid of any intergral(negative) exponents by doing the reciprocal, negative exponents on the top go down to the bottom and vice versa, you then subtract or add exponents and divide or multiply the actual number.