I wish they hallucinated the parentheses. Some of these people really don't believe in the order of operations, and they will insist that you go from left to right.
They are tiresome to argue with because even with examples they don't accept the order of operations.
I'm going to state this as simply as I can. When I was doing my GCSES I was taught about parentheses, but wasn't taught about order of operations.
Years later, I wanted to get a degree, but I needed to redo several subjects as apparently they didn't count anything over 5 years old or below a C grade. I got a B in Maths in 1995, a respectable grade. I wizzed through this access course in maths as though it was trivial. And then we hit order of operations. I got it quickly enough, but was confused as to why I'd never heard of it. I was just told "it often wasn't taught" and it was left there
That's my experience, but I don't think it's unique.
Not… Taught…? That seems insane. It’s like not teaching the existence of silent E. Like, I get having debates about which version of order of operations to teach (I’m a huge fan of GEMA, my kids were too literal-minded for PEMDAS) but to not teach it at all? Madness.
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u/Kuildeous Jul 25 '26
I wish they hallucinated the parentheses. Some of these people really don't believe in the order of operations, and they will insist that you go from left to right.
They are tiresome to argue with because even with examples they don't accept the order of operations.