AQA GCSE Maths

Expanding brackets

AQA GCSE Maths revision on Expanding brackets. Aligned to the AQA GCSE Mathematics 8300 specification. This bank has 16 practice questions on this topic.

Sample questions (3 of 16)

  1. Question 1

    Expand 3(2x + 5).

    • A) 6x + 5
    • B) 6x + 15
    • C) 2x + 15
    • D) 5x + 15
    Show answer

    Answer: 6x + 15

    Multiply the term outside the bracket by each term inside: 3 x 2x = 6x; 3 x 5 = 15. Result: 6x + 15.

  2. Question 2

    Expand (x + 3)(x + 2).

    • A) x^2 + 5x + 6
    • B) x^2 + 6x + 5
    • C) x^2 + 5
    • D) x^2 + 5x + 5
    Show answer

    Answer: x^2 + 5x + 6

    FOIL: First (x x x = x^2), Outer (x x 2 = 2x), Inner (3 x x = 3x), Last (3 x 2 = 6). Sum: x^2 + 5x + 6.

  3. Question 3

    Expand (x - 4)(x + 1).

    • A) x^2 - 3x - 4
    • B) x^2 + 3x + 4
    • C) x^2 - 5x - 4
    • D) x^2 - 3x + 4
    Show answer

    Answer: x^2 - 3x - 4

    FOIL: x x x = x^2; x x 1 = x; -4 x x = -4x; -4 x 1 = -4. Sum: x^2 + x - 4x - 4 = x^2 - 3x - 4.

Want to test yourself on the remaining cards for this topic?

13 more questions on Expanding brackets — plus mistakes tracking and spaced repetition across the whole Maths spec.