In UK schools we are taught BODMAS: Brackets Of (as in "to the power of") Divide and Multiply Add and Subtract In the US they say PEMDAS (P and E being parenth

In UK schools we are taught BODMAS: Brackets Of (as in "to the power of") Divide and Multiply Add and Subtract In the US they say PEMDAS (P and E being parentheses and exponent respectively). No doubt other countries use something equivalent. If you apply this rule you will get the right answer, as long as you also remember to carry out operations with the same precedence left-to-right.