Four Operations & BODMAS

The four operations — addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division — are the tools you will use in almost every question in the GL 11+ Mathematics exam. This lesson covers efficient methods for each operation and teaches you the correct order of operations (BODMAS).

---

Addition

Column Addition (Standard Method)

Always line up the digits by their place value. Start from the ones column and work left.

    4 5 6 7
  + 2 8 9 3
  ---------
    7 4 6 0

Worked Example: 4,567 + 2,893

• Ones: 7 + 3 = 10 → write 0, carry 1
• Tens: 6 + 9 + 1 = 16 → write 6, carry 1
• Hundreds: 5 + 8 + 1 = 14 → write 4, carry 1
• Thousands: 4 + 2 + 1 = 7

Answer: 7,460

Mental Addition Strategies

• Near doubles: 75 + 76 = (75 + 75) + 1 = 151
• Partition and add: 346 + 258 = 300 + 200 + 40 + 50 + 6 + 8 = 604
• Round and adjust: 399 + 247 = 400 + 247 - 1 = 646

---