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MA10-04 Maths Coming soon

Factorising by Taking Out a Common Factor

MA10-04

This lesson is coming soon.

In this lesson

Factorise an expression by extracting the full highest common factor (numeric and algebraic) and verify the result by multiplying back out.

What it covers

  • Extracting the complete highest common factor (numeric and/or algebraic) from a two-or-more-term expression into a single bracket
  • Verifying a factorisation by multiplying the bracket back out

Key words

For: AQA GCSE 8300, Edexcel GCSE 1MA1, Eduqas GCSE C300, Edexcel IGCSE 4MA1, OCR GCSE J560, Cambridge IGCSE 0580

On the specification

BoardSpecStatement
AQA GCSE 8300A4Notation, vocabulary and manipulation
Edexcel GCSE 1MA1A4Notation, vocabulary and manipulation
Eduqas GCSE C300FA4Simplify and manipulate algebraic expressions (including those involving surds) by: collecting like terms; multiplying a single term over a bracket; taking out common factors; expanding products of two binomials; factorising quadratic expressions of the form x² + bx + c, including the difference of two squares; simplifying expressions involving sums, products and powers, including the laws of indices
Eduqas GCSE C300HA4Simplify and manipulate algebraic expressions (including those involving surds and algebraic fractions) by: collecting like terms; multiplying a single term over a bracket; taking out common factors; expanding products of two or more binomials; factorising quadratic expressions of the form x² + bx + c, including the difference of two squares; factorising quadratic expressions of the form ax² + bx + c; completing the square; simplifying expressions involving sums, products and powers, including the laws of indices
Edexcel IGCSE 4MA1F2.2DTake out common factors
OCR GCSE J5606.01eTake out common factors.
Cambridge IGCSE 0580C2.2Simplify expressions by collecting like terms.
Cambridge IGCSE 0580E2.2Simplify expressions by collecting like terms.
For teachers

This GCSE Maths lesson teaches factorising by taking out a common factor. By the end, students should be able to factorise an expression by extracting the full highest common factor (numeric and algebraic) and verify the result by multiplying back out. It works through three worked examples and the mistakes examiners report.