Distributing & Combining Like Terms

When distributing you...

• MULTIPLY exponents and ADD coefficients

• MULTIPLY coefficients and ADD exponent

• MULTIPLY coefficients and MULTIPLY exponents

• ADD coefficients and ADD exponents

You can only combine terms if they have the ...

• SAME variable(s)

  and

  DIFFERNET exponents

• SAME variable(s)

  and

  ADD exponents

• SAME variable(s)

  and

  exponents don't matter

• SAME variable(s)

  and

  SAME exponent