Level 5-6 Algebra - Equations with Letters on Both Sides

As part of your KS3 Maths studies you'll have been looking at algebra. It's often the case in algebra that you'll be faced with equations that have letters on both sides of their equals signs. Remember the rule 'change sides, change signs' and you won't go very far wrong.

To help you, you might use the ‘cover-up’ method. This is best explained using an example, 3x + 4 = 10. Cover up the x-term with your finger, and replace it with ‘what’. In our example this becomes ‘what plus 4 equals 10?’ The answer is obviously 6. The next line becomes what was covered up and the answer, so 3x = 6. This easily leads to the final answer, x = 2. This method is a bit harder to apply when the variable is on both sides of the equal sign however.

This quiz will give you plenty of practise solving equations with letters on both sides. By the time you've finished you'll be a dab hand!.