Pre-Algebra uses combining like terms to practice integer arithmetic, so most questions mix positive and negative coefficients and two different letters. Group the terms that share a letter, keep each sign attached to its term, and add the numbers.
Also taught in Algebra 1, at its own level and with its own examples.
Select your difficulty
Pick more than one for a sheet that mixes them.
The preview can look cramped on a phone. The PDF and printed sheet come out normal.
Forgetting that a letter on its own has a coefficient of 1. In 7m - 3m - m the last term is minus 1m, so the total is 3m, not 4m.
Also called collecting like terms.
What you can put on this worksheet
Collecting like terms
−6+7v+8v→ 15v−6
Two or more variables
6y−5y−9x+6y→ −9x+7y
One parenthesis and a loose term
2(−12−6v)+6v→ −6v−24
Distribute, then combine
6(−3a+3)+3(4a+1)→ −6a+21
Questions about these worksheets
Yes. Every combining like terms sheet is free to print and free to download as a PDF. There is no account to make, no email to hand over and no limit on how many you take.
Yes. The answer key prints on a second page, and you can choose whether it shows each question beside its answer or just the answers in a list.
Yes. Print straight from the page, or download the PDF and print that. The sheet is laid out for paper rather than squeezed off a screen, so there is room to work under each question, and the answer key comes out on its own page.
Pre-Algebra is usually taken around 7th or 8th grade, though schools vary and plenty of students meet it earlier or later. Pick the difficulty rather than the grade: the easy level suits a first lesson on it, the hard level suits review before a test.
Yes, as many as you like. The questions are built fresh each time rather than picked from a fixed set of files, so pressing Generate gives a new sheet. That is what you want for a second class, a retake, or two students sitting next to each other.
That is the closest comparison, and Kuta Software is good software. It is also paid software you install on a computer. These worksheets run in a browser tab for free, with no account and nothing to install. Like Kuta, the combining like terms questions are generated when you ask for them rather than pulled from a fixed set of files, so two classes never get the same sheet, and the answer key comes with it.
Yes. There are three levels, and you can tick more than one for a sheet that mixes them, in which case the questions come out easiest first. The harder levels are not just larger numbers: they ask for something the easy ones do not.
You pick from 4: collecting like terms, two or more variables, one parenthesis and a loose term and distribute, then combine. Tick as many as you want and set how many of each, or let it spread them evenly.
Combining terms that are not alike. 4x + 3 is not 7x, and x squared never joins with x however similar they look. The sign in front of a term belongs to it.