General question regarding parenthesis.

Hi MarcvR,

It sounds like you're interested in broader PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction) rules. These rules dictate the order in which you have to do calculations.

In the prompt you've provided, no calculations have actually been done - the prompt has just been re-written (and it's worth noting that the 10^3 and 0.5 were NOT "switched").

Notice how the numbers in both the numerator and denominator are MULTIPLIED. This means that we can re-write the fraction in a variety of different ways. The example that you listed is complex-looking, so I'm going to show you some simpler examples:

(1/2)(3/5) can be rewritten in any of the following ways (notice that the end calculation is always the SAME):

(1/2)(3/5) = 3/10

(1x3)/(2x5) = 3/10

(3x1)/(5x2) = 3/10

(1/5)(3/2) = 3/10

The same rules apply to the example that you listed. It might be that you just need more practice with hands-on calculations.

How long have you been studying?
What resources have you been using?
What is your goal score?
When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich