Factoring Worksheet

This factoring strategy was taken from the Integrated Review on page 380 in your text.
It gives a general strategy for factoring polynomials . Read through it and then try to use
the general method to factor the following polynomials.

Factoring a Polynomial

1. Are there any common factors ? If so, factor out the GCF .

2. How many terms are in the polynomial ?

(a) If there are two terms, decide if one of the following can be applied.

i. Difference of two squares :
ii. Difference of two cubes :
iii. Sum of two cubes :

(b) If there are three terms, try one of the following.

i. Perfect square trinomial :
ii. If not a perfect square trinomial , factor using the methods presented in 6.2
and 6.3.

(c) If there are four or more terms, try factoring by grouping.

3. See if any factors in the factored polynomial can be factored further.

4. Check by multiplying .

And a few more difficult ones.