Content

• To step
• Tips

Determining the degree of a polynomial, or polynomial, is not difficult and it is useful to be able to. Follow the steps below.

To step

1. Combine like terms. For example: 3x - 3x - 5 + 2x + 2x - x becomes 5x - 3x - 5 + x
2. Remove the constants and the coefficients. Constants are terms that do not contain variables, such as 3 or 5. Coefficients are numbers for the variables. For example, the coefficient of the term 5x is 5. Suppose you have the equation 5x - 3x - 5 + x. If you remove the constants and the coefficients you get x - x + x
3. List the terms in descending order of their exponents. So the term with the highest exponent comes first and the term with the lowest exponent last. So in the example it would be like this:
   -x + x + x.
4. Find the power of the first term. The power is the number of the exponent. in the example, the power of the first term is 4.
5. Now you have the degree of the polynomial. The power of the first term is the degree of the polynomial: 4. Done!

Tips

• In the steps above, we explain the steps as you can perform them in your head. You don't have to put it on paper, but if you're doing it for the first time it might be useful. You are less likely to make mistakes on paper.
• In the third step, a linear term can be like X are written as X and constant terms like 7 can be written as 7X.