Every Pair of Terms, Every Sign

Expanding and factoring are the same move run in two directions — one multiplies a product out, the other runs it backward. Watch where careful students still leak points: dropping a square's middle term, mishandling the difference of squares, a sign slip inside the factor pair, and handing back a factor when a root was asked. Keep the middle term, read the sign between the squares, hold every sign steady, then report the exact object the item names.

8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · a square keeps its middle term · factor ≠ root · v1