In order to be able factor easily you first have to totally memorize your 12 times tables.

If you didn’t totally memorize your 12 times tables, then factoring will be really hard for you.

Factoring will be even easier the more times tables you memorize. So you might want to memorize your 16 times tables or even 20 times tables.

Anyway, here’s an example of how you factor.

Say you have something like:

9x² + 12x + 4

How do you factor that?

1. First thing you do, is you write on your paper 9 x 4=36.

   In case you didn’t know, the reason we’re doing that is 9 is the number in front of the x² part, and 4 is the number with no ‘x’ after it. So that is the first number you write down.

2. The next thing you do is you write down 12. Why is it 12? Because 12 is the number beside the plain ‘x’ (the ‘x’ ALONE, NOT the x² part).

Ok, so now on your paper you should have this:

STEP 1: 9 x 4 = 36

STEP 2: 12

So here’s what you have to do now. You have to find 2 numbers that MULTILPLY to equal 36, and at the same time, those 2 numbers should ALSO add up to 12.

Hmm. That can be hard to figure out . . . UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR TIMES TABLES REALLY WELL!! Then its easy. You would know that 6 x 6 = 36. And lo and behold, 6 + 6 = 12. So The numbers are just 6 and 6.

Then, you write:

9x² + 6x + 6x + 4
= 3x( 3x + 2 ) + 2( 3x + 2 )
= (3x + 2) (3x + 2)
= (3x + 2)²