College Math Placement Practice Test 2026 - Free College Math Questions and Study Guide

To evaluate the expression 3(4 - 2) + 7, we follow the order of operations, often remembered by the acronym PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division (from left to right), Addition and Subtraction (from left to right)).

First, we start with the parentheses in the expression. Within the parentheses, we have (4 - 2), which simplifies to 2.

Next, we substitute this back into the expression. This gives us 3(2) + 7.

Now we perform the multiplication: 3 times 2 equals 6. This simplifies the expression further to 6 + 7.

Finally, we carry out the addition: 6 + 7 equals 13.

It seems there may have been an error in the previously provided answer; the correct evaluation of the expression is 13, which doesn't match any of the given options. Therefore, it's important to carefully follow each step of the order of operations to ensure the correct result.