Factoring by Grouping

Factoring by Grouping:

Factoring by grouping is usually done when you have at least 4 terms and they do not look to have anything in common. The procedure for that is:

	Remove the GCF if possible.
	Group terms with common factors.
	Remove the GCF of each group.
	Use the distributive law to rewrite the expression.

Example:
Image764.gif (4942 bytes)

Note: When factoring each group, make sure the two groups have a common factor (2a - 3).

Example:
Image765.gif (4596 bytes)

Notice (y + 2) is the common factor for the two groups.