Learn the meaning of like and unlike terms and simplify algebraic expressions by collecting like terms with this BBC Bitesize Maths article. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.

Learn about and revise how to simplify algebra using skills of expanding brackets and factorising expressions with GCSE Bitesize AQA Maths.

Many mathematical operations are easier to handle in this way. “For instance, expression simplification amounts to finding a shorter equivalent representation of a tree,” say Lample and Charton.