Describe how to factor quadratics.

Step 1:

Write the equation in the correct form. To be in the correct form, you must remove all parentheses from each side of the equation by distributing, combine all like terms, and finally set the equation equal to zero with the terms written in descending order.

Step 2:

Use a factoring strategies to factor the problem.

Step 3:

Use the Zero Product Property and set each factor containing a variable equal to zero.

Step 4:

Solve each factor that was set equal to zero by getting the x on one side and the answer on the other side