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| Summary |
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 If all the terms of the polynomial have a common factor, we take out the common factor and factorise . |
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If the polynomial can be expressed as the difference of two squares, |
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| we use a2 - b2 = (a + b) (a - b) |
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Quadratic trinomials of the form x2 + ax + b can be factorised using the identity. (x + a) (x + b) = x2 + x(a + b) + ab. |
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When the trinomial is ax2 + bx + c and  , we follow the following steps. We find two factors whose sum is b, and whose product is a x c. |
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| We split the middle term using these two factors and factorise by grouping the terms. |
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If the polynomial can be expressed as the sum or difference of two cubes we use the following identities. |
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| a3 + b3 = (a + b) (a2 - ab + b2) |
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| a3 - b3 = (a - b) (a2 + ab + b2) |
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