Hi Angela,

The parentheses step means evaluating what is inside of a set of parentheses. An expression like 3(2) treats the parentheses as a multiplication step.

An additional thing to note is that the example you gave is simply bad notation and its best practice not to write a somewhat ambiguous expression like that in the first place. It would be better to write either 6 / (2 (1 + 2)) or (6 / 2)(1 + 2) instead to make the statement more clear.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any additional questions!