When calculating with letters it’s important to know what “like terms” are.
Like terms are terms that have the same letters (and those letters have the same powers)
E.g. 3a and 8a and 333a are like terms. But 12a and 4ab and 9c and 12a2 are not like terms.
When multiplying with letters you can multiply like terms and not like terms. When multiplying it doesn’t matter if the terms that are multiplied are the same.
When we write down the product of the multiplication (with letters) we first write down the number of the product. Then the letters in alphabetical order. We don’t have to write down the multiplication sign between the number and the different letters.
Calculation with letters is not so different than calculating with numbers. See here:
7*6*3 = 7*6*3
b*q*p = b*p*q (but we don’t write the multiplication sign between the number and the letters) so
b*q*p = bpq
that means:
3*5 * 2*3 * 6 = the same as 6*5*3*6
3*d * 2*n * p = 6*d*n*p
6*d*n*p = 6dnp
E.g.
Simplify
Solution:
We can’t simplify it any further. Some students find this difficult because you don’t get a real answer in the form of a number. But without more information this is as far as you can get.