You can begin by writing what you mean, carefully. I think you omitted essential parentheses.Here is the first problem I'm a bit baffled by:
If f(x)= xsquared -5x+4/x-1, then what is f(-2)
I'm not even quite sure where to begin
The mistake in notation x^2-5x+4/x-1 is unfortunately a common one and seen in many textbooks as well as work by professors. However it is critical to know that this notation is not [imath]\dfrac{x^2 - 5x + 4}{x - 1}[/imath]. It is immaterial if it's [imath]x^2-5x+4/x-1[/imath] (with any sized slash) or even [imath]x^2-5x+4 \div x-1[/imath]. Without parentheses this expression is still equal to [imath]x^2 - 5x + \dfrac{4}{x} - 1[/imath] by order of operationsI wasn't aware of the use of the carat symbol for exponents, so thank you for that, but otherwise, I reproduced the problem exactly as it is posed in an SAT practice question, without the ability to illustrate division with a hard horizontal bar.
I'm not sure why you are saying the answers were patronizing? Why do you think that?Still, the answers were helpful if fairly patronizing.