ALGEBRA: Three Methods of Factoring Quadratics

"Box" Method Without Factoring First

"Box" Method With Factoring First

"Differences of Squares"
Example:  x² – 4 = (x – 2)(x + 2)

"Removing Common Factors" or "GCF"  "GREATEST COMMON FACTOR"

Example:  2x² + 4x

Notice that each term has a factor of 2x, so we can rewrite it as:

2x² + 4x = 2x(x + 2)