Posted by Adriana on Thursday, June 14, 2012 at 12:29pm.
Usually factoring by grouping is useful when patterns jump out at you:
x^3 + 3x^2 - 6x - 18
you can see x(x^2-6) + 3(x^2-6)
In your problem, that's not likely, so grouping is not a useful method. Instead, factor out the 3x to get
3x(5x^2 - 3x - 2)
Now, if you want to use grouping, you have to play around a bit:
5x^2-3x-2 = 5x^2-5x + 2x-2
= 5x(x-1) + 2(x-1)
= (5x+2)(x-1)
Again, picking up on how to group is a skill learned through experience. Just buckle down and do a few hundred exercises, and you too will be proficient!
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