2. What is Algebra?
 Algebra is a branch of mathematics which involves
using symbols to represent values
 Symbols that are commonly used to solve word
problems are letters(eg. A, B, m, n, x, y etc)
 So how exactly do we do that?

3. Example
 Take a look at this example:
John has 2 pencils and Alan has 3 more pencils than
John. How many pencils do the both of them have
altogether?
Here, we have 2 different values, which is number of
pencils John has and number of pencils Alan has.
For the purpose of this example, we will be using the letter
“A” to represent the number of pencils John has.

4. Solving the question
 So, Let A be the number of pencils John has.
Writing this statement is necessary for using Algebra
to solve problem sums.
 Number of pencils Alan has = A + 3
 I can say this because the example states that Alan has
3 more pencils than John, and since A is the number of
pencils John has, we can say that number of pencils
Alan has is 3 more than A.

5. Solving the question
 Hence, number of pencils the both of them have would be
A(number of pencils John has) + A+3(number of
pencils Alan has)
 A+A+3 is the same as 2A+3(Just like how 2+2 = 2 x 2)
 And since the question tells us that John has 2 pencils, A=2.
Thus, 2A+3= 2 x 2 +3= 7
 So the number of pencils John and Alan have altogether is
7.

6. Conclusion
 I hope you have understood the basic concepts of
Algebra, which is using symbols to represent
values, through looking at the example.
 Of course, don’t expect real problem sums in tests to
be this easy as this was just an example question to
show how Algebra works.