A rational expression simplifies only when the top and the bottom share a factor, and nothing can cancel while they are still sums. These free printable worksheets are the page where factoring is finally for something.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
The wrong move this skill collects is canceling TERMS instead of FACTORS — striking the x² off the top and the bottom of the unfactored form. Every step on these keys happens after both halves are products, which is the answer to it: there is nothing to cancel until there are brackets.
Both quadratics are built from three distinct whole roots, so the cancellation always exists and both halves always factor. A randomly generated pair would fail to factor on almost every draw, which is why a sheet like this cannot be made by picking numbers.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Rational expressions, step by step