Two expressions are equivalent when they name the same number whatever you put in for x. These free printable worksheets give one expression and four candidates, or a pair to judge — and every wrong option is a mistake a real student makes.
If they get stuck
The answer key prints on a separate page.
Multiplying a bracket out and collecting like terms are the sheets before this one; this is the step where a student checks their own work. Every distractor here has a name: 3(x + 2) written as 3x + 2 is the bracket multiplied once instead of twice, 2x + 3 written as 5x is a number added to a term as though it were one, and 4(x − 1) written as 4x + 4 is the minus lost on the way through.
A page of plausible wrong answers is worth more than a page of obviously wrong ones, because the second kind is answered by elimination and teaches nothing. Every option is built from the same numbers as the question for that reason — an option holding a number that appears nowhere can be crossed off without doing any algebra at all.
One question from a sheet like this one, worked a step at a time — with a sentence saying what just happened and why.
Equivalent expressions, step by step