Powers written the way they are printed, with the exponent raised: work out the value, or write a repeated multiplication as a power.
Grade 5–Grade 9 · every refresh draws a new set · answer key included
Exponents worksheets
Work out the value of each power.
Exponents worksheets — answer key
Work out the value of each power.
24 problems · US Letter · answer key — 2 sheets, page breaks marked in the preview
A power is shorthand for repeated multiplication, and almost every mistake pupils make with them comes from forgetting that: 3⁴ is read as three multiplied by itself four times, not three times four. This page can ask for either direction — the value of a power, or the multiplication it stands for — and the second is the one that fixes the misconception, because writing 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 leaves nowhere to hide.
Grade 5 to Grade 9, ages ten to fifteen. Squares and cubes of small numbers belong in Grade 5 and 6; higher exponents and larger bases in Grade 7 and up, usually just before the index laws are introduced.
Keep the highest exponent at three while the notation is new, and the largest base at ten — 12⁵ is a calculator exercise, not an exponents exercise. Use the expand setting for a lesson, then the value setting for fluency, then both mixed as a check. Powers whose value would run past six digits are skipped automatically, so the page never asks for arithmetic nobody would do by hand.
Multiplying the base by the exponent is the dominant error and it survives a whole page unless the answers are checked: 3⁴ answered as 12. The second is treating 2³ and 3² as the same, which they are not — eight against nine. Both are worth one deliberate question in class rather than a page of corrections.