However excel would return an answer of 18. Ordinarily in your use of Excel you would not embed the expression in a single cell as shown above. Use SHIFT and 8 or if your keyboard has a number pad you will see the star key there.
First BODMAS does not apply to any equations.
In the example on the right we have added brackets around B3B4B5 and now the answer is correct. Mike Whats really scary about this is that BODMAS doesnt appear to be taught any more in schools. When Im running one of my Excel training courses I always ask whether people have heard of BODMAS its usually the older generation that have younger generation not even when Ive explained what it means used an example similar to the one youve done its not. Where there is a multiplication or a division coming after a plus or - minus excel will always use the bodmas model and reverse this equation.