College Algebra CLEP Prep Practice Exam 2026 – The All-in-One Resource for Exam Success!

To determine the value of -3^2, it's essential to carefully consider the order of operations, specifically how exponentiation and negation are handled in mathematical expressions. The expression -3^2 can be analyzed as follows:

1. First, evaluate the exponentiation: 3^2 equals 9.

2. Next, apply the negative sign to the result of the exponentiation. This means taking the negative of 9, which results in -9.

Thus, the value of -3^2 is indeed -9. The choice that represents this correctly is option A.

The choice provided, which claims the answer is -27, arises from a misunderstanding of how the negative sign interacts with the exponentiation. It’s important to recognize that the exponent applies only to the base number (in this case, 3) unless parentheses indicate otherwise. If the expression had been written as (-3)^2, where the base includes the negative sign, the evaluation would then be different, resulting in a positive 9.