order of combined like terms

[Kurt_is_]

My question isn't homework. I need to take a math test for college and I haven't used math in 10 yrs. I don't remember much, but in my prep-test I came across "simplify by combining like terms" problems. My question then is this, how do you decide which order the answer goes in? I will give two problems with answers to show what I'm talking about.
3(x +2y) - 2(3x - y)= -3x + 8y
-4(y - 2x) - 2(3x + y)= 2x - 6y
My practice test gave me the answers which is what I got except the second answer I put -6y +2x because y came before x in the equation. This link http://www.freemathhelp.com/combining-like-terms.html gave me the same answer I came to. So does order matter? If it does how is the order decided?

 

[Loren]

My question isn't homework. I need to take a math test for college and I haven't used math in 10 yrs. I don't remember much, but in my prep-test I came across "simplify by combining like terms" problems. My question then is this, how do you decide which order the answer goes in? I will give two problems with answers to show what I'm talking about.
3(x +2y) - 2(3x - y)= -3x + 8y
-4(y - 2x) - 2(3x + y)= 2x - 6y
My practice test gave me the answers which is what I got except the second answer I put -6y +2x because y came before x in the equation. This link http://www.freemathhelp.com/combining-like-terms.html gave me the same answer I came to. So does order matter? If it does how is the order decided?

3(x +2y) - 2(3x - y) = <<<Remove parenthesis
3x + 6y - 6x + 2y = <<<Gather like terms and then combine.
3x - 6x + 6y + 2y = -3x + 8y or 8y - 3y <<<Either is correct. Some people like to have the terms in alphabetical order (x before y) and other people like to have the first term be a positive term if possible.

-4(y - 2x) - 2(3x + y)= <<<Remove parenthesis
-4y +8x -6x - 2y = <<<Gather like terms
-4y -2y +8x -6x = <<<Combine like terms
-6y + 2x or 2x - 6y <<< Either is correct.

 

[Kurt_is_]

Thanks for answering. It was really confusing me, but now i see there is nothing to be confused about.