Originally Posted by WarChild

Actually, it's not an agreed upon standard. Implied multiplication having a higher priority than explicit is not a standard. Here's at least three Universites that don't teach it:

http://www.math.unt.edu/mathlab/emat...tical_oper.htm
http://ellerbruch.nmu.edu/classes/CS...mack/helen.htm
http://www.r.umn.edu/academics/advis...ions/index.htm

You'll notice that in case they say Multiplciation and Division should be handled left to right with no priority given to implied multiplication.

So, it depends on how you're solving with which set of rules. That's why equations are never written ambigously like this and if you want to get the answer of 2, and only the answer of 2 you need to write it on two lines or with an extra set of parenthesis. As it's written 288 is a valid answer.