You may have added 8 to $\displaystyle{6}{y}+{3}\usepackage{cmbright}\Huge\$ as your first step, and then solved $\displaystyle{6}{y}+{11}={35}\usepackage{cmbright}\Huge\$ and $\displaystyle{6}{y}+{11}=-{35}\usepackage{cmbright}\Huge\$ . This means you are adding before finding the absolute value, and that is not the correct order of operations. You need to subract 8 from both sides first, and then solve $\displaystyle{6}{y}+{3}={27}\usepackage{cmbright}\Huge\$ and $\displaystyle{6}{y}+{3}=-{27}\usepackage{cmbright}\Huge\$ .