Question

how do you find the degree of -7xyto the second power

Answer 1

You mean the degree of the term \(-7xy^2\) ?

Answer 2

yea

Answer 3

The degree of a term is the sum of the exponents of all the variables of the term.
The exponent of y is right there, it's 2.
Remember that the exponent of x is really 1, although it's not written.