1. A constructor that accepts a string that defines one polynomial in the same format as provided in the input file. 2. A compareTo method that compares two polynomials. If the two polynomials have different highest order exponents, the one with the highest exponent is the greatest. If their highest exponents are the same, their coefficients are compared. If two polynomials have the same highest order exponent with the same coefficients the next highest exponent is examined, and so on. 3. An iterator method that produces an iterator the iterates across the terms of the polynomial from highest exponent to lowest and returns and an object that contains only the coefficient and exponent of the next term