<p>I am taking acc.Algebra 2 this year and my school is banning calculators all of a sudden for advanced math classes. I am worried now.I mean its not hard not using calculators because that means we are actually going to learn but all my life i've been using calculators for my math classes. The last time they taught us without calculators was like in 4th grade.That is ridiculous. How am I supposed to do my math now?I forgot to do a lot of it without a calculator.I am not stupid believe me.They just never taught me without a calculator.What do I do?Should I drop it and just go to regular math?I don't know what to do. I don't want to lower my GPA because of this sudden change in my school.</p>
<p>Some colleges do this. I know the intro calculus class at Reed is calculator-free. Higher level math isn’t really about the calculations anyway… they probably want you to be able to actually set up equations, graph, etc. And everyone else in the class is in exactly the same boat you are, so if it causes issues for you it should cause issues for everyone.</p>
<p>My dad, who used a slide rule all the way through college and most of his working life, would think you are being ridiculous. As long as everyone is at the same “disadvantage”, it won’t hurt you. It would be dumb to drop back to a lower level class for this reason (shooting yourself in the foot for college admissions).</p>
<p>If none of the students are going to be using calculators, the test questions will be designed without the use of calculators in mind. A lot of universities (mine included) disallow calculators in math classes as well (and make it so that we don’t need them).</p>
<p>I guess you can learn to use an abacus:P
But I’m pretty sure that you need a calculator to do log in Algebra 2… </p>
<p>It would be a good idea to relearn and practice basic math functions with out a calculator though. I forgot my calculator the day of a test once and I managed it… although I had a huge headache for the rest of the day…</p>
<p>You’ll be fine. I rarely used a calculator when I was in algebra 2. I actually lost it midway through the year (left it in an ACT testing center… it was once of those inexpensive $10 ones) and did most of the equations by hand and the questions that required a calculator, the teacher let use hers. Think of it as practice for AP calculus where on some of the tests you’ll take, you won’t be allowed to use one.</p>
<p>Also this is the opposite of my school… my school is requiring kids in geometry to buy a graphing calculator, which is absurd. (This is also probably why alot of kids had trouble on our first test on limits… no calculator allowed)</p>
<p>I’m a math major and can count the number of times I’ve used my calculator in all my college math courses on two hands (and that was usually just for calculating what grade I needed on a test). Trust me, you <em>need</em> to learn to function (pun intended) independently of your calculator.</p>
<p>Also, you should work on typing a space after each sentence. It’s really unacceptable to just ignore language conventions.</p>
<p>Chill out man!</p>
<p>So are you saying that you don’t understand algebra?..</p>