<p>What are your guy's thoughts on this? I've seen this happen so many times in my calc classes where those who got A's only did so because they had TI 89s and those who struggled knew the information but had to actually take the time to do the exam and didnt have the same advantage and thus had to suffer.</p>
<p>Just wondering what other people thought</p>
<p>There may be SOME correlation, but I really don’t think having the most expensive calculator makes you do well in math. I know enough people with really high grades in AP Calc and they didn’t have any better calculator that anyone else.</p>
<p>We’re not allowed to use calculators in any math course at our school.</p>
<p>That is why any sensible school has a grading system where you actually have to demonstrate how to solve a problem.</p>
<p>^^ are you serious?? how can you do higher level math w/o a calculator? That seems so hard! or was that a joke :/</p>
<p>Eastafrobeauty, he means show that you can find a derivative or an integral without plugging it into a TI-89 and recording it on a piece of paper in intro calc classes. </p>
<p>The only classes I’ve ever had that we could use a calculator on, the calculator proved useless except for multiplication and stuff. In classes beyond calc they’ll give you “nice” functions if you’re going to need to find a derivative or integral.</p>
<p>Oh no I’m serious. We can use them for my engineering classes and whatever, but if it’s in the math department, there’s no calculators. And idk I guess I’m just used to it? Teachers mostly grade on the process taken, not necessarily any computational error. I don’t know how having a calculator would’ve helped in any of my classes, and I’ve just finished diff eq.</p>
<p>^No calculators in any math course? That’s crazy. I thought it was bad that our math teachers have half of each test as non-calculuator sections!</p>
<p>Karabee, they don’t allow calculators in upper level applied math classes? Or just not in the classes you’ve taken?</p>
<p>Or are you the type who calls applied “math” not math?</p>
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<p>This is funny because I don’t see how a calculator can help with higher level math classes. </p>
<p>And I don’t think applied math necessarily uses calculators - for example I don’t really think they help with combinatorics or theoretical computer science.</p>
<p>Oh I do think that applied math is math, but I know that at least up to DE’s, it’s standard procedure to not allow calculators in any section (and I just found a linear syllabus that stated that the prof doesn’t allow them, although I’m not sure if that’s a general statement or just his preference). I had always assumed that was true for every class, but as an engineer and not a math major, I’ve never really looked into it past linear. They may be able to use them in upper-level classes, but 90% of students taking math at Vandy won’t be able to.</p>
<p>Combinatorics wasn’t really what I was talking about when I said applied math. I meant like stuff like Actuarial science where you’re not really learning “new” math you’re learning how to apply “old” math to “new” problems.</p>
<p>An 89 can bail kids out that don’t know what they ate doing in calc… sometimes</p>
<p>Nah. One of good friends got through Calc BC with an 89. He still got a B in the class.
He’s also retaking Calc 3 this summer since he had to drop it because he wasn’t doing well.</p>
<p>Point: Any legit math class should be such that it is not possible for someone to do well substituting a calculator for actual understanding. And really, any decent math class should allow at most a scientific.</p>
<p>My school does not allow calculators in calc 1 and 2. These are departmental exams. Once your taking 3 and diff qs its up to the professor. I did take a laptop section for differential and used MAPLE which was pretty cool but we also had to do hand calculations.</p>
<p>The school isn’t making the test hard enough if certain calculators give huge advantages. My Calc II class allowed all calculators (none with a keyboard though) and averages were still in the 40s and 50s.</p>
<p>Explain to me how a calculator such as the TI-89 can do every problem? I bet it can’t do trinominals and solve for X. i have a ti-84 is there some type of program that can do it all?</p>
<p>I’ll be honest: when I took Calculus, the TI-89 was an excellent tool to check my answers and point me in the right directions. Of course, I didn’t use it to cheat on tests, etc., it’s undeniable that I benefited greatly from it. It’s an educational resource that’s out there, and it’s much cheaper than a tutor. Use it.</p>
<p>That said, these days, I don’t even bother with a calculator for most situations, and in the rare case where I just have to do a lot of ugly decimals, a solid scientific calculator is my choice.</p>
<p>Calculators do arithmetic, humans do math.</p>
<p>in college, you’ll either use a fancy computer program (mathematica, maple, matlab)
or
you’ll do things by hand</p>
<p>I wonder how you can divide decimels :/</p>