Survey posted 2000-02-27 20:36 by Andy.

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to all of you who are against letting calcs on tests:
try to figure out the deferential of a 10*10 matrix BY HAND!
now use your nifty matrix solver on your calc.
which is easyer?!
this is the one reason that i worship my calc in algebra2/trig this calc has helped me jump ahead of the rest of the class by 4 weeks. and don't think that i'm just relying on the calc. normally you have to know how to make the problem into a form that is accepted by the calc so you do still have to think.

i jumped ahead of my alg 2 class just because it was easy

This may be true, but the point of testing is not to see if you can calulate any problem, it is to see if you are capable of applying the concepts. There is no reason why w/o a calculator, you wouldn't be given a smaller matrix.

You are NEVER going to see a 10x10 matrix on a standardized test! The point is to see if you know how to solve A matrix, not if you can plug lots of numbers into your matrix solver of your calculator. The tests is not designed to give you tedious work. It is merely designed to see if you understand concepts.

I got my calculator really early, in 7th grade. I actually saw a couple of my friends playing games on theirs and thought it was cool. Then I realized I would need one for Algebra next year. So I went out and got an 83. Then I got interested in ticalc.org, programming, got an 89, blah blah blah. But that's not the point.

I was in really stupid math in 7th grade. I just moved to Maryland, and since I wasn't born in their wonderful stuck-up state they thought I was stupid. Of course there was nothing I didn't already know being taught in that class. So I got my flashy 83, which no one knew what the hell it was except that their older brothers all had them. I aced all the tests, cause the questions were simple arithmatic. Click the button and you get it right.

I got kind of cocky, knowing that I could never fail with my calc by my side. Then I got into Algebra this year (that's right, I'm 13, probably the youngest person here), and everyone had an 83 (they were from reallyreallyreally smart math). Then I got my first test. Sure the 83 helped sometimes, but it didn't do all the problems. The test was engineered so that you couldn't use the calc that much. I really had to think, because the calc couldn't do everything.

The moral of another one of my needlessly long stories: It's fine to have a calculator on a test. If the calculator can do all the work, that's the test-maker's fault for making a number-crunching test that doesn't make you think. Or learn anything, for that matter.

- Jeff

uh, you live in Maryland and in the Greenwitch time zone? must be a parallel universe :) BTW, theres probably 12 year olds here.....

fool, look, every message is in greenwich , its an international standard for time you moron, its not his computer displaying the time...its ticalcs...

you're the idiot.. i was referring to the time zone in his bio.........

uh no,again, its the defualt, he just didnt want to change it,moron

Who says he doesn't like it in GMT? I live in EST and my clock is set to GMT.

I live in MST whats the big deal?

still..it means what time zone you live in....

I'm 12 and in Algebra I.

Well, I'm three years old and I just got done with number theory and topology at Oxford.



I wish.

Now your making me feel stupid. I just did all that, but I'm seven.

you should have taken algebra1 in sixth grade

You've made your point that you're way smarter than everone else here (in this forum). Regardless if it's true or not, you sound like a 10 year old bragging/whining about how "smart" he is because he passed a quiz. For all I know, that's what you are. In any case, please stop. Not only will it keep you from pissing "stupid" people off, but, if you try it in real life, you might get some friends, too.
--a a pissed off "moron"

stop the flames. he's only making a point. and in my school, there's a kid who took Algebra I in 5th...

I take back my previous post after reading some of 1/3 comments. Let's all flame that little %#@@!#%$$##

Yeah... If he's so smart, did he do MathCounts in middle school? I'ts a national middle school (7th and 8th grade) math competition, click on the URL for more info. And if he did do it, did he get 65th in the country in seventh grade? (Actually, I can guarantee he didn't, because I did.)

What if he was in 7th grade a different year than you?

Oops. Sometimes my mind stops working, like yesterday when I said that 210 - 55 = 165. It was part of a relatively large problem that I would have gotten right otherwise.

not everybody with talent in math did MATHCOUNTS in middle school. I didn't in 7th grade, and I almost didn't in 8th grade--in favor of a basketball game-- although I had already taken Geometry and Algebra 2, and was in Pre-Calc. Oh, and yes i did go to nationals in 1998--Russell Howes from Utah if they still have it on the site. Seriously, Mathcounts is not a huge priority in some places and with some people.

I've done MathCounts twice for my school. I must say it a very boring competition with problems that seem to have no application in real life. They ask you problems similar to this: (This one's actually from the AMS->10* test, which allows calculators.)

If Joe and the rest of his family have an 8 oz milk/coffee blend each morning, with neither part of the blend every being zero in quantity, and Joe takes 1/4 of the milk and 1/3 of the coffee, how many members are there in the family?

A) 1 B) 2 C) 3 D) 5
E) I really don't care.

Hint: It's not E.

I have better things to do with my time than spend Saturdays solving problems like these. Besides, who said they finish the milk and coffee every morning?

*AMS here does NOT mean Advanced Mathematics Software. It means American Mathematics Society (I think).

That would be the AHSME AMS->10, right?
That problem is not one I remember (at least choice E), what year was it?
And AHSME stands for American High School Mathematics Exam

Has any one else gotten their AMS scores yet? I think I did well and anxious to find out...

Sorry, but AMS -> 10 isn't really all that hard. AMS -> 12 is a bit closer to AHSME level. If you want a really difficult math competition get over 100 on the AHSME and go for the AIME.

Now the AIME.... average score is something like 0.6.

I agree. What kind of question is that?

btw, if this were a real life situation, I'd just ask Joe how many people are in his family.

>Then I got into Algebra this year (that's right, I'm 13, probably the youngest person here)

Troll time.

I started looking on ticalc.org at least 4 years ago. (I'm 16 now)

I finished BC Calculus last year.

Can I have a cookie??? :-)