Survey posted 2000-07-10 22:54 by Nick Disabato.

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I myself just turned 14......I've had a TI-83 since I was in 6th grade. I knew how to use it too. I programmed the first chance I got. I later got a TI-89 (HW 1, currently AMS 2.03) before I turned 13. It proved extremely useful to me in my Algerba 1 class because of its algebraic capabilities. I didn't use it to cheat at all....only to check my homework and find the answers to problems I had no idea how to do. The fact that I scored the highest in school in the Algebra 1B exam with only an old TI-82 to use proves this. I don't bother learning ASM because it is not much of a useful skill. I rather spend my time trying to learn C++ or something. I don't think that knowing Motorola 68000 Assembly language will be a useful job quality.....unless you plan to get a job at Palm Computing or something. I'll probably learn it some day.....but for now....I'll concentrate on C++ instead.

P.S.-
I know a fair amount of info about calculators....I'm not here just for the games....unlike SOME people here.

--Ethereale89

With ONLY a TI-82? That thing's a lot better than a scientific calculator. A good thing to shoot for, I think, is getting a 30+ on the ACT without any calculator whatsoever. I've done it, and I've had to say it was kinda fun... :-)

Anyway, it does help you out if you start out with no calculator on standardized tests, in, say 6th grade, and by the time you're in high school, you'll already be getting 36's and 1600's by sophomore year... :-)

hmmmm.....I forgot to tell you that the batteries were basically dead on it. I barely even used it. When I absolutely HAD to use it....I had to look at it all slanted so I could see the LCD display. I didn't bother asking for a new calculator becuz our school barely had enough in the 1st place....and all the batteries on the calculators are dead anyway.

umm...if i got a 24 on tha ACT in 6th grade, what should i get next year in 10th grade?

umm...if i got a 24 on the ACT in 6th grade, what should i get next year in 10th grade?

Oh yeah, I got a 1040 on the SAT when I was 10! And I used a standard four-function calculator. I hadn't even taken Algebra 1-2 yet. I had taught myself basic algebra from a textbook at home.

We have a test that we take in school, where I live, called an ISAT, which is an SAT thing for younger kids. In 6th grade, I took the math test and missed 2 questions, at an 8th grade level, which included over 200 questions, and I only used a simple blue, $10.00, TI-math explorer calculator.

Do you live in Illinois? I took an ISAT once too, but it only came out the year before I went to high school. Before that we had these equally-easy IGAP tests.

It depends what classes you take. In 6th grade, I got a 30, and in 9th grade I got a 34. But my friend got a 29 in 6th grade and a 30 in 9th grade, because he was a year behind me in math. He was pretty frustrated and didn't want to guess on all those trig questions. :-)

Of course, it also depends on the person, so it's almost impossible for anyone who doesn't know you to predict your score.

ASM for the 68k is like ASM for any other processor. if your going to any programming course in the university, it's good pratice. or more hardware especific probably... but it shows you how processores really work, and the basics are quite interesting.
---
Cd_Slayer

hey im not one of those people. in 5th grade i got an 82, was programming games after less than one week with it. WITH NO TUTORIALS. i began using variables and more complicated stuff after 4 weeks. i made a graphical RPG soon after, and six months after that, i got an 86. before turning 12, i got an 89. some people get $200 calcs and can't program them. but i'm with my 89, still programming my head off, yet im not even 13 yet... not to brag or anything, but..... I AM THE GREATEST! I RULE ALL!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

sorry about that

sorry, typo up there. i am 13, just turned it a while back, but i always think im still 12

GROW UP! :P
snif... feel my envy...
---
Cd_Slayer

I agree. Grow up punk kid. :P

You don't mean ASM do you?

I got a 36 on ACT math and an 800 on SAT math. And I didn't even use the TI-30x I brought.

And how old would you be?

I see that we all like to brag here...

I can't see why you would need a calculator when you're only 12-13-14 years old?! No way is the math so complicated that you need an advanced calculator to do it. I got my TI-82 when I was 17 and even now (19) I usually use the paper more than the calculator. And I don't think I would need a TI-98 before university, so how can 12 year olds come up with the idea that they need a TI-89??!!

Cuco

i know what you mean... the first time you should ever need a graphing clac is in alg2. i don't know why anyone in regular algebra or like 6th grade math would even need it... how hard is it to factor? gosh~!

I think it depends on what school you go to. In about .1% of all cases, you'd need an 89 before freshman year of high school, so I agree with you there. But my high school is this math/science fortified state-funded school, which strongly emphasizes math and science. And they say it's best to have an 89 when you start out there. Other high schools, however, simply get along with an 83 throughout the entire high school career.

Yeah, I got a 83 for my sophmore year but I realized how inferior it was compared with my friend's 89 so I sold my 83 and bought an 89 my junior year. I go to a college prep school and you need something better that an 83 by your junior year. I see absolutly no reason though for getting a graphing calc until your sophmore year.

i probably should have gotten my 89 before my freshman year (99-00), but i didn't get it until the Calculus AP test that year.

Note: Don't take BC if you've only taken a one year calculus course, i didn't know half the stuff on that thing. I'll take AB next year so i can get a 5 instead of a 1 or 2 (if i even get that).

It doesn't really matter. The BC test has an AB subscore, so you can get one semester of credit for the AB topics even if you don't pass BC. And it's unrealistic to think that there would be such a large difference between your AB and BC scores. All the BC students I know got the same score for both AB and BC.

Let me get this strait. Insert AB into slot BC, umm... then repeat w, AC and BB? Or BC insto Ab... darn, im confused now :-P

My point was that i didn't like the feeling of taking the test and not knowing half of the stuff on the test. If I had taken AB, I might have had some feeling of accomplishment. Oh well, I still have 3 more years...

Knowing that you took calculus as a freshman makes me wonder whether you went through the previous math courses so fast that you didn't really learn enough to be prepared for BC Calculus.

Since you've already taken the BC test, what did you get for the AB subscore?

Oh, and this has to do with calculators? My 89 mightve helped me get a 4 in AB, but it didn't so shlt for my 5 in english :P

Our school gets along with a TI-81 for every math class except for the most advanced one offered. For that one you use a TI-82!

But what are they going to do in the future? It's not like you can still buy TI-81's from most stores.

I am 13 years old and I have a TI-89. However, unlike most 13 year olds, I actually need and use my calculator. Beginning in in September, I will be starting Integrated II (Integrated II ~ Geometry). That is tenth grade math, and sometimes it can get a bit difficult for an eighth grader, even though I got 100% by the end of Integrated I (Integrated I ~ Algebra I). My TI-89 helps *a lot* when it comes to using its algebraic equation solving system and its other features, and I believe it will help me for [many] years to come.

BTW: I still use it for games and other miscellaneous recreational purposes :)

- 13 or under #3

I'm 19, and will be turning 20 in less than a month. DAMN I'm old around here! Ok, hrmm. I had an 81. Then saw a friends games on his 82, played with my 81 and got it to do silly stuff, then got an 85. Played with my 85, wrote literally 50 games for it, even with fast graphics. But it got to slow. So I started learning asm. It sucked. So I went back to basic for another 6 months. Then sophomore year in high school I tried it again. Got hello world to work again, and then got simple text to move around the screen. Got key pressing to work, make a tick-tack-toe game, then procedded to make a graphical racing game for ZShell and then Usgard. I later started a side-scroller, because I thoguht I could do better than Jimmy Mardell and some guy making mario (little did I realize how much a feat this would be). Literally wrote the entire sidescroller but never found a small collision bug. Got frustrated, put it down. Came back to it, but never got it working, lost the source code, so gave out the old .85s file anyways. Started a new game, a new racing game, made it ultra modular, wrote a menu engine that could be used in all kinds of stuff, got frustrated with the asm programming cycle (program, link, run, crash, fuck!, take out batteries, on for a few seconds, load usgard again, go back to code, scratch head, try something, link, run, crash, fuck!....) so went back to computer programming. Discoverd C++ this year, and I think I'm never going back. =-( Another one bites the dust. And yet I still read ticalc.org every day, several times a day in fact.
-Will

uh oh, naughty language
*tsk*

Hmmm... Here in Europe we can't even use a graphing calculator up to the 2nd year of university. I bought my 89 last year (when in 4th year of university and is very useful for me, btw) but I really don't see the point of using a TI89 in a 13 year old kid mathematics. I think that you guys are not learning at all simply because the calc does everything for you. Well, perhaps it's not your fault (I would do the same...), but of the American educational system.

I dont know about the other people here in America, but I have to show my work on every problem and having the right answer is only worth 1 point out of 10

Sounds like the rules I see all the time.

Sometimes I do the problem on my calculator, then do the problem, so I know if I'm on the right track.

exactly. I think that work ethic is the reason most Americans are so dumb. Americans learn exactly what they need to know to score well on a test: nothing more, nothing less. This defeats the purpose of school: to learn.

Geez, PLEASE stop Stereotyping.....

I will admit to not being an average american when it comes to school type things (especially math/science), but, there ARE others like me out there...

I learn everything that is taught, then use my calc on the easy ones that take 10 minutes to do. Sometimes, if I feel like doing it myself, I do it without the calc, since I know that graphing calculators aren't allowed on most of our tests anyway. So I don't use it to cheat or to slack off, I use it as a learning assistant :)

BTW: I'm not in 13 year old math, I'm in 15 year old math (as stated above). Sorry, I just couldn't let that one go :)

Back in my day, I couldn't use a calculator until I got into pre algebra and that was a little ti-25x (all you needed was scientific). I bought an 86 for algebra 2 and really didn't need it. the whole perpouse of a graphing calculator is manly calculas and advance algebra. Their is absolutly no need for a graphing calculator in geo. People are going higher and higher in math classess because they don't know how to do it they just let the calculator do it. Go out and buy a cheap little scientific calculator and use it until you need to graph. We're getting stupider and letting the computer do all the math for us. If you depent on your calculator to cheat your way through math you don't belong there.

The Integrated series encourages--nay, REQUIRES--a graphing calculator. It probably is not required for geometry, but I do remember having to calculate one-var stats and two-var stats with a calculator for Integrated I, II, and III. Probably this is the only thing people had to use their calculators for. (We were not taught the least-squares algorithm, just the med-med algorithm for fitting data to a function.)

I should add that Integrated II is NOT just about Geometry. It mixes in topics from Algebra, Geometry, discrete math/probability, matrix theory, etc.

Having gone through the Integrated series, I will agree with anyone who says the Integrated program emphasizes too heavily use of a calculator. In fact I'm in college now, and many math professors there forbid the use of calculators, (even) for lower division classes.

And please, don't let yourself become addicted to using your calculator for arithmetic. It would be a really sad thing if you lost the ability to do operations on fractions.

This concludes my post.
-meingts

remember a calculator can do much more than math. mine serves as gameboy (i hate saying that but, well, it is summer and i also have a gameboy but i like breakout too much), calculator, and i am learning to program BASIC so i would have bought it w/ my own moola. oh and i'm fifteen. :)

As he just said, Integrated II is not Geometry. I just provided that as an approximate guide to the math course level. And don't worry, I don't become addicted to it for math.

I'm in the same situation as you (finished Alg1 in 7th and going on to Geo in 8th), although I'm still 12. I think I'm the youngest person here (Birthday on Aug14).

Anyway, even though I didn't use it to its full potential, the 86 was extremely useful in *checking* my homework, especially quad and compound equations. For factoring, I just use Mathematica (it's REALLY annoying to factor huge polynomials by hand)

nope. i did the same thing, and i got along fine with a scientific calculator. besides, with geometry, you don't really need a TI. I also took it in 8th grade.

You're right. Geometry doesn't really require a calculator at all.

I also took it in 8th grade (4 years ago)

Isn't there anyone here who decided to skip pre-aglebra altogether and do this?

6th: alg1
7th: geometry
8th: alg2, precalc (block schedule at high school, full year class only one semester)
9th: calculus
10th: signed up for prob&stat but they didn't give it to me. No math next year!!!!

nope. i did the same thing, and i got along fine with a scientific calculator. besides, with geometry, you don't really need a TI.

cuz some actually know how to use them

Exactly. My teachers in 6th grade wouldn't even let us use a calculator and I'm extremely grateful that they had that rule. You shouldn't even need a [graphing] calculator until the beginning of the middle of your Algebra2 class. That's when I got my TI-83+. And even then, I had to pay for almost half of it.

Im 13 and in august i will be starting geometry because we have an advanced placement system and i'm smart so i got skipped a year or 2 in math.

> And I don't think I would need a TI-98 before university

I don't think you'll ever need a _TI-98_

I got a calculator when I started calculus because it was required. I don't know what to use it for with that really, But it is good for checking some graphs. I did use it for some physics labs in college ... since their macs didn't do the math right for some reason...stupid old building ... had to use it right before they opened new one.

Anyway, congrats to you millions that can ace those tests at 10. I personally consider you an extreme geek since you had to talk your parents into letting you take the test (and probably what it was). Although, those tests mean nothing. I used to work with a genius in calc classes, the guy was smart, complete weirdo though. Don't be all pushy about what you can do, it only hurts you.

-Corey

It's pretty useful in Algebra I (which I just finished, I'm almost 13), for checking answers, especially on quadratic equations.

That is what I am thinking. I didn't even use a TI until 9-10th grade! (And no, i wasn's behind or anything...not needing one) I didn't need it before then and it wasn't required. If you are depending in a TI in 4-5-6 grade, wait until you get up to Calc or Precal. Or higher. Then if for some crazy reason you can't use a calculator or better yet, leave it at home, then where are you? Needing an 82 for algebra 1 is even a little easy. what's in algebra 1, factoring? synthetic division? graphing a line? come on!

I was just reading your account information and I have just one thing to say on the issue. LONG LIVE STAR TREK!

Hey! There actually *is* a girl on this site!

Maybe...

Remember what happened with Laura Thompson though?

How could anyone _not_ remember?