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Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

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Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#301

Post by jmb12686 »

jmcphers wrote: post #16
jedberg wrote: post #7

This can be summed up pretty easily. The TI graphing calculator has no internet access and no ability to store notes. Neither ability can be easily added. As long as that is the case, they will win, because the test companies don't want to deal with people having internet access and notes. Now if Apple/Android made a simple way for a test proctor to put your phone into a single app only that you couldn't easily break…

You can easily store notes on a TI calculator. I had a TI-85 in college, and was occasionally guilty of writing TI-BASIC programs to make tests easier (for example, I had one which computed Euler's method).

I can also confirm that it was easy to store "notes" and write programs for TI calculators. The ability to store arbitrary ascii characters saved my butt on quite a few exams in the 2000s. Not quite sure which TI calculator I had, but I want to say 83+?

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#303

Post by analognoise »

madengr wrote: post #286
wlesieutre wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TI-89 is definitely not fair in a calculus class because it can solve most of the problems for you

Back when I was in calc, you actually had to show your work, so a calculator was pointless.

You check your work with the calculator in the extra time after you're done with the test.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#304

Post by asperous »

dTal wrote: post #274
asperous wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried it on mine and it worked fine.

Yes, it worked for you - but surely in an adversarial context, there's absolutely no way to trust a previously untrusted device. In the extreme case, the entire interface might simply be a simulacrum app designed to feign success at locking.

There's actually a lot easier ways of cheating on tests than that even. Teachers still have to watch their students, the solution is just designed to reduce the temptation for the average student to cheat.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#305

Post by souprock »

brewdad wrote: post #3

So long as TI (and other) graphing calculators are the only approved calculators for the SAT and ACT tests, they will continue to sell. For students with college aspirations, purchasing one is mandatory.

Fortunately, that isn't the case.

For the SAT, you may use "All scientific calculators" and "All four-function calculators (not recommended)".

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#306

Post by matthewmcg »

ronsor wrote: post #290
clamprecht wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-programmable calculators were fine - computers were not. A programmable calculator is basically a computer. In a computer you could store data that they couldn't access (encryption, even if it's very basic). Could be a list of gambling debts, escape plans, or other horrors. Most prison rules are "written in blood", so to speak.

Too bad you can do encryption using pen and paper (even RSA).

Or playing cards! https://www.schneier.com/academic/solitaire/

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#307

Post by girvo »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #288
lr4444lr wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could use the Matrix operations common on standard graphing calculator to cheat through a first semester circuits course, and with a little basic programming make a command line prompt that any idiot could fill in to get the right answers. I don't know if most eng. students realize this at the time they take linear circuits, though.

You can also just do matrices by hand. I always found them quite easy once you got the hang of them, very easy and methodical.

That was the first thing my tutor taught me in Grade 11, in preparation for Maths C (via distance education, that was fun). Still use that ability today, along with a fair bit of algebra and simple regressions

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#308

Post by fourier_mode »

jedberg wrote: post #7

This can be summed up pretty easily. The TI graphing calculator has no internet access and no ability to store notes. Neither ability can be easily added. As long as that is the case, they will win, because the test companies don't want to deal with people having internet access and notes. Now if Apple/Android made a simple way for a test proctor to put your phone into a single app only that you couldn't easily break…

For me, you missed the most interesting parts of the article which were the TI's lobbying efforts.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#309

Post by pwg »

lr4444lr wrote: post #188
znpy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The funny thing is to an extent, the performance of the student seems to be inversely proportional to the density of the cheat-sheet. This brings back the memory of the circuit theory exam. You could bring a cheatsheet but it was mostly useless. The test had very simple numbers (1, -1, 2, 1/2, -i or things like that) because the professor didn't want to be bothered checking complex formulas and the difficulty was m…

You could use the Matrix operations common on standard graphing calculator to cheat through a first semester circuits course, and with a little basic programming make a command line prompt that any idiot could fill in to get the right answers. I don't know if most eng. students realize this at the time they take linear circuits, though.

Maybe not all, but some did. Having matrix operations on my HP-15C certainly helped in my circuits exams for solving the simultaneous equations that resulted. And as far as the professors were concerned, solving the simultaneous equations was not the purpose of the exams, so they didn't care /how/ one solved them. The exam was on being able to setup the right simultaneous equations to arrive at the ultimate solution, not on the actual algebra of solving simultaneous equations.

Re: Is the era of the $100 graphing calculator coming to an end?

#310

Post by analog31 »

joezydeco wrote: post #43
sct202 wrote: post #33

How is there not a giant 2nd hand marketplace of TI graphing calculators for super cheap? Like after 30 years of basically producing a functionally identical product that few people need after college, there should be cheap used graphing calculators everywhere.

There is. I bought my son's TI-84 on eBay for 1/3 of the retail price. There are plenty in desk drawers of graduated kids, but they're also pretty beat up. In particular, the display seems to be built very cheaply and prone to damage.

Same here. My son's first one got lost / stolen, so we just got a used one from eBay.
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