This girl applied to 35 colleges

[Nan in Mass]

I think graphing calculators used not to be allowed but then they changed the rules. At least, that is what I remember from when my older children were taking the SAT. Now I think the dividing line is whether there is an alphabetic keyboard?

 

From the college board site: (but there are changes being made so I don't know what the new rules are)

 

Calculator primer

• Students should bring a calculator with which they are familiar and comfortable. Their degree of familiarity with the operation of a calculator may affect how well they do on the test.
  
• Students should bring extra batteries and, if possible, a backup.
  calculator—test center staff do not have batteries or extra calculators.
  
• Students are not required to clear the memory on their calculators before testing.
  
• Students are not permitted to share their calculators. Students who use their calculators to share or exchange information during the test are dismissed and their scores are canceled.
  
• Students using a calculator with a large (characters one inch or more high) or raised display that might be visible to other test-takers are seated at the discretion of the test supervisor.
  

The following are not allowed:

• Calculators with QWERTY (typewriter-like) keypads
  
• Calculators that contain electronic dictionaries
  
• Calculators with paper tape or printers
  
• Calculators that "talk" or make noise
  
• Calculators that require an electrical outlet
  
• Cell-phone calculators
  
• Pocket organizers or personal digital assistants
  
• Handheld minicomputers, PowerBooks, or laptop computers
  
• Electronic writing pads or pen-input and stylus-driven devices (the Sharp 9600-EL can be used without the stylus)
  

And for the SAT subject tests:

What is and is not allowed for the SAT Subject Tests on test day

 

The only Subjects Tests for which calculators are allowed are Mathematics Level 1 and Mathematics Level 2. A scientific or graphing calculator is necessary for these tests. A graphing calculator may provide an advantage over a scientific calculator on some questions.

Calculator primer

• Students should bring a calculator with which they are familiar and comfortable. Their degree of familiarity with the operation of a calculator may affect how well they do on the test.
  
• Students should bring extra batteries and, if possible, a backup calculator-test center staff do not have batteries or extra calculators.
  
• Students are not required to clear the memory in their calculators.
  
• Students are not permitted to share their calculators. Students who use their calculators to share or exchange information during the test are dismissed and their scores are canceled.
  
• Students using a calculator with a large (characters one inch or more high) or raised display that might be visible to other test-takers are seated at the discretion of the test supervisor.
  

The following are not allowed:

• Calculators with QWERTY (typewriter-like) keypads
  
• Calculators that contain electronic dictionaries
  
• Calculators with paper tape or printers
  
• Calculators that "talk" or make noise
  
• Calculators that require an electrical outlet
  
• Cell phone calculators
  
• Pocket organizers or personal digital assistants
  
• Hand-held minicomputers, PowerBooks, or laptop computers
  
• Electronic writing pads or pen-input and stylus-driven devices (the Sharp 9600-EL can be used without the stylus)
  

[regentrude]

Well on the trig question would it force the student to demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between the trig functions?

 

How? If you know sin x= number, you use the inverse button on your calculator to find x. Then you punch in whatever new trig function they want. OK, if they want cot, you have to know that it is 1/tan. But it does not test any relationships between the two functions in the problem.

[regentrude]

btw, I don't know this. ( Or whatever rule it is. And I'm not looking it up, because I don't care.)

Hasn't stopped me from doing just fine in physics. (Well, way more than fine back in the day when I was still taking classes.)

To me, that's a random fact that generally is of no use UNLESS one is taking a standardized test. Otherwise, you can just figure it out when you need it. Just so long as you aren't being timed.

 

All you need to know that sin 30 degrees =0.5.

And that is one of the approximately three values most trig students have, and should have, memorized.

Which is actually rather useful.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

 

 

How? If you know sin x= number, you use the inverse button on your calculator to find x. Then you punch in whatever new trig function they want. OK, if they want cot, you have to know that it is 1/tan. But it does not test any relationships between the two functions in the problem.

I think it's obvious to you but not all student will know how to go from the number to the angle, or that cot is cotangent is the reciprocal of tangent.

 

I would guess that while many students could button mash their way to Sinx=number there are plenty who don't know or remember how to go backwards. And there are plenty who will be looking for the cot button and wondering why their calculator doesn't have one.

[Nan in Mass]

I think it's obvious to you but not all student will know how to go from the number to the angle, or that cot is cotangent is the reciprocal of tangent.

 

I would guess that while many students could button mash their way to Sinx=number there are plenty who don't know or remember how to go backwards. And there are plenty who will be looking for the cot button and wondering why their calculator doesn't have one.

 

So the question is meant to be a really easy trig question?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

 

 

So the question is meant to be a really easy trig question?

 

 

Like many things it's easy if you know it. A student with no trig or one who only learned how to put Sinx into their calculator but not to do the reverse or to know the relationships between the functions would struggle.

 

If I give a poetry excerpt and ask someone to identify a kenning it's easy for some and not for others. Not every SAT question has to be upper level.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

 

All you need to know that sin 30 degrees =0.5.

And that is one of the approximately three values most trig students have, and should have, memorized.

Which is actually rather useful.

 

Sure, but this goes back to teaching methods with trig. If students have to go through a phase of writing that sin=opp/hyp then they will probably realize that no matter how long the values for the leg and hyp are, sin30 is always the same. But if they find sin30 by putting it into the calculator, why would they pick up on it being an easy to remember number. In other words, what makes that value different from sin37 or sin130 ? They are all just results on the screen.

[regentrude]

Sure, but this goes back to teaching methods with trig. If students have to go through a phase of writing that sin=opp/hyp then they will probably realize that no matter how long the values for the leg and hyp are, sin30 is always the same. But if they find sin30 by putting it into the calculator, why would they pick up on it being an easy to remember number. In other words, what makes that value different from sin37 or sin130 ? They are all just results on the screen.

 

 

Absolutely. If they are taught poorly and just use the calculator without thinking, you are right. (And for that matter, ANY math curriculum that heavily relies on calculator use will cause conceptual deficits.)

If they are, however, using a well designed trig curriculum that is teaching the students without resorting to calculator problems, the student will have used sin30=0.5 frequently. He will also have noticed that the 3-4-5 triangle with angles 37 and 53 degrees has values of 3/5 and 4/5 for the sine and cosine functions and will probably have used this a dozen times (so yes, sin 37 is special as well, LOL)

 

My kids don't get to use a calculator through calculus, except for their science classes. No need for calculator in trigonometry - it just detracts from the actual learning that can take place and often misses the objective of a problem.

I am aware that this is not the reality of some programs used in ps, and I pity the students who have to suffer the consequences.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

 

Absolutely. If they are taught poorly and just use the calculator without thinking, you are right. (And for that matter, ANY math curriculum that heavily relies on calculator use will cause conceptual deficits.)

If they are, however, using a well designed trig curriculum that is teaching the students without resorting to calculator problems, the student will have used sin30=0.5 frequently. He will also have noticed that the 3-4-5 triangle with angles 37 and 53 degrees has values of 3/5 and 4/5 for the sine and cosine functions and will probably have used this a dozen times (so yes, sin 37 is special as well, LOL)

 

My kids don't get to use a calculator through calculus, except for their science classes. No need for calculator in trigonometry - it just detracts from the actual learning that can take place and often misses the objective of a problem.

I am aware that this is not the reality of some programs used in ps, and I pity the students who have to suffer the consequences.

 

Even with the sin37 example you give, I just have significant doubts that students will have dealt with the numbers as a ration much beyond the first couple of lessons. So why wouldn't they have answers like sin37=.6018 and cos37 = .7986 as the calculator spits out for them. It's been ages since I worked with trig. But I do remember seeing how the numbers in the tables marched up and down in orderly fashion, with a few numbers sticking out with their regularity. But what in the current instruction gives a student that experience now. (Listen to me. Next I'll be rhapsodizing over steam tables.)

 

But that isn't how we're teaching the current generation. I was chatting with one of our scout leaders over the weekend about math class. His 8th grade son is in algebra 1. But his only text for the first part of the year was an online etext. And as isn't surprising with a 13 year old, he was spend a lot of time online and not so much time on the algebra site. The dad asked for a hard copy of the textbook and said that it took more than a month to get a copy. I suppose this explains all the stacks of textbooks I saw in classrooms at one of the high schools. They must be classroom sets since the students aren't issued them. (And not to pick on this particular kid. I'm trying to pick texts that minimize the time my sons spend on the computer. They lack enough self control as early teens for this to be a recipe for sucess.)

 

Anyway, I think that particular SAT question is a valid one. It would distinguish the students who know how to manipulate trig functions on a basic level from those who never learned or don't remember. Seems like a perfectly valid sorting.

 

It always seemed to me that the questions in the math reasoning section could as easily be answered without a calculator as with. The section in with a calculator would really help was the subtest where it wasn't permitted.

[regentrude]

Even with the sin37 example you give, I just have significant doubts that students will have dealt with the numbers as a ration much beyond the first couple of lessons. So why wouldn't they have answers like sin37=.6018 and cos37 = .7986 as the calculator spits out for them. It's been ages since I worked with trig. But I do remember seeing how the numbers in the tables marched up and down in orderly fashion, with a few numbers sticking out with their regularity. But what in the current instruction gives a student that experience now. (Listen to me. Next I'll be rhapsodizing over steam tables.)

 

I know, I know. Math curriculum was the reason we pulled our kids to homeschool.

AoPS needs no calculator through all of precalculus and the portion of calc we have covered.

 

It always seemed to me that the questions in the math reasoning section could as easily be answered without a calculator as with. The section in with a calculator would really help was the subtest where it wasn't permitted.

 

??? The calculator is permitted on all sections of the SAT.

I agree that almost all questions are quicker without one; the calculator is useful to avoid errors in quick computations on a few select problems.

[asta]

My mistake:

 

 

Mathematics Level 1

Three years of college-preparatory mathematics, including two

years of algebra and one year of geometry

Mathematics Level 2

More than three years of college-preparatory mathematics,

including two years of algebra, one year of geometry, and

elementary functions (precalculus) and/or trigonometry.

􀅶􀀃 If you have had preparation in trigonometry and elementary

functions and have attained grades of B or better in these

courses, select Level 2. If you are sufficiently prepared to take

Level 2 but take Level 1 in hopes of receiving a higher score, you

may not do as well as you expect.

 

% of Test

50 multiple-choice questions each

 

Topics Covered* Level 1 Level 2

 

Number and Operations 10–14% 10–14%

Operations, ratio and proportion,

complex numbers, counting, elementary

number theory, matrices, sequences,

series, vectors

 

Algebra and Functions 38–42% 48–52%

Expressions, equations, inequalities,

representation and modeling, properties

of functions (linear, polynomial, rational,

exponential, logarithmic, trigonometric,

inverse trigonometric, periodic,

piecewise, recursive, parametric)

 

Geometry and Measurement 38–42% 28–32%

Plane Euclidean/Measurement 18–22% -

Coordinate

Lines, parabolas, circles, ellipses,

hyperbolas, symmetry, transformations,

polar coordinates 8–12% 10–14%

 

Three-dimensional

Solids, surface area and volume

(cylinders, cones, pyramids, spheres,

prisms), coordinates in three dimensions

4–6% 4–6%

 

Trigonometry

Right triangles, identities, radian

measure, law of cosines, law of sines,

equations, double angle formulas 6–8% 12–16%

 

Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability 8–12% 8–12%

Mean, median, mode, range,

interquartile range, standard

deviation, graphs and plots, least squares

regression (linear, quadratic,

exponential), probability

 

*Topics in italics are tested on the Level 2 Test only.

The content of Level 1 overlaps somewhat with that on Level 2, but the

emphasis on Level 2 is on more advanced content. Plane Euclidean

geometry is not tested directly on Level 2.

[Nan in Mass]

Considering that people here talk about AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, SAT1, SAT2 Math 1, SAT2, Math 2, ACT, PSAT, Accuplacer, and a few others, plus the non-US math ones, it isn't any wonder if some of us occasionally get confused, especially since they CHANGE seemingly randomly from time to time. : )

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I know, I know. Math curriculum was the reason we pulled our kids to homeschool.

AoPS needs no calculator through all of precalculus and the portion of calc we have covered.

 

 

 

??? The calculator is permitted on all sections of the SAT.

I agree that almost all questions are quicker without one; the calculator is useful to avoid errors in quick computations on a few select problems.

 

I must have been thinking of the Stanford exam, where there is a math problem solving and math reasoning section. They do tend to run together in my head.

 

Mea culpa.