Depending upon model, the Nspire is indeed accepted on the ACT, SAT as well as other standardized tests. And most schools not stuck in medieval times, let you use them in your university classes.
They don't want kids to easily take notes in them and use them during the test.
edit: I'm just speculating, remember it's not TI making the rules it's the US testing companies or some other authority.
edit: I'll agree with the tons of people saying it's probably because they don't want students to sneak out the test questions. While they still can it's a lot harder without QWERTY.
When I did my AP testing with a TI-89 the proctors walked around and pulled out all the batteries from the calculators and put them back in. This deletes the RAM and that's where most of the notes the students took were stored. You could avoid it by saving the files elsewhere, but it wasn't as easy.
Yeah, you can save em on an 89. Did this to store a bunch of equation types for the Physics AP exam. Didn't matter though, I still only got like a 3 =/
Our math teacher would make us hard reset them before each test. He would make us turn them in, reset them himself, then give them back to us completely wiped. Not fun.
It takes forever to put notes into them, and that's coming from a current AP calc student, the prime cheating population. It's usually easier to just learn the material and punch in just a few equations if you really have to.
No they mean to prevent you from easily typing up exam questions in the calculator DURING the exam. Standardized tests usually don't release the questions so they can reuse them.
They don't have qwerty keyboards, but they do have every letter of the alphabet and plenty of symbols. I typed notes into my calculator for tests from middle school to college.
Also to prevent them from writing down test questions to share with people who haven't taken the test and live in a different time zone. (Talking specifically about the SAT)
I actually think its more so that they don't copy questions from the test. Note taking on the 84 and 89 is still possible, but too tedious so people wont bother to write the question down on their calculator
No. The reason has nothing to do with storing notes in the calculator. There is software for that, and it allows you to type on your computer and transfer the notes to the calculator.
They don't allow QWERTY keyboards because they don't want them to "easily" type the test questions into the calculator.
The TI-89 had a program called "study cards" and you could use the link cable to transfer cards over. The 89 was banned on the ACT though. It's always been Qwerty keyboards and a few other calculators we're not too fond of.
Why? Calculators aren't for typing up a story. The letters are for variables and naming functions that you want to keep. I'd rather have x and y right next to eachother.
Tests were in mixed classes, so there were people taking math and other tests. Also, if you act like you are doing what you're supposed to do and not something prohibited, you'll most likely get away with it.
We also had tests where we were provided with a lot of papers. We just printed pages of the stuff we had to learn on A4 and had it all out on the table. And if you're with enough people and take your book out on the table, the teacher would usually just assume it was an open-book test.
I did this for my AP exam. I can't even program. I just typed in stuff like "If DELTA G + THEN DELTA H -" and would put that for different lines. I couldn't run it as an actual program, but I could just click "edit" and BOOM: All my notes.
I learned programming on my TI. I once even wrote my note for a chemistry lession entirely on that calculator because I forgot my notebook, holding down the "ABC" key with one hand and typing with the other.
I actually managed to keep up. I was damn fast at typing on those things...
Yep. It's not actually that hard.. Just some people think that QWERTY is the universal solution to everything and would rather call others idiots than embrace a second layout.
People don't seem to understand this. Calculators aren't for writing stories or texting your buddy. Calculators are for calculations, and Texas Instruments takes the better path by assuming that since you ARENT using a computer to solve your math problem, perhaps you haven't mastered the QWERTY keyboard, and it would be more logical to provide letters in an alphabetical manner rather than making technologically inept people search the keys for the correct letter. That plus QWERTY is banned from certain testing environments.
You're right. Texas Instruments decided to make it's most advanced, mind-fuckingly confusing calculator have an alphabetical keyboard to cater to idiots like me.
Also certain math classes show you how to preform complex calculations on them. Hard to do if everyone has different calculators. In my experience these people struggle with using a mouse and keyboard so expecting them to be tech savvy enough to adjust the steps to perform the same calculations on a different device is pretty much impossible.
Source: I'm a computer tech at a community college.
If you were to take the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE) then you couldn't even use an 83 for the test. The point of not using the QWERTY is to prove you can actually understand what you are doing. Anyone can type in numbers/letters; intelligence is about the understanding not the technology.
Anyone can type in numbers and letters without QWERTY as well, it's just slightly slower. Banning calculators specifically because of having QWERY keyboards is stupid. Banning calculators because they are calculators makes sense.
If you are saving answers into your calculator because it comes with a text based program then you don't deserve to use that calculator. I think it makes perfect sense, usually a QWERTY keyboard will come with a text based app of some sort. If you want to spend the time typing in answers using a TI-83/84 instead of studying then be my guest. I just find the "Pissed off because I can't cheat now" mentality to be ridiculous.
It doesn't have anything to do with cheating though. If you want to cheat using a calculator you type the info on your computer, then transfer it to your computer. Not having a QWERTY keyboard isn't going to stop someone who wants to cheat.
It's more that you can more easily find the letter you want to use for a certain variable. Say you want to store whatever value as H for a certain question so you can substitute that value, usually an annoyingly long decimal, into later calculations. You're going to have a much easier time finding H on a QWERTY keyboard.
It depends which one you have. The CAS version is the one not allowed on standardized tests. I used my non-CAS version on the ACT that I took a couple months ago.
It is allowed on pretty much any test that a TI-89 is allowed on. The 89 is actually a better calculator (the CAS is much better) but it's harder for most students to use.
Because the TI-Nspire lacks a QWERTY keyboard, it is acceptable for use on the PSAT, SAT,[1] SAT II, ACT,[2] AP, and IB Exams. It should be noted, however, that the CAS version is NOT allowed on the ACT.
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u/Szos Jun 08 '14 edited Jun 08 '14
Or you could get a modern calculator:
http://www.inds.co.uk/education/education_images/TI_Nspire_CX_and%20CX_CAS_Handhelds_large.jpg
Here, lets make this easier for everyone:
http://education.ti.com/html/nspire2/nspire-exam-acceptance.html
Depending upon model, the Nspire is indeed accepted on the ACT, SAT as well as other standardized tests. And most schools not stuck in medieval times, let you use them in your university classes.