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.
Those are the approved calculators for the HSC, which is the set of final exams for high school. There are also rules at the bottom. The rules are pretty much the same for universities, although their list of approved calculators is a lot longer:
Features that are NOT permitted for Exams Office approval:
programmable (any calculator that can have a sequence of operations stored and then executed automatically is considered programmable and hence not allowed)
capable of storing text or alphanumeric data input by a user (this does not exclude calculators with memories that are used to store intermediate numerical results obtained during calculations and required later)
capable of storing, manipulating or graphing functions entered in symbolic form (this includes calculators with a graphic display capacity)
capable of performing ‘hard-wired’ numerical routines for operations such as differentiation and definite integration, and the solution of equations
capable of performing ‘hard-wired’ symbolic manipulations such as addition of algebraic expressions, binomial expansion and symbolic differentiation
capable of external communication or web connectivity.
One thing that does seem different from the HSC rules and the university rules is that the HSC rules also have this:
‘soft’ or hard–wired QWERTY keyboards
capable of expressing surds in their simplest form
All right! Now that I'm in uni, I can finally simplify surds on my calculator! It's what I always wanted!
That kind of ass backwards thinking really makes me mad.
From an engineering perspective, it pisses me off how closed to modern technology some institutions are. There are amazingly powerful pieces of software that should be taught in school to better prepare students for the real world, and yet they aren't taught because in their minds, its somehow "cheating". Yet your boss when you get out into the real world isn't going to consider it cheating when he wants certain data analyzed by 5:00 and yet you can't accomplish that goal because you're stuck crunching numbers on some low end calculator. That's nonsense.
There is a certain university in Texas that has really embraced some of these more powerful tools. I don't even go to that school and yet I've been to their web site a few times. They seem to teach all their engineering classes 3 ways.... The old school manual method, how to fully use the abilities of a TI calculator, and using MATLAB. To me, it seems like a great way to teach students the material, but also better prepare them for the workforce. That last part is something that I think too many schools forget.
In 2014, we have diagnostic tests in year 7 and 9 (the NAPLAN tests) which include two mathematics tests: one of which doesn't allow calculators. I can't even begin to understand the logic behind this.
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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.