Everytime when I saw students use calculators in exams

I thought if they are in China, they are actually cheating. Calculator is forbidden in exams in China. Why are most British people so weak in Math? Even some very simple calculation, say addition, subtraction or multiplication, they always use calculators, let alone the calculation of exponent, logarithm, or even integral and derivative. In China, students are required not to use calculators from primary school, and they are required to recite 9x9 multiplication table in grade 1 at primary school. Why do students ignore Math here? The calculation is one of the abilities that should be assessed/checked for those courses. If they use the calculators, they are not 100% grasp this course.

(edited 8 years ago)

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Reply 1

maggie43

Hey You are in Britain not China!

Reply 2

whorace

Why do people use hammers, why dont they just punch it in ffs people used to be so much stronger than this

Reply 3

zhai

Original post by maggie43

Hey You are in Britain not China!

I know someone would say this. However, as you may know, China maths books to be exported to UK.

Reply 4

zhai

Original post by whorace

Why do people use hammers, why dont they just punch it in ffs people used to be so much stronger than this

This is not the same thing. Also, sometimes human is faster than calculators.

Reply 5

Imperion

Original post by zhai

This is not the same thing. Also, sometimes human is faster than calculators.

U wot m8?

Reply 6

zhai

Original post by maggie43

Hey You are in Britain not China!

Besides, people should not be satisfied with the existing state of affairs and reluctant to move forward. They should be prepared for danger in times of peace. Otherwise they will be overtaken by other people. They should be aware that some people in the world are working harder than themselves currently. They should not think because they are in Britain, so they do not need to pay attention to Math. Nowadays, people are competing with not only their compatriots but also people worldwide.

Reply 7

The Warsmith

I hate C1. Reason enough?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 8

AndyW123

For me atleast the multiplication of small or even large numbers is not what shows your understanding in maths. If you have a calulation that requires you to divide two fairly complicated numbers, it is true that with time you could do it, however it does not show any extra understanding, it is just wasting time. That's just my opinion, would love to know what others think!

Reply 9

TheMadHatteress

Original post by whorace

Why do people use hammers, why dont they just punch it in ffs people used to be so much stronger than this

Damn tsr wont let me give anymore reps

Reply 10

ReeJess99

Original post by AndyW123

I agree. People use calculators for efficiency. We could use an electric whisk to make a cake or stir it with a spoon. But stirring it with spoon does not mean you are more proficient at making cakes. This is exactly the same situation. You'd be a fool not to use the tools at hand. It doesn't mean you're lazy or lacking in any way at all. Having said this, one must not depend on a calculator- if you know how to do it by hand but have chosen to use a calculator, then fair enough- it's just a tool for efficiency, not a crutch that you are entirely dependent on.

Reply 11

Manitude

Original post by zhai

In many exams they're not testing you on your ability to do basic calculations, they're testing your ability to do maths.

You can't do analytical calculus on non-programmable calculators but substituting the limits of an integral, for example, may include some nasty computations. It saves time to do these on the calculator than risk wasting time/marks that could be spent testing understanding.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 12

I_Spread_Ebola

Just because some rules apply in China, doesnt mean they should be applied universally.

Reply 13

Craig1998

I use them as they're quicker, usually. Most of my maths and further maths involves not nice calculations which are just easier if you just put them in a calculator. Plus, for me, a calculator is a check some of the time.

Plus, if were asked to give things to significant figures or decimal places, it's pretty much impossible to do a horrible calculation in your head, especially if the number goes on forever. It's going to be different in China as you wont be asked to do that without a calculator.

Also, I make stupid mistakes without them, in my maths core 1 exam, I slipped up a decimal addition which would not have happened if I used my calculator, but were not allowed them for that exam. So I lost a few marks on that question.

Reply 14

GlassyMarbles

Original post by zhai

Do you actually expect people to work out an answer without a calculator that requires pi in the sum? Or sine/cosine/tan?

Reply 15

zhai

Original post by AndyW123

It is not wasting time. This is the ability that should be checked. In this case, the ability is carefulness. As you said, dividing two fairly complicated numbers, yes, everyone knows how to divide two numbers if they have enough time. But they exam is time limited, how can you get correct answers within this limited time and under the stress caused by the limited exam time? People are always careless in exams. The more careful the students are, the less mistakes they will make in their future work. So the carefulness is the ability which should be checked in exam.

Reply 16

I_Spread_Ebola

Original post by zhai

Saying using calculator is "ignoring maths" is quite extreme.

Reply 17

AndyW123

Original post by zhai

Carefullness is a good point, however I would like to bring up this point. At the moment I am taking maths and physics exams, which I am hoping will lead me in to a career in physics. Exams are a good indication of how well I can understand and manipulate formulas in to giving me correct answers for problems that need to be solved. In real life scenarios humans would not be used to multiply the numbers, this this can be done more reliably by computers. Using a calculator allows more time to be spent examining the understanding of the topic and not the identical method that is used to multiply and divide numbers.

[Edit] I also want to add that at higher levels the difficulty behind the problems surpasses even the most difficult methods for multiplying and dividing, after a while you are just applying the same method to more and more digits. When we use maths, using integration as an example, we are just using a more efficiant method to work out the area rather than individually adding up every square.