You waited until the last minute...

[Argabarga]

My old High School made Ti-82's mandatory as well, fortunately, it was a semi-snobbish district that had enough money to buy them and loan them out for the year.

And like others have stated, we only used the graphing feature ONCE, in a lab that in retrospect was clearly designed just to show off that function of the calculator, after that, there wasn't anything they were used for that an ordinary cheap calculator from a drug store couldn't have done.

And the "They'll make you use them in college" lie was also used on us, like others have said, most college profs BANNED them because they could be used to cheat on tests because they had memories that could store text information.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

Man, schools are getting demanding. I really do feel sorry for the kids whose parents are on a limited budget (guess where my sympathy comes from), because some of the demands for certain school supplies are ridiculous.

Agreed. Tax dollars should cover stuff like that. When I was in school, my parents couldn't afford a calculator THAT expensive.

[Sparky]

As for why parents wait to the last minute, it's because some fool teacher didn't tell them until the first day -- or maybe the third week -- of school that they had to have the thing. AND they have to have THIS model, this brand, whatever. If they kid doesn't have it by Friday, the kid gets points off his grade. Of course this teacher may/may not realize that a dozen other teachers in the same school/other schools are also demanding the parents produce the same thing. And the teacher may/may not care that there simply aren't enough in stock in all the stores in town for all the little urchins.

My kids' teachers used to play this game every year. I would have loved to get my school-supply shopping done early. I live in a college town and all the stores were packed by the beginning of the school year. But they always had a list of mandatory items and the kids never got them until the first day. Some years we didn't even know who their teacher was until the first day of classes.

Those parents are cranky because they're frustrated. But they still shouldn't take that out on you.

[AdminAssistant]

And the "They'll make you use them in college" lie was also used on us, like others have said, most college profs BANNED them because they could be used to cheat on tests because they had memories that could store text information.

Or, if you're like me, you only need the calculator to survive through College Algebra and Physics and then you stay happy in Liberal Arts Land - where calculators are unneccessary.

[Tigress]

Graphing calculators became another status symbol in middle school. I took algebra stupidly early (7th grade; most didn't take it until 9th or 10th) and our teacher insisted that we needed graphing calculators... at a time when they were just starting to come out and were stupidly expensive. No problem for the rich kids since they all had super-spiffy $200 calculators the next day. The rest of us had to use the loaners that the school begrudgingly got for the class. (It was a nightmare to get them to open the purse strings for anything.)

We hardly ever used them. It was easier to break out the graph paper and draw out the graphs the equations created. But a bunch of my geek friends and I had fun designing and programming games into the calculators.

Ironically, my mom got me a nice scientific calculator with a bunch of auto-conversion and trig functions on it for high school. (Higher level math meant I kinda needed it.) I still use it! It's invaluable for converting fractions for measurements, figuring out proportionate re-sizing and figuring out fabric yardage for metric measurements.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I bought my own TI graphing calculator before senior year. Saved up my money to buy it.

I got a lot of use out of it, actually. We did lots of graphing in AP Calc (only class I ever got an F in, but that was a quarterly grade and my grade for the semester was still about a C.)

Shit, I needed a 14 out of 100 on my last test to get a D-minus. I scored 6. Go me.
We just got into some stuff that was over my head and I didn't really understand when the teacher would try to explain it to me.

Outside of AP Calc, I used it to play games like Drugwar.

I still have the calculator and still use it.

[Primer]

Edit: When *I* was in HS, we weren't ALLOWED to BRING a calculator INTO THE SCHOOL BLDG.

When I was in college (1990's) we were required to have calculators that could handle trig fxns and logarithms, but were NOT ALLOWED to use the graphing ones. If you had a graphing calculator, you had to run it by the instructor so they could see that you had no functions stored in it. They wouldn't let you use it if it had functions hard-wired into it.

When *I* was in HS, calculators didn't exist! OK, I take that back. I believe the original 4-function calculators came out, and cost about $100, during my senior year. I actually had to use a slide rule back then. I still have it, but have since forgotten how to use it.

Now, as a college math instructor, we do recommend the students purchase their own scientific calculator, but it's not required. I happen to prefer TI only because I "grew up" with the brand. My (computer nerd) brother swears by HP, but I can't figure those things out.

[XCashier]

Man, schools are getting demanding. I really do feel sorry for the kids whose parents are on a limited budget (guess where my sympathy comes from), because some of the demands for certain school supplies are ridiculous.

I agree, it's bloody insane. My family never had a lot of money when I was growing up, and if my teachers demanded that kind of pricy stuff, I don't know what we would have done.

(BTW, my avatar is "da Poofy-Puff, Lilya")

She looks a lot like my cat Flash.

[poofy_puff]

When *I* was in HS, calculators didn't exist! OK, I take that back. I believe the original 4-function calculators came out, and cost about $100, during my senior year. I actually had to use a slide rule back then. I still have it, but have since forgotten how to use it.

Now, as a college math instructor, we do recommend the students purchase their own scientific calculator, but it's not required. I happen to prefer TI only because I "grew up" with the brand. My (computer nerd) brother swears by HP, but I can't figure those things out.

Gee you're old! Do you still get carded when buying booze?

These days, they're teaching algebra using Excel. My DH just took a course like that at Middlesex CC. This semester, he's taking Algebra 2 (these are prerequisites for courses in the Nursing program) but I'm not sure if they will require a specific calculator, or if they will be using the spreadsheet again.

Edit:

In my job, I only use the cheap/free 4-function calculators, since I don't work with graphing data, I just measure and weigh things (as well as clean things up and kick people out and answer stupid questions. And surf the internet, of course.

Edit Redux:

She looks a lot like my cat Flash.

Is the cat in your avatar one of yours too? Not to brag, but I have about 30. We do rescue. I have a ton of black ones, but only two white ones. The other white one is named Gorby because he has some light gray spots on his head that look like Gorbachev's birthmarks.

[smileyeagle1021]

you know... in high school they required we use the TI-83... but we actually used the graphing feature a lot in my pre-calc course, and the statistical functions saved my life in AP stats.

that said, as soon as I started at USU as an engineering student they said "engineers don't use TI, you have to buy the HP equivelent" which cost just as much... and I actually liked that calculator for the RPN functions...

Then I changed majors and went to SLCC, and all the sudden the engineering calculator I had was no good, so I had to buy an HP financial calculator, which I actually LOVE beyond belief, financial equations would be a tedious pita if I had to do it on a TI-83 (oh and it only costs $30 instead of $130).

oh and why people wait until the last minute is a mystery to me... I have the excuse of waiting until the last minute for my books because 2 of them were back ordered and 1 hadn't even been released yet (it's for my excel class, the school had just upgraded to 2007 and the new books for 2007 didn't come out until the second week of class).

[Sliceanddice]

The graphing calculator is probably the worst investment ever and it's really stupid that schools make it mandatory. I remember when I was in high school they made us have them, I paid 95 dollars for a TI 82, then one of the functions was faulty and I had to go buy another one for another 95 dollars. They justified it by saying "they'll make you use it in college! all your math classes will make you use them" HA! funny... I never used one in college, in fact, they weren't even allowed in the room. grrrr lol. I still have both of them... anyone need a TI-82 or a TI-83?

i 'had' to buy a graphing calculator, i bought 12 dollar version that did what i needed and my computer
oh and to show how i hate that thing even at that price when i took algerbra and we used the graphing calculators i made mine say hello and did it all by hand
Oh and one more point what about us kids who if they can really work it out, see the math work in parts and take time on it?
I dont test well, i ace it when i have the time and my IQ is high but when i have to only use a calculator its hard for me (only one sheet of scratch paper allowed is not fair!!!)
i fail8th grade math.
i got a 28%
how? how is it possible??
i didnt do the homework.
See i lost my agenda (leash) and got 7th hour (dentention) one day and didnt write down the homework assignment (cause he haddnt assigned it and im an outcast who has no friend in my classes) before i went to the nurse.
I had a doctors appointment (woman issues) so i couldnt attend so i go lunch detention.
because i didnt do my homework (cause i forgot what it was) i got dentention again, my dad refused to let them make me stay for 7th hour (cause i was being punished for something that wasnt my fault) so they too away my agenda, with my homework assignment writen in it and i couldnt get it back until the next day. this went on every day for a year, i hate pizza thats all they will feed you in lunch dentention!!!
But still you ask why did i get a 28%?
Well i did about 10% of my homework.
And i got at least a 95 on all of my tests but one (flu ickyness i got an 88)
thats right i aced the course but the jackass of a teachers gave me a 28% because 80 of his grade was homework.
WHEN I SHOWED THAT NOT ONLY DID I KNOW THE MATERIAL BUT WENT UP TO THE BOARD AND PREFORMED COLLEGE LEVEL MATH EQUATIONS THAT EVEN STUMPED HIM FOR A MINUTE!!!
the fact that my AIMS (no child left behind test) scores where high enough to actually elevate the schools score a couple of points and i got 100%s on so many things and i at the begining of the yeatr actually tested in to advanced nerd math the 'let' me pass on to the 9th grade and alegbra...
more like my dad went down mented the fact he knew the superattendant (yeah teacher family) was willing to send me to private school (cause well they found some major schools willing to let me attend for free) and since i was being bullied that would be a great idea... but of course we would make sure everyone possible would know about how not only are you letting girl be beaten up teased and harrassed in school (i was in the nurses office 10 times the year for just what guys did to me) and woul.d fail them when their scores actually let you keep your crappy ass school running.
Did i mentioned that the principle mysteriously quit?
but dumb math teacher became the VP!!! GAH!!!

[XCashier]

Is the cat in your avatar one of yours too?

Yes, he's my other cat, Trouble. We only have two, that's all the apartment complex will let us have. Used to have more when we lived in a house.

[poofy_puff]

Living in your own house is definitely the way to go if you have the choice, when it comes to pets. I don't even want to hear the sad story if you had to get rid of some. My aunt had to move and could only keep 4 cats (they said she could have "one" but they all hide except one when strangers are there), but I took some and the rescue league is keeping the rest in foster homes. They were all rescued in the first place. I'm glad the cats let me stay, I suppose they require my services!

[LadyAndreca]

My high school required a TI-82, but luckily that's what my mom's siblings chipped together and bought me for my 8th grade graduation. We used that thing extensively all four years.

Then I got to college and they wanted us to use the computers instead. It always annoyed me that I had to spend an hour programming into matlab what would take me less than ten minutes to program into my calculator. In fact, I usually DID program my calculator, and used that to double-check my matlab results!

And then we couldn't use calculators OR computers on the tests. Go figure.

[Chromatix]

I have two Casio calculators - yeah, boring. But they do handle what I need them to do. Anything more complex, I get one of my many computers to handle - sometimes even the 1984-vintage BBC Micro, just to keep it in shape.

One of the Casios happens to be an fx-82. Anyone want to bet they were banking on confusion with the TI-82?