AP Calculus AB test...

[Figit090]

I'm about to take it

I have a ti-89

are the administrators supposed to check for apps and such? (to have us clear the apps ram)

because if not...there's some pretty helpful stuff out there i think i might download for notes.

of course I'd have to budget my time if i needed them...but maybe they'd be useful?

anybody that's taken the test and received good marks got any tips for me? (not just calculator but other things as well....)

thanks everybody.:icon_surp

 

[TurboFreak]

Nah mine have never checked the calculators...
You sure you can bring your own though? Sometimes they pass out there own calcs with nothing on them...

 

[mkiiSupraMan18]

I got a 0 on it... my advice would be not to play games on your calc while you're taking it. I gave up because I never listened to my teacher during the entire year and still pulled off the same grade as everyone else in the class. :icon_bigg

*sigh*
PuzzPack and block dude... those were the days.

 

[Figit090]

i doubt that will happen at my school*...we dont have that many 89's (or extra calcs for students for that matter) that i know of....small school...and i would notice that.

(*high school)

 

[suprarx7nut]

I can't imagine the calculator would really help unless we're takin just text programs filled with notes of some sort. Even then, I'd say spend that time studying a little more.

I took it and got credit (got a 4) and still had a lot to relearn for calc 2 for engineers in college. I'd say don't try to cheat the system if you plan on continuing the calc road. You'll just make life a lot harder next year. In my class of 100, only 60-some got to move on. If you get credit and don't really know the stuff, the rest of calc will be hell.

On the other hand, if you just want some extra college credits and don't plan on doing more calc, more power to ya!!!


*Edit, then again you may not want to take much advice from a kid up at 3:30AM with a final exam at 10:30AM. :dunno:

 

[jmanbball]

Are you sure that the 89 is allowed? I seem to remember that it wasnt.

 

[SupraDerk]

Holy hell, I wasn't even allowed to use a calculator at ALL in Calc 1-3 or in Engineering Math 1 and 2

If it's AP Calc, then it's basically Calc 1, and if it's Calc 1 then all it is is differentiation and integration and if you can't do that without a calculator then something's wrong...

The only trip up I can see you needing notes for I guess would be to remember the names of rules you'll never really use again (or at least in the form you use them in calc 1). But you'd do yourself a service to just learn the stuff and not rely on notes

 

[CampbellsChunkySoupra]

DO NOT RELY ON YOUR CALCULATOR for this exam. definatly know all of your rules and how to do integration. u should be able to do most of it by hand. use the calculator to store notes.. taht is where its at

type in all of the formulas for the rules so u can refer to those if u forget. otherwise, u are best off doing it by hand.

oh yeah.. the "essay questions" at the end are a BITCH! fricking A those were hard.

 

[Figit090]

allright, thanks guys, sadly i'm not that great at calc but i'll study a lot tonight and i think i'll do allright... i actually dont mind taking calc over again to get it reinforced, because this year wasnt the best for me and senoritis kinda hit. but yeah... i might post another thread about retaking calculus...i think it might be the most beneficial thing i do but i'm not sure.

i'm not too worried, i'm not going to a big college and they dont ahve mechanical engineering like i wanted so at the very most i'd be an "environmental resources engineer" working with alternative energy sources...possibly hydrogen....

but i dunno. the thoughts help and i'll practice my rules tonight. this test snuck up on me...its sad.

 

[SupraDerk]

^If it's like most colleges though you'll still have to be admitted into the E-school and to get admitted you usually have to have a certain GPA in core engineering classes

(physics I, chemistry I, calc I and calc II are the classes specific to my school... had to have a combined 2.5 gpa or above in those 4 to get into the E-school.)

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

Math sucks

 

[Guyana00]

I just read the first page but honestly, study the main principles and do more examples of how to apply them and relate them to each other. Forget about the TI-89, either it won't be allowed (weren't allowed when I took it) or it will be allowed and you will cheat and get nothing out of it. Not to mention if you know what you're doing you can be confident, inputting values into formulas and reading notes...theres the chance that you may misunderstand or improperly place a value if you don't completely understand the concept itself.

I know it sounds like the most expeced answer, but study. Trust me. Study

Study. Study. STUDY!

Doesn't need you need to drop everything for hours, but studying in intervals help. Take breaks but don't force yourself to lose too much sleep or to have extra long study periods without break.

Study.

 

[jmanbball]

Math sucks

stfu, you dont know what your talking about. :icon_razz

a graphing calc is required for the test, but can only be used on certain parts of the test.

 

[TobyCat]

Calculator and calculus...heh?! I never was allowed to use one all through engineering and now when I'm throwing values into my TI-89 for higher order matrix manipulations I'm SOOO slow.

Like others have said, study more and know your shit. People who rely on calculators blindly trust their answers and often get answers wrong.

GL!

 

[SupraDerk]

People who rely on calculators blindly trust their answers and often get answers wrong.

Haha, funny story about that. A little background info first... my Ti-83 plus CANNOT compute negative numbers to even powers correctly.

My friend needed a calculator for some class he was in so I let him use mine. I forgot to tell him about the fact that if he had to do those kind of calculations he'd have to remember some basic math properties and keep track of signs in his head or on paper or something.

So he gets his test back and he completely bombed it... and guess what the reason was. Haha I was like... how the hell does something lke -2^2 = -4 not trigger the "something just went wrong" message in your head??

 

[jmanbball]

^^^
You have to enter it (-2)^2, or it thinks your doing -(2^2)

 

[SupraDerk]

oh I don't even use it anymore, but I wrote a function to get over it back in the day so it worked out well for me

 

[Figit090]

well i let myself get to the deadline without a lot of study and now i'm just doing whats best to pass. depending on my career/college choices i'll probably study over the summer a bit each day. keep it fresh in my memory... maybe take a course over the summer. not sure.

all i care about now, is now. because its tomorrow. LOL!!! 8:00 AM brain-twisting FTW!!

thanks for all the help guys. i dont have any apps except one i wont use...and i have a notes document full of equations i havent memorized yet. i know it sounds bad, but please dont post up with negative stuff on how this will screw me. thinking positive seriously can help in the test if its not overdone and cocky. so i'm thinking positive. and the passing score is pretty low. some of you might not think so but apparently the test has changed a lot.

thanks again!

ta ta for now. i dont need any more advice...i'm just going to go study.