Know Your Math

When I started off learning my times tables back in the fourth grade, I knew them good. From 1 to 15, I was good. Real good.

Then I learned the magic of the TI-84 Plus. And all of that went to hell. That calculator can do anything. It will do your math homework, walk your dog, cook dinner, and tuck the kids in for bed. Not that I have kids. Or will. Ever.

But you get what I’m saying. It’s a damn good calculator. While it’s also a great calculator, it ruins a person’s math skills. Through middle school, you learn how to do solve all these equations and being able to answer all types of questions. In high school they let you pick up that calculator and you don’t need your brain anymore. You got one sitting in the palm of your hands. It’s quicker, it’s easier, and it’s also got games.

And it’s great. It’s all good. You breeze through high school math, spend a little time with the stuff that requires it, and your all set. Then comes college.

It was a cool, crisp fall morning and I was walking to my first class as a Purdue student. It was Calculus. I had my trusty TI-84 Plus in my hands, and I thought I was ready. I sit down in the lecture hall and I’m ready, I know I’m ready.

That’s when the bomb dropped.

“You will not be allowed calculators of any kind for this course. Once in awhile you will need them for homework. But on tests and quizzes they are not allowed.”

I thought he was joking. There was no way this man was serious. Professor Peter Cook was just scaring us first year students. He didn’t mean it.

Little did I know just how serious he was. In college, you are expected to know all the math that you let the calculator do for you. Now of course, they don’t make you do any ridiculous division and multiplications by hand, but all the graphing and equation solving and all the stuff that you usually just punch a few numbers in and your all set, isn’t that easy anymore.

So here’s my advice for anyone in high school. Use the calculator, but make sure you know what the calculator is doing for you. If you don’t, it’ll bite you in the ass. Hard. Know what you’re calculating, know how to get it. Make sure you do a few problems free-hand, because if you don’t it’s going to kill you down the road. Sure you might pull an A on the test or for the semester, but you’ll be hurting come college time.

So just know what you’re doing when it comes to math, whichever math you happen to be taking. It might be a pain in the ass, but it’ll be a lot worse when you’re bombing tests and paying for it.