{"id":3475,"date":"2015-07-01t09:00:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-01t09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/act\/?p=901"},"modified":"2015-07-30t18:24:19","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30t18:24:19","slug":"act-tip-how-to-use-your-calculator-wisely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/act\/act-tip-how-to-use-your-calculator-wisely\/","title":{"rendered":"act tip: how to use your calculator wisely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>here are some tips to help you get the most out of your <a href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/act\/what-calculators-are-allowed-on-the-act\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">calculator<\/a> on test day.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you <strong>can<\/strong> use a calculator on the act math test. you <strong>cannot<\/strong> use a calculator on the science test. (or the english and reading tests\u2026 not that you\u2019d want to.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>make sure the calculator you want to use will be allowed by the act proctors. you can use any four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator, unless it has prohibited algebra software on it. for full details on which calculators are not allowed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.act.org\/content\/dam\/act\/unsecured\/documents\/act-calculator-policy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">please look here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>make sure to use a calculator you\u2019re familiar with. don\u2019t go out and buy a new calculator the night before the test. you need to know how to use it, and you need to be comfortable with all of the functions you might need.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>replace your batteries the night before the test, even if they\u2019re not that old; the last thing you want is a dead calculator in the middle of your math section.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>please don\u2019t use the calculator for checking extremely basic arithmetic (e.g., double-checking that 10 &#8211; 2 = 8). it wastes your time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>please don\u2019t use the calculator when the answer choices all have fractions or radicals in them. the calculator isn\u2019t going to help you get to those answers anyway, so you\u2019re wasting your time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>pick up your calculator <em>only<\/em> when you\u2019re sure of how to solve the problem and how the calculator will help you do so. using it any other way is a waste of time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>remember that act problems are meant to be solved quickly. if you\u2019re picking up your calculator to try to solve\u00a0\u221a597, you\u2019ve probably made a mistake somewhere. double-check your work up to that point.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>just remember, <strong>you<\/strong> are the one taking the act. your calculator is not. the act math section is testing your math skills, not how well you can use a calculator.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">now, there\u2019s one final thing i want you to do. if you have the calculator you want to use for the act, i\u2019d like you to enter this problem into your calculator:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">1 + 2 x 3<\/p>\n<p>if you get the answer of 7, congratulations! your calculator follows the standard order of operations. you probably learned this as pemdas, or \u201cplease excuse my dear aunt sally.\u201d it\u2019s the order that you\u2019re supposed to follow when solving an equation: parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. all of the math problems you\u2019ll be dealing with on the act will follow this order, and your calculator already takes that into consideration automatically. that makes things easier for you.<\/p>\n<p>if you entered the problem into your calculator and it came back with 9, then your calculator <strong>does not<\/strong> follow the order of operations. this means a little more work for you; you will have to separate problems out into the proper order yourself <em>before<\/em> entering anything into your calculator. so, to get the right answer, you would <em>have to<\/em> enter the above problem into your calculator like this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">2 x 3 = 6<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">6 + 1 = 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>here are some tips to help you get the most out of your calculator on test day. you can use a calculator on the act math test. you cannot use a calculator on the science test. (or the english and reading tests\u2026 not that you\u2019d want to.) make sure the calculator you want to use [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[9,6],"ppma_author":[24906],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo premium plugin v21.7 (yoast seo v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>act tip: how to use your calculator wisely - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/act\/act-tip-how-to-use-your-calculator-wisely\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"act tip: how to use your calculator wisely\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"here are some tips to help you get the most out of your calculator on test day. you can use a calculator on the act math test. you cannot use a calculator on the science test. 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