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From: zwicky@pterodactyl.cis.ohio-state.edu (Elizabeth D. Zwicky)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Calculators in exams, was: Becoming CAI literate
Message-ID: <7301@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 26 Feb 88 16:11:15 GMT
References: <2032@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> <3900008@nucsrl.UUCP> <1988Feb24.224849.928@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <24954@cca.CCA.COM>
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In article <24954@cca.CCA.COM> g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter) writes:
>In article <1988Feb24.224849.928@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> tjhorton@ai.toronto.edu ("Timothy J. Horton") writes:

>	If you have a reasonable aptitude for arithmetic, it is faster to do
>the odd multiplication in your head than reaching for a calculator -- if you
>have been trained for quick mental arithmetic.  I amuse myself and startle 
>people by giving the answer to routine calculations while they are still 
>fumbling with the calculator.

>	I am inclined to think that quick mental arithmetic ought to be
>taught in the schools.  Granted that not everyone has the aptitude for it.

I also calculate things in my head while people are still fumbling with
calculators. And I had quick arithmetic drills in school. The problem is
that the two are totally unrelated. I failed every single speed drill I
ever took; they regularly reduced me to tears. What gives me my speed is
the non-traditional but simple calculating techniques that I learned
from  my mathematician father - you know, the ones they used to fail me
on math tests for using? All those math drills never taught me a thing,
and my husband, who had the drills but not the mathematician at home,
is utterly lousy at "routine mathematical calculations", even though
he likes numbers and I don't. (I stopped letting him calculate tips long
ago, having discovered that he was more often wrong than right. Now I
let him do it again, having dicovered that the reason that he screwed
up was that he was doing cross-multiplication, just like the books have
you do. That gets good scores on tests, because it looks right. I
was moving the decimal place to get 10% and then multiplying that,
which math teachers fail because the intermediate steps aren't "right"
but it sure works.)			

>	Richard Harter, SMDS  Inc.

Elizabeth D. Zwicky