Thursday, April 01, 2004
Calc frustrations
I am taking the Professional Engineer’s exam in about 2 weeks. And no, I have not studied enough yet. Get off my back!
Well they’ve decided to ban certain calculators from being used on this test. As stated on the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) website:
If a calculator model can be made to communicate through the use of modules, software, and/or other add-on devices, then this calculator is deemed to possess communication capabilities and will be prohibited.
This ban includes the higher model TI’s, and most HP’s.
Well, I think it’s crap. What they are saying is that those of us using one of these ‘illegal’ calculators have to find someone with a legal calculator (not easy, as most people have the ‘bad’ ones) and learn how to use it. I have an HP 48-GX which uses backwards entry (I don’t know the technical term). Now I have to re-learn how to use one that functions ‘regularly’. I was lucky one person in my office had such a calculator I can borrow. I blame Siavash Hakkakian who decided he needed to modify a calculator so that he could scan questions into it and save them. They found 3 years worth of tests on his home computer. A$$hole.
I guess there are some legitimate reasons for this ban, but isn’t this test supposed to show us what we’ve learned in the working world and whether or not we are now qualified to function in professional real world (non-academic) situations? Sure a more advanced calculator can make the test (and my job) easier, but isn’t that why we make these technological advances?
I am annoyed.
Well they’ve decided to ban certain calculators from being used on this test. As stated on the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) website:
If a calculator model can be made to communicate through the use of modules, software, and/or other add-on devices, then this calculator is deemed to possess communication capabilities and will be prohibited.
This ban includes the higher model TI’s, and most HP’s.
Well, I think it’s crap. What they are saying is that those of us using one of these ‘illegal’ calculators have to find someone with a legal calculator (not easy, as most people have the ‘bad’ ones) and learn how to use it. I have an HP 48-GX which uses backwards entry (I don’t know the technical term). Now I have to re-learn how to use one that functions ‘regularly’. I was lucky one person in my office had such a calculator I can borrow. I blame Siavash Hakkakian who decided he needed to modify a calculator so that he could scan questions into it and save them. They found 3 years worth of tests on his home computer. A$$hole.
I guess there are some legitimate reasons for this ban, but isn’t this test supposed to show us what we’ve learned in the working world and whether or not we are now qualified to function in professional real world (non-academic) situations? Sure a more advanced calculator can make the test (and my job) easier, but isn’t that why we make these technological advances?
I am annoyed.
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