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Wouldn’t the SAT and ACT be easier, if you could solve every math problem using 4th grade math skills?

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Wouldn’t the SAT & ACT be easier if you could solve every math problem using 4th grade math skills?

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Your Kid Needs His Own Calculator!

My wife’s cousin is a Professor of Engineering at Auburn University.  He works with Masters Students and PhD candidates.  We were talking a few summers ago about the oddest thing ~ and that was that many of his best and brightest students did not know how to work their calculators.


I was able to affirm his experience in that many students I work with on the SAT/ ACT Prep have no idea how to operate their calculators ~ causing many missed problems due to simple user input error.


It is this simple.  The SAT and ACT test designers include problems that students can work with a calculator.  That said, if the student incorrectly inputs the information into the calculator, he will see an answer choice that appears correct due to the error.  Not realizing the input error ~ because the answer on their calculator is listed as an answer choice, the student marks that answer in their booklet, and moves happily to the next problem:  never realizing that they’ve missed the problem.


If your kid can’t operate their own calculator, they will miss many otherwise easy questions.  I believe that familiarity with the calculator is the easy answer.  


While there are TI-83 (and above) calculators you can download onto your smart phone, you can not use the phone on the SAT or the ACT, so we recommend the student have their own calculator.


The TI-84 Plus is the calculator we recommend (and we have secured a discount by clicking the link).  It is powerful, covers every SAT or ACT scenario, will get your kid through college, and has a surprisingly high resell value when your student no longer needs it.


Click Here to Get Your TI-84 Plus


If the TI-84 Plus, is too expensive, you can get a slightly earlier model of the TI-84 (namely the TI-83) for $20-30 less than a TI-84.  The TI-83 has all the same functions, and key pad entry steps as the TI-84, but it is missing a few advanced components that are not necessary for the SAT or ACT.


Click Here to Get Your TI-83


Occasionally, we partner with companies through Amazon that offer products we believe will best help our clients achieve their goals with smallest out of pocket cost!  These are products we use ourselves.  If you purchase one of these products through Amazon via one of the Amazon partner links on our site, we will get paid a small referral fee at no additional cost to you.