Ask HN: Should there be new RPN calculators to replace the TI-84?

IMHO we'd be better off focusing on policies that allow computers to be used on standardized exams. Hardly anybody uses a calculator in a real job, people at desks use computers, and even people who have to do calculations in a field environment use ruggedized tablets. Rather than working on revamping obsolete technology we should work on a way to make a computer acceptable to use on an exam in a way that addresses cheating concerns.

But if you really wanted to keep using a calculator, you should check out the HP Prime, Casio Prizm, or TI-Nspire series. The HP Prime has RPN, and all of these lines have color touch screens and a bunch of modern features. The TI-84 is not the pinnacle of technology, it is popular only because it is an exam-acceptable and an old standard format that people are used to.

What are you testing? I found in math that my test scores went up when I quit using a calculator. All the exam questions were carefully designed to make the arithmetic easy if you did it right. Thus anytime the arithmetic looked hard I knew to start over and find/fix my mistake.

In physics that didn't always apply, but it did often enough that I didn't pull out my calculator until after double checking that I was sure I did all the steps right.

In engineering classes the math was never easy. In the early classes you should still use a basic calculator though as the point is to understand the math behind the problems. In latter classes you can be assumed to understand that and computers to do all that complex math while you focus on the large problem might be good.

OP's question wasn't about whether they should use a calculator on an exam or not. If you can trust that an exam has questions crafted to have integer answers and completed only with basic arithmetic, then use that strategy by all means.

OP's question was whether or not there should be replacements for the TI-84, and mentioned that this question arose from an experience taking an exam. Aside from the fact that they may be confused about what RPN is, I suggested that I would consider the use of computers a better focus for exams rather than getting a replacement for the TI-84. And aside from that, there are already replacements in the forms of new calculator product lines.

The correct answer depends on the exam's goal. If you want to verify understanding the fundamentals, then a pencil and paper is all you should get. However that limits the complexity of the problem you can be asked. With a calculator you can do more complex problems - but the tool will do some things for you and so if you get the answer wrong there is no way to know if you failed on the fundamentals (you need to drop out of this class and be send to the lower level one) or the complexity (stay in this class).

From my college experience I never needed a Ti or Hp calculator. Most of the questions did not require anything more complex than logarithms, exponential, root and trigonometric functions. A good question should be about concepts, not results. I remember a linear algebra test in where you had to solve a problem by inverting a matrix to get a result, the problem was that the matrix was so large that it could have taken the entire test time to get the result if done by hand. However if you were clever, and knew the matrix properties being tested, the matrix could be simplified and the result gotten in 3 steps. If you had a Ti or HP you could have entered the matrix and get the result, but the question would have lost its meaning

For many business-type courses they like you to be able to quickly get an IRR or NPV value. One could solve that by hand, but the exams would be long and require manual grading. According to my older colleagues when I started my career, they used to bring their HP calculators to client meetings before laptops were a thing. They would sit around and do estimated calculations. If you look at old photos, your can see the HP calculators in them and paper with written calculations. When I started my career in 2000, laptops were already ubiquitous. There were still old timers with the RPN calculators from HP. Excel is better for finance. For real analysis and simulation stuff like Mathmatica and Maple are better, with SAS, SPSS and R for statistics, although SAS is used a ton in finance, insurance as well as government.

That's another point, during college some tests were and multiple choice questions. They were manually graded and for each answer you needed to prove how did you get the answer. I don't remember any kind of automated grading system. Everything was done by hand, whether by the teacher or TA's