Major Error on Calculator involving Series

[Tim Wessman]

(02-29-2016 01:16 AM)LCieParagon Wrote:  This is fine and all, but like I have said, I have concerns as well. This calculator was approved for use by the College Board. My students plan on taking the AP test, and as such, are allowed to use this device on certain sections. My students can potentially receive incorrect responses by recording incorrect responses that your product displays.

I do understand your point of view. Unfortunately, no product of the complexity of a modern CAS calculator can possibly be bug free simply because symbolic mathematics is very, very hard for computers to do. No matter how well written the program, they can't think like the marvelous human brain.

The College Board recognizes that bugs can and will happen, yet they still require their use for AP calculus in that section. In fact, I know there was quite a bit of an uproar ~2 years back or so when two allowed products from one of our competitors has a CAS bug that caused a large percentage of students to get an incorrect result in the middle of a question and were ultimately penalized because of it (they received credit for the proper process and steps, but did indeed lose partial credit due to that technology error).

Quote:While I do like this calculator very much and plan to use it for the foreseeable future, this can be detrimental to a student taking an exam utilizing this device. I find it troubling that students quite possibly may be penalized for faulty technology that is approved for use.

I do agree that it is troubling. Unfortunately, the way the tests are designed right now does penalize for an error in the technology. I spent quite a bit of time talking with some of the chief AP calc readers around this subject at last year's NCTM and ultimately what was the unanimous opinion there was that a) students can lose credit for errors not their own, and b) yet even despite that, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

The HP calculator group is always conscious regarding testing deadlines (not just here in America, but around the world) and tries to plan accordingly. I was simply explaining why nobody would be able to answer your part of the question regarding "when might this be fixed". I simply can't make those announcements.

Quote:Additionally, no where in my post have I compared competitors' products to yours. I find your response in regards to that curt, and unnecessary. Furthermore, your response didn't illicit a "Like" as it has with other members on this forum.

I can understand your point of view here and respect it. My intent was not trying to compare competitors, rather highlighting that ALL do the same thing with respect to this type of communication (not discussing when stuff will be fixed or launched).