That space question...

[ZanyCat]

So back to my original question at the start of this thread: what do you think they were trying to test with this question? It wasn't so much testing knowledge/application as it was testing how well we can enter horrible numbers and expressions into our calculator and then copy them back onto the paper 

[WhoTookMyUsername]

yes that was what they were testing...
Probably something to do with 'effiency with cas?'

[InsaneMcFries]

Yeah I think as the future is looking towards calculator use, it was measuring our ability to use the cas to solve problems. However, all it really did was measure who could type stuff the fastest on cas without making an error. :S

[HighLatency]

Yeah I think as the future is looking towards calculator use, it was measuring our ability to use the cas to solve problems. However, all it really did was measure who could type stuff the fastest on cas without making an error. :S

The casio took 3 minutes to solve each goddam question. They need a universal calculator to use because some of these calcs are serious pieces of game-boy age shit.

[studynotes]

i was actually really hoping for some inclined planes or anything but no... vcaa had to put all this weird stuff
did you guys use the other forms of acceleration a fair few times??

[Special At Specialist]

In real life, we won't have to solve problems like that in 20 minutes each. The questions won't have 10 parts to them either, maybe only 1 or 2 parts. Plus, we won't be marked on our working out, we will just be expected to obtain a correct answer and that's it.

[InsaneMcFries]

i pretty much only had to use dv/dt and i used vdv/dx once in a MC.

[sportzstar77]

part a) i got t=1/13 and i substituted that into 6800cos(pi(1.3*t-0.1)-6400 and kept getting -5703.68 which seems like a ridiculous answer. what did everyone else get?

NOOOO!!! omg I got 400km

Same

yea 400 km makes lots of sense and -5703.68 makes no sense at all. Did you do exactly what i did? I did it on my calculator just now and i still get -5703.68 wtf

Yeh I got this at first. I know what you did wrong. You included the -6400 in your cos expression haha

[BoredSatan]

Reading these posts gives me nostalgia.. ahh spech.. you cruel little bastard

[cassettekid]

Whenever I put the last part of the question into my CAS it just told me 'false'... What did I do wrong?! :S

[rebeckab]

Mine said no solution, and everyone at my school got that or insufficient memory..  after it sitting there calculating for 5 plus minutes :/ I kept going with the rest of the exam while it was doing that, but it was so frustrating and I still didn't get the answer.. We use the classpad, is that why?

[Unknown_one]

Nah.
It was the same with the ti-89.
A lot of people didn't have the answer because the calculator would not solve it at all..
=P
Only a couple of guys got it. xP
Sighs.
I doubt they would take out the mark if there were so many calc errors because people actually got it.

[rebeckab]

That's so stupid. I tried simplifying it down and putting it again, but still wouldn't work. You'd think they'd try it with the calculators to see if people could actually do them in the exam. How is this testing our maths knowledge at all?

[cassettekid]

^ Same spent a good 5 minutes rearranging it (used the ti-nspire) but to no avail.... Made me panic that I completely misunderstood the question! How annoying that it didn't work for a lot of people, thought it was just my dodgy calc skills hahaha

[WhoTookMyUsername]

May have been an error with (1) input (eg. Cos including last term) (2) format, not formatting it right (3) finding the magnitude incorrectly (4) having the calculator in exact mode ONLY and not pressing approximate.

Worked fine on TiInspire and i doubt that calculators can't handle it