- In this lesson, I want to take a moment to discuss your options regarding using a calculator on the SAT and give you some strategy so that the calculator is the most beneficial for you. Here are the first few things you need to know.

All of the math questions allow you a calculator use, but the entire test is written so that it can be solved without a calculator. There's nothing that requires a calculator. Every question could be solved by hand on your scratch paper, but you're allowed to use a calculator to speed up some of those calculation steps.

It's important that you practice with the calculator you plan to use on the exam before test day, and so that way when the time comes, you know what the buttons are and how they work and you can make it a speedy and easy thing.

And I'm also going to make sure to give you some advice about making good decisions about when and why you should use a calculator on the exam. Because a calculator is allowed, we know a few things. First of all, the test, the SAT doesn't care if you can make calculations.

It's not testing you on those things because it lets a calculator do it for you. Instead, the test really cares about your problem-solving skills. Can you interpret all of the pieces of a problem as it's written?

Can you understand a word problem? And then can you apply your math skills to those situations? So the role of the calculator is to speed up some of those intermediate steps in the problem-solving process. You have two calculator options for the SAT.

You are allowed to bring your own calculator, and that is going to be one that you own or maybe one that you borrow from a friend, but decide in advance which one you're going to use. Most of the regular scientific and graphing and basic function calculators that we all own are going to be allowed on the exam.

There are some exceptions, and most of those exceptions refer to calculators with really exceptional, powerful capabilities. But just to be sure, I recommend checking out the official SAT calculator policy in advance, it's easy to find on their website, and make sure that your calculator model is on the list.

Here's a free tip from me to you. It's even in color so you remember. Before the test, if you have a battery-operated calculator, put fresh batteries in it. The last thing you would want is for your calculator batteries to die during the test.

That's going to cause stress, and stress is going to affect your performance. Option number two is that there's an onscreen calculator built into the exam. It's a really great calculator, actually. It's a very powerful tool.

It can do all of the numerical calculations you'd normally expect from a calculator, and it has really great graphing software built in. You can type into it with your keyboard or use the buttons on screen. So you should probably do a little bit of practice learning how to type in algebraic and mathematical symbols on the calculator.

For example, if you wanted to square a number, you actually have to type the caret and then a two to get squared. So in the Bluebook software, that is provided for your SAT practice, as well as desmos.com, you can practice with this calculator software.

Get really comfortable using it so you can see all that it can do. Here are a couple examples. You can use the calculator for simple calculations. This isn't identical to what you're going to see on test day, but it's pretty close.

So we can type in, if you look on the left, something simple as two plus two, or a basic division, 135 divided by 5. And the answers are there for us. We can do a string of calculations like 12 plus 6 times 9 minus 2, and that was calculated for us using the order of operations correctly.

We can type in exponents and combine all sorts of things to get number answers. We can also graph the equation of a line. Here we have one in y = mx plus b form and another in standard form. And notice that each equation that's being graphed is in a different color.

So 3x plus 5y equals 15 is in black. y equals 4x plus 3 is in red. You can tell which graph is which, and you can even find their point of intersection and click on it. So if you had to solve a system of equations, you could say that the solution was 0, 3 from this graphing calculator.

You can also graph quadratic and other non-linear functions. Something here like x squared plus 2x minus 15. We could type in y =, or we can just type in what the y equals part of the equation is set to. And here we have our parabola on screen.

The x and y intercepts and the vertex are all little points there. And if you click on each point, you can find those numbers. Really, really powerful software. And I suggest you make use of it when graphing would help you to solve a problem.

So let's talk about some advice. How should you use your calculator? What's its purpose? The purpose is to calculate. Steps when you actually have to calculate a number can be faster, easier, more precise than doing it in your head.

And that's really it. When you use a calculator, be careful because there is no spell-check. There's no autocorrect built in to identify typos. Whatever you ask the calculator, it's going to answer that question.

So if you type in something inaccurately, you might get a wrong answer and either be very confused or trust it. And neither of those is helpful. So make sure you've typed your answer in correctly. You might even want to type in your calculation twice.

And before you use that number, stop and think, "Does this answer make sense? Is it reasonable according to the problem I'm solving?" And that can help you catch any potential typos in your calculator usage. So here's some times when it might be a good idea to go ahead and use a calculator or when you might want to pause and rethink.

Yes, you can use a calculator for arithmetic, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, basic number things. But there are a lot of times when algebraic expressions are not helped by a calculator, right? A calculator isn't going to help you solve the value of x if you just typed in an expression.

Calculators can be very helpful to speed us up with fractions and decimals, but with simple things like easy whole numbers, a calculator can actually take longer than answering it in your head, and you don't want to do anything that's going to cost you extra time.

A calculator's a great idea when you need to be precise, but some questions allow you to estimate. Sometimes the problem will even use the word approximately. And then you know your answer doesn't need to be real precise. You might be able to skip over the time it takes to use the calculator.

It's a good idea to use the calculator when you know what you need to do and you're trying to get that step done. But here's the biggest warning. Don't just start punching stuff into the calculator when you feel stuck.

I've seen students so many times taking a test, and I know my students, I know the looks on their faces. They have no idea what to do or how to approach the question. They just start taking the numbers they see and punching them in to get something.

That's a terrible idea. That's a waste of time. It's not likely to lead to right answers, and it's just not a good plan. Make a plan of how to solve the problem first and then let the calculator support you. And also, relatively small, simple numbers, one-digit, two-digit, maybe three-digit numbers, are great for the calculator.

But if you're dealing with really big numbers or very high exponents, those are not values that anyone would be expected to solve by hand. Remember, everything could be solved without a calculator. So there's another technique involved.

If there's something that would just be way too big or too difficult of a number for anyone to calculate within a reasonable amount of time, then that's not the approach that you need. So that's not a good time to reach for the calculator. Instead, try to find a different strategy.

So in closing, you need to know that all of the test allows for a calculator, but the whole test is written so that one is only optional. You can use it, but you don't have to. You should decide what calculator you're going to use in advance.

And maybe you're going to ask me, "Well, what do you recommend? Option one, bring my own, or option two, use the onscreen calculator?" I recommend both. Bring a calculator that you are familiar with and ready to use.

And also consider the onscreen calculator as a powerful tool, especially for the graphing functionality. So use the advice, make good decisions. Don't just automatically use a calculator, but make intentional, deliberate choices.

And that calculator is going to help you boost your score and speed up your pace on the math section.