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The trick with those is you can make a TI-BASIC program that will make it look like you cleared the memory - fake empty "programs" list and all. There were a fe

The trick with those is you can make a TI-BASIC program that will make it look like you cleared the memory - fake empty "programs" list and all. There were a few tiny details you couldn't replicate like the highlighting animation, but they never noticed when I did it.

jedberg 7y ago
I in fact did this in high school. But now that the current high school teachers are people my age who actually grew up using the calculators, they are wise to that ploy. :)
- JohnBooty 7y ago
  I went to high school in the early 90s, at the dawn of graphing calculators but before teachers were wise to the "notes" trick. One time before a calc test I dropped my graphing calculator. The battery door popped off and the batteries popped out. The unit was otherwise unharmed... but my cheat sheet in the notes app was gone! I nearly crapped my pants. Luckily though... as most cheaters know... to make a decent cheat sheet you actually have to comprehend the material first. Half the time you wind up not even using your cheat sheet. Luckily for me that was the case. I still did well on the test.
  - mmcgaha 7y ago
    I am a little older than you, so my cheat sheets were on paper. There was definitely something about miniaturizing notes that reinforced learning. I made dozens of cheat sheets but never had to use one.
    - JohnBooty 7y ago
      Yeah, the vast majority of mine were on paper! There was definitely something about miniaturizing notes that reinforced learning We have to comprehend a thing in order to summarize it, right? The more compact the summary, the more comprehension required. =)
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  I also did this, but never got around to storing test-related materials in my phone. It was mainly for preserving my goofing-off programs.
  - logfromblammo 7y ago
    Not phone. Calculator.
lb1lf 7y ago
When I was in our high school equivalent, our maths teacher blew that trick out of the water simply by having us all clear the calculator memory, then having us swap calculators at random. Worked a charm. Next time, noone had bothered to hide notes as they didn't want to spend time helping some random sod out. Solidarity is dead. (You could, of course, try to counter this by having the entire class install the same cheat - but that would be unlikely to succeed...)
- macintux 7y ago
  I’d be in trouble: I use RPN calculators, and am practically crippled if I try to use anything else. Of course, I’d probably not be in as much trouble as whatever poor sod got stuck with my HP.
  - dillonmckay 7y ago
    48?
    - macintux 7y ago
      I’m actually not sure I still have my 48. I have one of the new limited edition 15s and an ancient 41.
  - ttul 7y ago
    An HP 48 put me through engineering school. I now own an HP Prime. Sweet piece of hardware. Of course, I have no use for it anymore.
  - lb1lf 7y ago
    Oh, we had one approved graphing calculator - well, two. The Casio FX-7700 and its big brother, the FX-9700. Problem solved. Except if you happened to prefer RPN; I had a HP-48 which I had bought prior to the edict naming The One True Calculator - the day I enrolled at university, I started using it again, only to be met with a similar edict in my second term, naming the Ti-89 the only kosher graphing calculator. Since I graduated, the HP-48 has been in daily use.
avgDev 7y ago
I did this. Oddly enough in a computer science class we had an old professor. He accused me of cheating. He was right. However, he physically inspected my calculator like under the cover and where batteries are lol but did not check the programs. He apologized. I did well on the test.
- LgWoodenBadger 7y ago
  I'm having trouble figuring out what type of material in Computer Science would require a calculator.
  - avgDev 7y ago
    It was weird. It was a course that had some assembly language and I'm pretty sure he wanted us to do some calculations. We were writing the code on paper, therefore, he allowed calculators.
  - walshemj 7y ago
    Base conversions maybe for an entry level course
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    I had a problem on a test that asked to track a somewhat convoluted series of recursive calls. Being lazy, I reimplemented it in TI-BASIC and just ran it…
filmgirlcw 7y ago
Yeah, that’s what I did. I also used a TI-89, which was fairly new at the time, and thus, the teachers/proctors weren’t as aware of its features and where to look for stuff that was hidden away.
mrlambchop 7y ago
Guilty as charged. A program that did a <delay,print "RESET",delay> was enough (with a bit of execution timing) to show the examiner on the way into the hall that all was good. The attention to detail really got to me however over time - the normal reset message was in lower case, but all the custom programs could print was in UPPER case. I was always "its sooo obvious - they'll find me out", when I saw RESET, but nobody ever clocked. I never did use these notes or solvers in an exam - once I knew I had them, I would remember them anyway.

jedberg 7y ago

I in fact did this in high school. But now that the current high school teachers are people my age who actually grew up using the calculators, they are wise to that ploy. :)

JohnBooty 7y ago
I went to high school in the early 90s, at the dawn of graphing calculators but before teachers were wise to the "notes" trick. One time before a calc test I dropped my graphing calculator. The battery door popped off and the batteries popped out. The unit was otherwise unharmed... but my cheat sheet in the notes app was gone! I nearly crapped my pants. Luckily though... as most cheaters know... to make a decent cheat sheet you actually have to comprehend the material first. Half the time you wind up not even using your cheat sheet. Luckily for me that was the case. I still did well on the test.
- mmcgaha 7y ago
  I am a little older than you, so my cheat sheets were on paper. There was definitely something about miniaturizing notes that reinforced learning. I made dozens of cheat sheets but never had to use one.
  - JohnBooty 7y ago
    Yeah, the vast majority of mine were on paper! There was definitely something about miniaturizing notes that reinforced learning We have to comprehend a thing in order to summarize it, right? The more compact the summary, the more comprehension required. =)
logfromblammo 7y ago
I also did this, but never got around to storing test-related materials in my phone. It was mainly for preserving my goofing-off programs.
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Not phone. Calculator.

lb1lf 7y ago

When I was in our high school equivalent, our maths teacher blew that trick out of the water simply by having us all clear the calculator memory, then having us swap calculators at random. Worked a charm. Next time, noone had bothered to hide notes as they didn't want to spend time helping some random sod out. Solidarity is dead. (You could, of course, try to counter this by having the entire class install the same cheat - but that would be unlikely to succeed...)

macintux 7y ago
I’d be in trouble: I use RPN calculators, and am practically crippled if I try to use anything else. Of course, I’d probably not be in as much trouble as whatever poor sod got stuck with my HP.
- dillonmckay 7y ago
  48?
  - macintux 7y ago
    I’m actually not sure I still have my 48. I have one of the new limited edition 15s and an ancient 41.
- ttul 7y ago
  An HP 48 put me through engineering school. I now own an HP Prime. Sweet piece of hardware. Of course, I have no use for it anymore.
- lb1lf 7y ago
  Oh, we had one approved graphing calculator - well, two. The Casio FX-7700 and its big brother, the FX-9700. Problem solved. Except if you happened to prefer RPN; I had a HP-48 which I had bought prior to the edict naming The One True Calculator - the day I enrolled at university, I started using it again, only to be met with a similar edict in my second term, naming the Ti-89 the only kosher graphing calculator. Since I graduated, the HP-48 has been in daily use.

avgDev 7y ago

I did this. Oddly enough in a computer science class we had an old professor. He accused me of cheating. He was right. However, he physically inspected my calculator like under the cover and where batteries are lol but did not check the programs. He apologized. I did well on the test.

LgWoodenBadger 7y ago
I'm having trouble figuring out what type of material in Computer Science would require a calculator.
- avgDev 7y ago
  It was weird. It was a course that had some assembly language and I'm pretty sure he wanted us to do some calculations. We were writing the code on paper, therefore, he allowed calculators.
- walshemj 7y ago
  Base conversions maybe for an entry level course
- saagarjha 7y ago
  I had a problem on a test that asked to track a somewhat convoluted series of recursive calls. Being lazy, I reimplemented it in TI-BASIC and just ran it…

filmgirlcw 7y ago

Yeah, that’s what I did. I also used a TI-89, which was fairly new at the time, and thus, the teachers/proctors weren’t as aware of its features and where to look for stuff that was hidden away.

mrlambchop 7y ago

Guilty as charged. A program that did a <delay,print "RESET",delay> was enough (with a bit of execution timing) to show the examiner on the way into the hall that all was good. The attention to detail really got to me however over time - the normal reset message was in lower case, but all the custom programs could print was in UPPER case. I was always "its sooo obvious - they'll find me out", when I saw RESET, but nobody ever clocked. I never did use these notes or solvers in an exam - once I knew I had them, I would remember them anyway.