4 ms·

This isn't a ban on TI-BASIC, which is what most students use when programming formulae and other helper programs.

hamandcheese 6y ago
It’s common for exam proctors to require you clear all programs from your calculator. I think the reason for banning native programs is that it was trivial to spoof the memory clearing in a way that was difficult to detect.
- avhon1 6y ago
  You can actually spoof the "RESET RAM" menu in TI-Basic, but only dedicated students would do it.
  - Mattwmaster58 6y ago
    Was this because you would have to plot it line/pixel-by-line/pixel?
    - avhon1 6y ago
      Something like that. You'd have to plot all of the text in all the right places, and also script the menu, delay, and keyboard response.
      - thanksforfish 6y ago
        Are exam proctors really auditing this to that level? I've been out of school for a while, but I think I only remember the honor system being used.
        avhon1 6y ago
        My calculator was never checked before standardized tests, but some math teachers checked before giving class tests.
        thanksforfish 6y ago
        Theres some interesting incentives for teachers administering standardized tests to ignore cheating. Students who do well reflects well on the teacher and the school. I wonder how schools report cheating to standardized test administrators and what the rules are for scoring a cheater.
  - VistaBrokeMyPC 6y ago
    If you group the programs then archive the group, clearing ram doesn't delete it. Once proctor walks away, unarchive!
- lilyball 6y ago
  I had a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition back in the day, and if I recall correctly, it had twice as much RAM available as the OS exposed, and you could load a third-party assembly program that would wire up a specific hotkey to essentially swap banks of memory. This way you could have what appeared to be a clean calculator with no programs on it, then swap over to the other memory bank and all your programs would be accessible. Even telling it to clear RAM would only clear the current bank.
- gameswithgo 6y ago
  just quit allowing calculators at all. what in the world.

It’s common for exam proctors to require you clear all programs from your calculator. I think the reason for banning native programs is that it was trivial to spoof the memory clearing in a way that was difficult to detect.

avhon1 6y ago
You can actually spoof the "RESET RAM" menu in TI-Basic, but only dedicated students would do it.
- Mattwmaster58 6y ago
  Was this because you would have to plot it line/pixel-by-line/pixel?
  - avhon1 6y ago
    Something like that. You'd have to plot all of the text in all the right places, and also script the menu, delay, and keyboard response.
    - thanksforfish 6y ago
      Are exam proctors really auditing this to that level? I've been out of school for a while, but I think I only remember the honor system being used.
      - avhon1 6y ago
        My calculator was never checked before standardized tests, but some math teachers checked before giving class tests.
        thanksforfish 6y ago
        Theres some interesting incentives for teachers administering standardized tests to ignore cheating. Students who do well reflects well on the teacher and the school. I wonder how schools report cheating to standardized test administrators and what the rules are for scoring a cheater.
- VistaBrokeMyPC 6y ago
  If you group the programs then archive the group, clearing ram doesn't delete it. Once proctor walks away, unarchive!
lilyball 6y ago
I had a TI-84 Plus Silver Edition back in the day, and if I recall correctly, it had twice as much RAM available as the OS exposed, and you could load a third-party assembly program that would wire up a specific hotkey to essentially swap banks of memory. This way you could have what appeared to be a clean calculator with no programs on it, then swap over to the other memory bank and all your programs would be accessible. Even telling it to clear RAM would only clear the current bank.
gameswithgo 6y ago
just quit allowing calculators at all. what in the world.