5 ms·

tbh I'm most interested by this: > "Today's students, they do a lot of their living digitally, they do a lot of their learning digitally and they do a lot of t

tbh I'm most interested by this: > "Today's students, they do a lot of their living digitally, they do a lot of their learning digitally and they do a lot of their test taking digitally," says Priscilla Rodriguez, who oversees the SAT for the College Board, the organization behind the test. How do kids work out math problems these days? Do they draw equations with their finger on a tablet/phone? Tablet pen on tablet? Are they learning math typesetting at a young age? I used to use huge amounts of scratch paper, in college I had a convertible laptop/tablet that I used for taking notes in class, sometimes handwriting everything, sometimes LaTeX & import the generated pdf into onenote where my handdrawn figures were. But I never used that setup for scratch paper, scratch paper was something sacred and always paper + pencil. But, now paper is nonexistent and I use a wacom tablet with OneNote when I need scratch paper. So there's been a huge revolution in my life and I'm curious what today's kids do.

gnicholas 3y ago
My kid is doing prealgebra now online (AoPS). When she's on an iPad Pro, she uses the Apple Pencil in the Notes app, side-by-side with the AoPS window. When she's on a non-Pro iPad she uses pencil and paper. I assume kids will use scratch paper with the SAT, along with calculators. > Are they learning math typesetting at a young age? My kid loves doing LateX on AoPS, for some reason. I guess it will be useful if she's still doing online math when she gets to higher levels (it's not really necessary for prealgebra).
- burnished 3y ago
  Due to wrist injuries I used to type and turn in printed copies of my homework for a variety of math heavy engineering classes. It was quite nice once I got used to it especially because it reduced the friction of fixing a mistake and reduced the cost of including connecting or explanatory prose statements. It really improved the quality of my written work (especially the diagrams and the greek letters). Anyway, I just got excited because I hadn't heard of anyone else doing that, I hope it remains a useful technique for your daughter for her classes.
  - RheingoldRiver 3y ago
    It was pretty common at my uni to TeX math & physics problem sets, I had phases of doing both depending on my mood. I usually felt that the one I wasn't currently accustomed to made me more careful, so as TeX-ing became too easy I'd handwrite, as my handwriting deteriorated I'd go back to TeX.
goryramsy 3y ago
As a current high school student who will be taking the digital SAT this March, I can assure you that paper is alive and well both in the classroom and in testing. I don’t love the new digital testing system, and I see it as a failure of their system that students can no longer self pace through the test.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Is this change motivated by issues regarding self pacing? I hadn't heard that. Good luck with your upcoming test!
  - goryramsy 3y ago
    >Is this change motivated by issues regarding self pacing? I think that to the Collegeboard, the change to digital was to make it easier to distribute and easier to take (digital, shorter time). However, I think that this has some unintended consequences in how it will limit student freedom to self-pace, and the possibility of unjust scores if the student does not make the qualifying 'second stage' difficulty on the adaptive part. >Good luck with your upcoming test! Thanks for the kind words! When I heard that the test would be digital, I rushed to sign up for a paper section, and was lucky enough to get a slot (and a good score). I'm only now taking the digital because my school is offering it on campus, and that's just too convenient to pass up.
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      It makes sense to have tried to get in for a paper test in case the digital rollout is a mess. It will be interesting to learn how the two tests differ — I hope students like you write blog posts or articles in school newspapers about the experience.
saagarjha 3y ago
Kids write on paper just like everyone used to, or they use a tablet or something. There’s literally no difference except that sometimes they click radio buttons instead of filling out a scantron.
aio2 3y ago
Dude, I remember and better when I write. No way I'm going all digital in math class.

gnicholas 3y ago

My kid is doing prealgebra now online (AoPS). When she's on an iPad Pro, she uses the Apple Pencil in the Notes app, side-by-side with the AoPS window. When she's on a non-Pro iPad she uses pencil and paper. I assume kids will use scratch paper with the SAT, along with calculators. > Are they learning math typesetting at a young age? My kid loves doing LateX on AoPS, for some reason. I guess it will be useful if she's still doing online math when she gets to higher levels (it's not really necessary for prealgebra).

burnished 3y ago
Due to wrist injuries I used to type and turn in printed copies of my homework for a variety of math heavy engineering classes. It was quite nice once I got used to it especially because it reduced the friction of fixing a mistake and reduced the cost of including connecting or explanatory prose statements. It really improved the quality of my written work (especially the diagrams and the greek letters). Anyway, I just got excited because I hadn't heard of anyone else doing that, I hope it remains a useful technique for your daughter for her classes.
- RheingoldRiver 3y ago
  It was pretty common at my uni to TeX math & physics problem sets, I had phases of doing both depending on my mood. I usually felt that the one I wasn't currently accustomed to made me more careful, so as TeX-ing became too easy I'd handwrite, as my handwriting deteriorated I'd go back to TeX.

goryramsy 3y ago

As a current high school student who will be taking the digital SAT this March, I can assure you that paper is alive and well both in the classroom and in testing. I don’t love the new digital testing system, and I see it as a failure of their system that students can no longer self pace through the test.

gnicholas 3y ago
Is this change motivated by issues regarding self pacing? I hadn't heard that. Good luck with your upcoming test!
- goryramsy 3y ago
  >Is this change motivated by issues regarding self pacing? I think that to the Collegeboard, the change to digital was to make it easier to distribute and easier to take (digital, shorter time). However, I think that this has some unintended consequences in how it will limit student freedom to self-pace, and the possibility of unjust scores if the student does not make the qualifying 'second stage' difficulty on the adaptive part. >Good luck with your upcoming test! Thanks for the kind words! When I heard that the test would be digital, I rushed to sign up for a paper section, and was lucky enough to get a slot (and a good score). I'm only now taking the digital because my school is offering it on campus, and that's just too convenient to pass up.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    It makes sense to have tried to get in for a paper test in case the digital rollout is a mess. It will be interesting to learn how the two tests differ — I hope students like you write blog posts or articles in school newspapers about the experience.

saagarjha 3y ago

Kids write on paper just like everyone used to, or they use a tablet or something. There’s literally no difference except that sometimes they click radio buttons instead of filling out a scantron.

aio2 3y ago

Dude, I remember and better when I write. No way I'm going all digital in math class.