My 5th grader was put on the calculator team. It has been a while but seems like RPN was the way to go back when I was in school. I have a 15 year old HP 48g that I could dust off, would that be adequate? Or is there some new fangled calculator that all the "cool" kids are using?

Are there any restrictions on what kind of calculator you can use? Can it be programmable? Can it have a CAS?

Far as I know there are no restrictions

I believe it has to be scientific only. I did calculator back in 8th grade and I had a Casio. Some people had TI's or HP's as well. Double check with their coach.

I was on the state winning calculator team back in the mid 90s. We all used HP 32s II's. Unless the format of the test has changed I would get that. I guess they still make them, not sure.

HP32SII's are no longer made, but the 35S is a suitable replacement (the 33 didn't really fit the bill, RPN was just an afterthought)

I did UIL calc between 2000-2003, graphing calcs were allowed, but they're pretty darn slow. None of the top competitors used anything but an HP RPN scientific.

The format did change right after I graduated (I saw a few of them while they were experimenting with the format), less number crunchers, more stated and geometry, new scoring. I'd still want my HP even if the new format is a little light on the number crunchers.

Still have my HP32SII from my senior year in 2002. Use it every day still. Not sure what I'll do if it ever bites the dust.

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Still have my HP32SII from my senior year in 2002. Use it every day still. Not sure what I'll do if it ever bites the dust.

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Pick up an emulator app. I use an HP48 emulator all the time.

From the UIL Contest rules:

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You may use any silent, hand-held calculator that does not require auxiliary electric power. Your calculator data storage memory and all clearable program memory shall be cleared. You may not use prerecorded programs during the contest but you are allowed to hand-enter programs and store numbers after the contest begins.

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I coached middle school UIL Calculator the last few years, but now since I'm teaching at the high school, I coach the high school calculator students. My personal opinion is that the HP-35s is the best calculator for 90% of the middle school tests. It is similar to the 32s with the button layout. If I were to recommend one, that'd be it. For some reason, a couple of my students like the 33s. I don't understand it, I find that one to be total garbage.

[This message has been edited by jarAGGIE05 (edited 3/2/2014 9:19a).]

I'm still using my HP15C from 1985. It worked great for the calculator contests my senior year.

I did TMSCA and we always used Casios but from what I could tell at A&M, all the other kids who did that stuff back in the day loved their HPs and the RPN format.

I always loved my TI-30X back in MS Mathclub. Still use the same one we got as a prize at State Mathcounts (not exactly a 30X, but basically the same layout).

p***ies

/don skow

TI-83/84/89

At A&M, in my sophomore level numerical methods class, a lot of the tests involved manually crunching through the first couple iterations of something like runge-kutta. It was almost comical how much faster I finished those tests w/ my little HP scientific than all the other folks with TI-89's.

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than all the other folks with TI-89's.

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Here. F'in numerical.

uhh...what kind of calculator is your kid good with?

Get that kind.

HP32SII if you can find one. Learn RPN if you don't know it. Second choice would be HP35S. Are you still allowed to bring more than one calculator? We used to bring 2 32SIIs (one for backup) and a TI-89 for the graphing problems.

Other advice:
-Get a small digital timer so the contestant can easily track of the time.
-Use pens instead of pencils. It is faster to cross out an answer and write a new one than to try to erase.

if you can't do it all in your head, then what's the challenge?

Another vote for the 32SII here. Definitely learn RPN. The people suggesting graphing calculators have no clue.

Learn RPN for sure. The HP33s won me a state title, but by most accounts the 35 is better.

If you can find a 32, go for it, but any RPN will help with the "cruncher problems."

If you are serious, throw in a TI-89...but maybe not for a few years until your kid is doing the HS version of the competition. Learning how to think in RPN takes a little work, but you learn how, it's tough to go back.

Also, remind him to double-check that the pages don't get stuck together. That happened to me one year (and they deduct points for problems that you skip, but not for those you don't get to).