Quick general question about the exam

[sxcalexc]

How do they expect us to do our calculations? Are we meant to keep rounding as we do calculations in a question? Or is the aim to get as accurate workings as possible, and then only round at the end to get the answer? This is really simple but my teacher doesn't seem to be sure of the exact method either.

Oh and another one haha. My scientific calculator has 6 little screws in the back to change batteries. So it's not really viable to do so in the middle of the exam. Do they let us take in two calculators incase of failure? Because I happen to have another identical calculator.

[dcc]

Never round until the end, otherwise the error accumulates and you could be way off.

[sxcalexc]

Never round until the end, otherwise the error accumulates and you could be way off.

Yeh, thx man that's what I thought. Any ideas about the calculator?

[cara.mel]

Someone from my school brought spare batteries and a screwdriver with them

I would advise simply changing the batteries beforehand

[sxcalexc]

Someone from my school brought spare batteries and a screwdriver with them

I would advise simply changing the batteries beforehand

Yeah.. I suppose. Still makes me feel kinda naked if you know what I mean though haha. Thx for the advice

[dcc]

I changed my batteries this morning, but I checked the old ones (they had been in there about 6 years) and they were still fine!

[Fyrefly]

Rounding is done only at the end, so the answer is as accurate as possible.

Change the batteries, and (if you want) bring in your spare calculator and put it on the floor. The worst they will really do is take it off you, but I doubt they'll even do that. If they ask, tell them you were going to lend it to a friend, but the friend ended up getting one from someone else. The examiners at my school have always been really laid back. There were only 7 of us for my accounting midyear and 7 for my spec end of year, so we were allowed to move our papers to a table of our choosing. The only rule they were unduly fussy about was that our water bottles were to have no labels on them, and we also had to leave the exam room rather promptly afterwards (tho I suspect this was bcoz they wanted to go eat lunch). I brought green cordial into my exams, rather than water (I figured the sugar could do me good). None of them said anything until my very last exam (specialist's), and all she said was 'you really shouldn't have cordial, make sure you only bring water next time'. I got to keep my cordial, and I told her it was my last exam anyway.