Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

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tomtom
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Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:58 pm

Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

Post by tomtom » Mon Jul 20, 2009 9:42 pm

Hi, i'm a little confused.

ETS website says I cannot bring my calculator.
But what if I need one for solving problems?

There seems to be many problems like that in the practice booklet...

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grae313
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Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

Post by grae313 » Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:02 pm

No calculators, no cellphones, no watches, no slide-rules, no mechanical pencils.

Practice doing the math with pen and paper, use 3 for pi and 10 for g.

nathan12343
Posts: 249
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:34 am

Re: Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

Post by nathan12343 » Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:59 am

Rounding helps, there aren't a whole lot of problems that want the answer to within more than a factor of ten. You can mark down those that do require more accuracy and come back to them later.

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quizivex
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Re: Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

Post by quizivex » Tue Jul 21, 2009 9:32 am

Yea, problems where you have to derive a theoretical formula are often separated by factors of two, but most number-crunching problems where you have to multiply and divide lots of numbers/constants in scientific notation have answers separated by factors of 10 or more. So you can do some rounding...

electron mass = 10^-30...

tomtom
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Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:58 pm

Re: Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

Post by tomtom » Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:42 am

Thank you all for the information.

But I still think I'm going to stumble a little upon number-crunchings,
things like wavelength = 550 nm, and trying to find the inverse for it...

For example... for the problem #62, I had to do 1.6/6400 X10^-19,
and got the right answer. I guess supposedly, all you need to know
is that 1.6/6400 can be easily calculated by deducing it to the ratio of1/4?

Well... Still! :)

nathan12343
Posts: 249
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2008 9:34 am

Re: Can I use calculator on PGRE exam?

Post by nathan12343 » Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:59 pm

You can find 1/550 pretty quickly using long division, but I doubt that would be necessary. Why not just round down to 500 nm, and find 1/500?

This is the physics GRE and as such I guess they expect you to be able to do mathematical manipulations like 1.6/6400 without breaking a sweat.



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