One of the most important things a student can do to prepare for the SAT or ACT is to become proficient with his or her calculator. So simple, yet so important.

When I first began tutoring back in the 90s, I wondered why powerful Texas Instruments calculators were allowed on the test, when no calculators at all had been allowed back I took the test. After all, TI-83 and TI-84 calculators can solve many questions on the test all by themselves, and they can be programmed to do even more — even to hold any formulas that a student might need to remember. Soon, though, the answer became apparent: most students barely use the more powerful abilities of their graphing calculators. Quite a few students didn’t even know how to do a simple cubic root, much less find and install any programs that would be helpful.

If that sounds like you, you might want to become a little better acquainted with your graphing calculator. Ask your teacher or a savvy friend for tips, or simply Google anything you’re not sure how to do. Did you know that your TI unit can almost instantly determine all the prime factors of any number, or calculate the slope of the line connecting two points? You just need to write or install tiny programs that can help you out. (I have several that I provide for my students, including some I wrote myself).

Make friends with your calculator. Trust me, you do NOT want to be figuring things out on the fly while you’re on the clock on test day!