TI-84 Graphing CalculatorGeneral Graphing Calculator Advice for the SAT/ACT

Graphing Calculator Features You Should Know for the SAT/ACT

Below are the most important things you should practice on your graphing calculator.

(1) Practice entering complicated computations in a single step, and know when to insert parentheses. In general, there are 4 instances when you should use parentheses in your calculator. Around numerators of fractions Around denominators of fractions Around exponents Whenever you actually see parentheses in the expression

Examples: We will substitute a 5 in for x in each of the following examples.

TI-84 Graphing Calculator Examples

(2) Clear the screen before using it in a new problem. The big screen allows you to check over your computations easily.

(3) Press the ANS button (2nd (-) ) to use your last answer in the next computation.

(4) Press 2nd ENTER to bring up your last computation for editing. This is especially useful when you are plugging in answer choices, or guessing and checking.

(5) You can press 2nd ENTER over and over again to cycle backwards through all the computations you have ever done.

(6) Know where the ,√ ,π and ^ buttons are so you can reach them quickly.

(7) Change a decimal to a fraction by pressing MATH ENTER ENTER.

(8) Press the MATH button – in the first menu that appears you can take cube roots and nth roots for any n. Scroll right to NUM and you have lcm( and gcd(.

(9) Know how to use the SIN, COS and TAN buttons as well as SIN-1, COS-1 and TAN-1.

The following items are less important but can be useful.

(10) Press the Y= button to enter a function, and then hit ZOOM 6 to graph it in a standard window.

(11) Practice using the WINDOW button to adjust the viewing window of your graph.

(12) Practice using the TRACE button to move along the graph and look at some of the points plotted.

(13) Pressing 2nd TRACE (which is really CALC) will bring up a menu of useful items. For example selecting ZERO will tell you where the graph hits the x-axis, or equivalently where the function is zero. Selecting MINIMUM or MAXIMUM can find the vertex of a parabola. Selecting INTERSECT will find the point of intersection of 2 graphs.

And now it’s time to start practicing lots of SAT math problems. For this you may want to take a look at the Get 800 collection of SAT math prep books. Click on the picture below for more information about these books.

Get 800 SAT Math Bundle

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See you in a week!

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