by nsguy1350 » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:04 am
In my opinion, Calculator is the easiest math event to get good in. For math, you need to know Calculus, number theory, geometry, etc, although not too in-depth. Many kids don't attend schools with a curriculum that would allow them to be very good in math without much practice and independent study. 60 questions in Math. Number sense is probably the hardest math event to get good at. A lot of it is just talent, and there are SO many tricks and techniques, of which many people are unaware of, making it seem hopeless or at least extremely difficult to get good at. 80 questions in 10 minutes can be intimidating.
For Calculator, there are 70 questions, 35 of which are number crunchers, which anyone with skill with an HP can tackle quickly. 35 down, 35 to go. There are 5 study guide questions, which are easy to do if you do the study guide. 30 left. I say anyone with basic geometry knowledge, including trig, and get the first three pages of geometry fairly easily. That leaves 24. Adding in the first two pages of stated gives you 18. The majority of the test doesn't require too much thought. To get the rest of the 18, you'll have to know a few more things, but if you can get them (e.g. interest, exponential growth, several calculus, scaling, solver, matrix, etc.) then you know most of the test. Many of those are not that difficult. Of course, there are always a few difficult questions, but the vast majority of people never get to those questions, so they are pretty much irrelevant for most anyways.
All of these factors are what make me think Calculator is the easiest event to specialize in, which explains schools like North Shore and PSJA.
2013 District 1/Region:
NS - 319/355
MA - 340/332
CA - 294/287
SC - 344/292
CS - 212/124 (fail)