I don't mean to be rude, but doesn't anyone else feel that if you are that dependent on your calculator, maybe you haven't learned anything? If I bring a calculator to a test, it's only because I don't feel like multiplying and dividing by hand (but I can if I have to).

Sure, formulas are difficult to memorize cold, but if you are only memorizing them without really understanding them, well, that's not much better than relying on your calculator.

I can calculate a standard deviation faster than I can recall the formula for it because I understand why it's the same as the square root of the variance or the root-mean-square of the deviations. I understand what it means to the Z-score and the confidence interval and how the proportion of the deviations X and Y relates to the slope of the regression line and so on and so forth.

I think this kind of understanding is intrinsically rewarding. It's also very flexible. I may not know the answer, but you should see my educated guesses! Just my two cents.

__________________
Chris
120 credits, 3.60 GPA, B.S. General Business, Excelsior College to be conferred 6/20/08

CLEP Accounting-71, Humanities-70, Marketing-78, Macro-70, Sociology-66, HG&D-72, Management-77, American Gov't-63, Business Law-73, Edu Psych-67, Biology-71; DSST MIS-66, Statistics-78, Principles of Finance-66, Money & Banking-65, Health-65, Business Law II-69, Environment-68, HRM-70; ECE Ethics-A, Org Behavior-B, Info Lit-P, Labor Relations-C, Ops Mgt-A, Business Strategy-B