this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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[–] DontMakeMoreBabies@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

If a kid is smart enough to figure this out and make it work for them, they're gonna be fine...

[–] Maestro@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but the kids buying the modded devices may not be

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[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Back when we were doing quadratic equations; I wrote a program on my TI-84 that would ask which parts of the equation you already had, and would fill in the rest for you.

My teacher liked it so much he bought a transfer cable for those calculators so he could get a copy for himself. Then used to to grade tests.

[–] ShunkW@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So you didn't get the transfer cable with your calculator? Smells fishy

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

Issued by the school; I never owned it.

[–] TriflingToad@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

you can code directly on the device, it's just a PAIN to do compared to moving the files over

[–] Khanzarate@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I did the same thing. It was allowed in general, with the correct thought, "if you can code it yourself, you know the content"

I had another "program" that would fail to run but that's because I wrote notes into it. Doubt that was allowed.

[–] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Here in NZ they do a factory reset on your calculator at the start of every exam.

[–] piecat@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Oh I would have been so pissed. I was programming on my calculator 24/7 instead of my classes.

I wrote a sudoku "editor"

I put that in quotes because I had a grid that could be navigated, arrows moved, storing the numbers, had number entry down, and then I learned the hard way what p vs np is.

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[–] thejml@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

I did that but made it return success before it got to the notes. You had to scroll to get to the notes, but it looked innocuous before that.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I could never remember the formula to calculate compound interest.

But I had no trouble writing a for loop.

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[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Oof getting ChatGPT to help on a test is likely to lead to some wrong answers.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Idk, if there is one thing it does consistently well its standardized tests.

Not that it can be used in any non mathematical class and if teachers do actually pay attention.

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Cept you can’t use any wifi models on any standardized test for this reason.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not a WiFi model, a custom module was hidden inside the calculator to provide the WiFi connection.

[–] TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ah yup should’ve read the article lol. That’s a whole lot of work and effort into cheating, which probably won’t work? Needs a whole thing to it sounds like plug into the link port? Which would stick out… so like… idk MAYBE they are stupid and don’t notice but like… I wouldn’t bet my life on that.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

Because the phrase "Cheaters never prosper" isn't actually true. There are many executives, politicians and rich people that very very likely "cheated" at some point along the way to get where they are, multiple times probably.

Hell, I wouldn't even be surprised if such phrases were spread by the rich/ruling class/whatever as just another thing to keep people divided lol

[–] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's a video in the article showing the whole process. The new module was completely hidden inside the calculators case and soldered to the internal connections.

Until you actually open it up, it doesn't look abnormal at all.

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[–] CrimeDad@lemmy.crimedad.work 0 points 2 months ago

Better than plastic explosives and shrapnel.

[–] Jackcooper@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 0 points 2 months ago

They added wifi with a extra circuit board hidden inside the calculator case. It's connected to the calculators communication port, and pretends to be another calculator. So they can use the calculator's built in "send" function to send variables/text/etc to the hidden card, which then uses it's internet connection to look up answers and send the results back.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, nobody in class is going to suspect the kid with the arduino-type science project mess of wires duct taped to their calculator.

For those too lazy to read, that's how this works. An external micro controller talks to the calc through the IO port, and does the Wifi stuff, acting as a middleman.

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I saw the video. It closes up nicely and is invisible. It can even re-download the programs if wiped before by the teacher.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, that teaches me to read AND click all links in an article.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

For those too lazy to watch the video, the whole thing is eventually concealed within the calculator.

[–] BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 0 points 2 months ago

This is cool stuff

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Its been quite a while since I've taken a proctored exam, but then all the proctors would clear all the memory on your calc before they'd let you use it for test. Is that not the case anymore?

[–] bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

The launcher program can be downloaded on-demand, avoiding detection if a teacher inspects or clears the calculator's memory

If I understood it correctly, the Wi-Fi module appears as a standard calculator-to-calculator interface, so built-in commands can install the cheat apps at any time.

[–] Broken_Monitor@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Depends on the exam. Some don’t even allow programmable calcs because they don’t want to deal with possible shit like this. I have already seen a certification exam where they provide the calculators as well.

[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The article said it can be download "on demand" so that might make the clearing pointless.

[–] Jekyll@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago

Make people switch devices, problem solved. Does not work without tampering with the hardware

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Ok but calculators are only allowed in math class and if there’s one thing language models suck at, it’s doing basic math. Forget anything at least as complicated as algebra

[–] OozingPositron@feddit.cl 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

For me they weren't allowed in Calc I, II, III, Alg I, II and Differential equations. Every other class pretty much required it.

if there’s one thing language models suck at, it’s doing basic math.

If you're using a GPT 3.5 turbo level models, sure. Synthetic data is perfect for teaching LLMs, o1 will be good enough up to Calc III IMO, maybe even better.

The only thing I don't like about this is that it uses a TI, yikes.

[–] skulkingaround@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They let us use them for all my college math classes.

They really don't help much at all if you don't understand the math, and if you do understand, you don't need the calculator most of the time.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 0 points 2 months ago

Don't know about university math, but this applied to a lot of the stuff in my last years of school. Since we always had a part where you were required to solve everything without a calculator you had to be able to do everything without it. For algebra and Calculus it just meant that you were able to do the math more efficiently. For statistics the calculator was basically useless, since it didnt help you if you didnt knew what you had to do, what was basically the only hard part of it.

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[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

LLMs do suck at math, if you look into it, the o1 models actually escape the LLM output and write a python function to calculate the output, I've been able to break their math functions by asking for functions that use math not in the standard Python library.

I know someone also wrote a wolfram integration to help solve LLMs math problems.

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[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 0 points 2 months ago

They're great at multiple choice when they've seen the test versions

[–] 5oap10116@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This kid never took science

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[–] umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Time to build a wolfarm applet

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[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)
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[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I used to store formulas in basic programs in my ti84 but they were never useful because I didn't need help memorizig formulas

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[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"ChatGPT what is the formula for Work Done in an enclosed system expressed as a triple integral?"

"42"

"Ok cool ty."

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