What should you hate about AP Statistics?
As I promised in my previous post, I am going to discuss the book Agresti and Franklin, until a further notice. Repeating from that post, whatever criticism I have, it is more about The College Board requirements than about a particular book.
They say: The TI-83+ and TI-84 graphing calculators, which have similar output, are useful as portable tools for generating simple statistics and graphs (p.15).
I say: Those of you who love electronic gadgets may remember PalmPilot. It was a primitive touch-screen device that was killed by the iPhone. For your information, the TI-83+ and TI-84 are even more primitive than PalmPilot. On my smartphone I have an app that costs $5 and can do much more than these two calculators, with a much more attractive interface. Hey, The College Board, it's the 21st century out there!
Why do you think AP Statistics courses stick to those dinosaurs? It's because The College Board wants to prevent cheating. On a primitive calculator you cannot upload files that could help you take AP exams. In a situation when most of AP Statistics questions are shallow, this really helps prevent cheating. My proposal is to raise the questions level and allow more advanced, up-to-date devices.
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