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Are calculators allowed on the contests?
Calculator use is prohibited on any portion of The Mandelbrot Competition or Mandelbrot Team Play, including wristwatch calculators, slide rules, or any other computational device. Students need only bring an adequate supply of pencils, pens, and erasers with them. Proctors will provide blank paper and all contest materials. For more information see the official rules for the Mandelbrot Competition and rules for the Mandelbrot Team Play.
Without question the advent of calculators and mathematical software has opened up many new and exciting avenues of exploration into the world of mathematics. These tools rightly belong in the modern mathematics curriculum, although implementing them effectively certainly requires as much thought and effort as previous methods did. In adopting the above calculator policy, Greater Testing Concepts is choosing to emphasize traditional mathematical skills such as numerical operations, algebraic manipulations, and problem solving techniques. Questions are generally designed to challenge students' ability to reason or test their knowledge of a particular mathematical topic, rather than requiring unwieldy computations by hand.