RacinReaver

I was often allowed to use graphing calculators on my engineering tests, but the questions were usually of the type that they were useless. Being able to graph something isn't going to help you much when you've gotta be deriving equations.

Was never allowed to use calculators in any of my math classes (calc 3d, diff eq., statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations). For the complex analysis and PDE classes we were occasionally expected to use Mathematica, but for a lot of problems it didn't do much.

BronxBombers7

not to mention that 1) half of college kids can't / don't have a car on campus, and 2) the radar detector probably costs as much as two speeding tickets...so unless you have a terrible case of lead foot it's not worth the investment

Lumine

You can get this list down to less than 10 by getting an iPhone

mcim

I disagree with about half of these, but the other half are useful.

hops_scout

That way if you break one, you break them all


I just bought a Dell pocket PC off of ebay.

iloveagoodbrew

Gerber guardian, get a sheath for that too.

Lumine

It's true, haha. But Mac's good about that kind of thing, and iphones are just cool.

ibrahimzcl

I agree that an iPhone can solve many of the same functions as some of these, but the cost is probably still higher than the total of these same things.

I have an iPhone myself, and I love it, but I don't think that apple needs anymore advertising... =)

tedrco

wait, why aren't you allowed to use a graphing calculator? i know at least for IB exams in high school as long as you show the teacher its clear before you walk in theres no problem. there has been a graphing calculator requirement for all of my math classes since 8th grade so i think it would be a bit annoying to have to go and buy a new one just for college. and i remember having to use one in calculus in high school and since the syllabus for college level calculus at my university is exactly the same...i dont see why you wouldnt need one

redwingshockey

as far as alarm clocks go, i want to get one of those that breaks apart when it goes off, and you have to find and collect the pieces and put it back together before it shuts off -- i fear its the only thing that will work for an 8.30 class haha

diesel

in my calc 1 class we could use whatever kind of calculator we wanted, then in my calc 2 class we could only use a ti-30, not just no graphing calculators but had to be that exact one.

so it's going to depend on the teacher

dvm258

@redwingshockey

Haha. At my college's orientation there was something similar to that being advertised on all the TVs in the student union. It's basically an alarm clock that looks like a mouse and it will keep running around your room making noises until you catch it.

I dunno. Those things just aren't for me.

buffettime

Why hasn't taser made the the list. Either that or pepper spray

Chipmoney

I dont think of taser or pepper spray as gadgets...

iloveagoodbrew

Of course they are gadgets.

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