This is my problem: since you all have been using your calculators since the 8^th grade—and sometimes even earlier, you’ve started thinking of your calculators as your outboard brains. As in, “if I can’t figure this out, maybe my calculator can.”

Moreover, I know you have all sorts of formulas and programs stuffed into those TI-89s that let you punch in a bunch of variables and then they spit out the answer for you, no thinking involved. I have students who read math problems with their calculators already in-hand, like weapons they’re about to draw or, worse, security blankets they can’t outgrow.

It’s a classic situation for me: I’m with a new student, he reaches for his calculator to solve some linear equation (or whatever), and I barge in.

Me: You don’t need your calculator.

Student: But I have the formula!

Me: I promise, it will actually be faster if you just do the problem on the page.

Student: But I can’t! I don’t know how! It’s in my calculator!

Usually, since I’m the boss in these situations, I win. (And that often means re-teaching students concepts long since forgotten, which is fine, since that’s my job.) But every now and then, even after the student has successfully solved the problem without a calculator, he retains some residual fear or frustration and thinks I am either insane, mean, or some sort of masochist.

The fact is that you can use your calculator on the SAT, and if you’re looking for a just-above-average SAT score, that’s fine. But if you’re looking to score with the top ten percent of kids, you have to get over it. Why?

Because your calculator isn’t any smarter than you are.

When I ask you to not use your calculator to solve a problem (and I don’t mean that I don’t want you to check your arithmetic on the calc’ if you’d like to), it’s not because I am mental and like things to be hard. Actually, training yourself to understand the simple concepts on the math section of the SAT (and ACT, frankly) will allow you to solve the most difficult questions on the section because you will understand how the math works instead of just how to punch it into your calculator.

The SAT people don’t care how well you use your calculator; they care how well you are able to apply math skills you learned in high school. Meaning you should have actually learned them. The most difficult math questions on the SAT test your ability to do math elegantly and quickly, which is–seriously—usually not done on your calculator. This is the same reason that I filled OUTSMARTING the SAT with math lessons rather than calculator tricks and shortcuts.

If you are so reliant on your calculator that you can’t do an entire SAT test without it, you need to challenge yourself to put it down while you practice and use it only for checking your arithmetic. Be brave. You can do it.

Your calculator will not help you. Seriously. Train your brain.