Hacker News Reader

I did that too, though in BASIC on a TI-83+. When I showed it to my math teacher, she said that I could use the program on any future homework and tests as long as I turned in a paragraph explaining step-by-step how the program worked.

View on HN

Ah looks like you actually had a smart math teacher. Mine retroactively failed all my take-homes and homework after I showed her the program I used and explained why I did it (rote memorization is terrible, I was more interested in the theory and algorithms). I had to appeal to the CS teacher and principal at my school to reverse the grade which would've prevented me from graduating

Same. For me, it was physics and the teacher was interested in how I did it, so I brought in my laptop and showed him the Visual Basic IDE and explained how it worked. He wasn't questioning that I had done it as much as he was intrigued that I had made such a thing. I wasn't allowed to use it on tests (laptops weren't allowed in class back then) but I didn't mind that much since I knew the formulas forward and backward by then.

I also typed all my papers and assignments because my handwriting was atrocious. Only a few teachers took issue with this, and as an adult, I can't say I've had to do any cursive or write out an essay on paper for any reason.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com