By ARJUN GOURISHETTY, sophomore

Whether you’re a freshman commencing your career at JP or a senior who has made it through three and a half years of mathematics, you and your calculator have been through thick and thin, good and bad. Perhaps when you look at the fingerprints on the keys of your calculator, you feel a sense of pride knowing how much you have been through with this little machine: completing countless math problems, surviving years of grueling classes, and trying to preserve your general sanity. Or maybe, in your opinion, life would be so much easier if you just never had to use a calculator at all. We created a survey to gauge just how attached JP students are to their calculators. Here’s how you responded:

If someone dropped your calculator, what would you do?

42% Suffer a minor heart attack.
41% Give that person a death glare.
9% Pray that it’s broken.
8% Nothing, you borrowed it from a friend anyways.

What is your reaction when a test says “NO  CALCULATORS”?

11% Grin—you’re totally ready to show off your skills.
35% Swallow hard and slowly place your calculator under your desk.
39% Take deep breaths and try not to cry.
15% Boycott the test.

Where do you keep your calculator?

14% In a super-durable case to shield it from anything that may happen to it.
11% In the case you got it in when you bought it because you don’t want to sully the value of the calculator by using it.
59% In the dilapidated pouch that you’ve been using to carry your school supplies every day since sixth grade.
16% Somewhere in that mess of papers, binders, writing utensils, and perhaps food that you proudly call your locker.

How often do you use your calculator?

60% You use it for everything. 2+2? Punch it into a calculator.
32% Somewhat often. You use it to double check your answers or if you’re really stumped.
1% Not often. You prefer to use the calculator app on your phone. If your phone is dead, you just ask to borrow a calculator from whoever is sitting next to you.
8% You’re too lazy to pull it out of your backpack so you try to figure it out in your head.

What would you do if you lost your calculator?

1% Celebrate another excuse to not take a test.
70% Search through your locker and belongings frantically.
4% Borrow one from a not-so-friendly friend and never give it back.
26% Yell “Accio Calculator” and pray it works.

Whether or not you enjoy using your calculator, one thing is for sure—you probably won’t make it through high school without it. That being said, instead of chucking it at the wall in uncalculated frustration, perhaps you should spend some time getting to know the little chunk of plastic without which high school would be so much harder.

Note: due to rounding, results may not add up to 100%.