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	The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 270 No 7232 p83 18 January 2003	This page Reprint Photocopy
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Registration exam

It doesn’t add up

From Mr I. Rooney

I am a preregistration trainee and as the new year begins, I am beginning to think about the examination that looms and, in particular, the dreaded calculations examination, where calculators are prohibited.

I am concerned that although I may be able to understand and learn the methods required to answer the questions, my poor mental arithmetic will come back to haunt me.

I understand that calculators are currently banned due to the belief that the student could easily press the wrong button, which would ultimately result in an incorrect answer. I think that this is a poor argument and is one that discriminates against my generation who have been given access to calculators throughout their secondary education.

I believe that mistrust over the use of calculators stems from a lack of experience in their use. Older generations were taught by a system that encouraged mental arithmetic. My generation was not.

I think that we should be given the choice to be able to use calculators if we wish. That way, if students do not trust their ability to press buttons accurately, then they can choose to use mental arithmetic.

In practice I would always use a calculator. I would not be so arrogant as to trust my mental arithmetic over that of a machine that I am confident in using.

Come on pharmacy! Leave your archaic leanings behind. Come into the real world.

Iain Rooney
Edinburgh

Dr ROBERT DEWDNEY, head, education division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:

Reasons for not allowing candidates to use calculators are linked to the learning objectives of being able to operate without a calculator if necessary and, more importantly, to having an understanding of arithmetical operations along with the capability to estimate the order of magnitude of the "right answer" when faced with a computation.

Mr Rooney makes the case for not allowing calculators very effectively in his second paragraph.

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