Let’s face it. If you are born in the 80’s and before, you’d know how hard ‘manual maths‘ was. You’d have a harsh time understanding all those small, irritating digits in the ‘Buku Sifir Matematik Cambridge‘. Looking out for log790?? Ahh.. You’d have to know where to find the page which has log, and then, you have to start looking for the closest value. Even then, If you look up the wrong value, you end up getting a huge ‘0’ written on your examination answer sheets. Looking for tan73 was an equivalent hassle.
It wasn’t pleasant, but it thought us during the 80’s and years before how to think, and to appreciate something they now call the ‘scientific calculator‘.
Alright, maybe some would argue that we had the scientific calculator at that time, but as I recall it, I was not allowed to use it until it was the Additional Mathematics paper. That time I was going: “So, what’s the point of having the calculator?? Why is the authorities so dumb to ask the students to find things ‘the old fashion way‘, when you have the modern way??“
Urgghh… enough about that.. I saw the ‘Buku Sifir’ while invigilating STPM, and it brought memories of ‘those good old, hard days‘. Student’s these days I can bet, never have ever seen such a book until, ummm.. Form 6 maybe… Anyway, I guess those ‘Buku sifir’ days are numbered, but the difficulty of learning how to use it remains.
Ergh!! How do you call “Buku Sifir’ in English by the way?? “Multiplication Book???”