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Probably right. Most people dump on these language models for this reason but it would be absurd for a HS student to have to re-derive the quadratic equation every time they worked on an Algebra problem so naturally you memorize it. Why should it be any different for a language model?

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I never memorized the quadratic formula, and I did OK.

Did you go to school in the US in the last 2-3 decades?

Once you start calculus they let you use a real calculator

That may be true, but in the US there are typically math courses before calculus.

But then we get a calculator.

Maybe we went to radically different schools but I certainly had to calculate by hand using the quadratic formula countless times where calculators were not allowed to be used.

Anyway it distracts from the point so it's not relevant.

Even then, it is typically not a symbolic calculator so if your answer is a closed form function of variables, you're SOL with a TI-84.

No, the UK. But completing the square only takes a minute.

Try completing the square when the coefficients are variables :)

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