Calculators on the exam

Hello Dr. Taylor,

I hope you’re doing well! Thank you for your help during office hours today.

I have one quick question about the test on Wednesday.  Once we set up the triple integrals for any given problem, is it ok for us to use our calculators to compute the definite integral to get our final answer? This would save a lot of time/space in the test, and given that we are being tested on mainly set-up concepts I figure it makes sense. I wanted to check with you though to make sure.

Please let me know.

Thanks!
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It depends in general: on whether on the way the problem is stated and also on it would even be useful.

On the one hand, if the problem states something like "Exact answers only, no calculators" then just writing down the number you compute using the calculator will get no credit.  In this case you have to compute the answer by hand without the calculator. It *could* still be useful to you to check that the answer you compute by hand matches up with the calculator answer.

And on another hand, for those inner integrals inside the iterated integral that have functions for limits of integration or for which the integrand doesnt factor as a product of functions of the different variables, your calculator doesnt even know how to compute those.

But, if you wind up with an integral with constants for limits of integration and a single variable integrand, yes please calculate away.