If you're doing any serious math you need a CAS.

When I did the HTX (technical/science oriented highschool) in Denmark they even experimented with internet access for essays, etc.

IMO, we should focus on sniffing out cheating by good old fashion looking people over the shoulder. And focus our attention on teaching kids not to cheat.

> If you're doing any serious math you need a CAS.

You must be joking. There is no math course I’ve ever heard of from 1st grade through graduate school which should “need a CAS” (or even an electronic calculator of any kind) on exams to demonstrate understanding of the content of the course or fluency with its proofs or problem solving tools.

In most cases designing exams around CAS use (or calculator use in general) makes them far worse at testing student understanding or problem solving skill.

The reason calculators are used in mathematics exams is because calculator vendors (especially Texas Instruments) were very effective at making back-room deals with textbook publishers and standardized test sponsors (and sometimes public officials), and ran decades of great subversive marketing aimed at anxious parents. Not because of any particular pedagogical value of the calculators.

Tools like Mathematica or Maple can be very helpful for mathematical research or mathematical modeling in other technical fields, and are worth learning for undergraduates, but should by no means be used on exams.

High School students in Denmark are taught How to use a CAS (Nspire, GeoGebra’s algebra window, Maple or similar). To test that they know a Cas, some exercises contain equations, deriviates or integrals that only a cas can solve (or at least are harder than a high school student is expected to handle by hand).

Learning about how to use such tools seems fine, but testing that in exams (and then worrying about whether the students are cheating, etc. etc.) seems completely misguided computer fetishization to me. YMMV.

If you want to get students to demonstrate their use of a CAS, give some real-world modeling problems, and then give them a few days to make a mathematical model (using the CAS, or whatever other tools they prefer) and write up a mini paper about it.

I don't know what a CAS is but I disagree that it is needed for "any serious math".

Perhaps trig, calculus, differential equations, etc. aren't "serious" enough??

Computer-Algebra-System,

And okay, you can do lots of math... even it all without tools. I remember having a basic math test that was fully analog. But...

while knowning all the basics is useful. e.g. knowing how to compute a square root. It is also important to know how to combine all these things and reach higher.

Tools let's you reach higher.

Essay writing. Schools are realizing that being able to write long essays by hand is not that important a skill anymore and are letting people use computers and word processors to write their essays instead.

Could be handy to write essays, or for simple quizzes that can be graded automatically.

"or for simple quizzes that can be graded automatically"

I remember at least one test like that when I was at school (in the early 90s). There was a special printed form with places where you would mark your answers (to multiple-choice questions) by filling in rectangles with a pencil. These were read by computer.

Of course, this would be even easier to implement now. No need for students to carry computers or a fancy SPA to administer the test.

(Assuming you don't need adaptive testing.)

Even so, why would you allow students to bring their own devices? Just provide some terminals managed by school IT.