Exactly. My point is... if she naturally catches on to math easily (but has not been doing math for three years because her book and teacher require that a calculator be required for every step) then what about the kids who struggle in math? Reform math is putting them at an enormous disadvantage.
If she were my child, I would be drilling her on standard arithmetic algorithms, until she had it all down cold. It would be helpful to come up with some sort of incentive for good performance.
The thing that school teachers don't understand is that people who work with math, professionally (i.e. engineers, actuaries, accountants, scientists), do many calculations in their heads. You don't always have a calculator handy.
It has been many years since I took the SAT, but calculators were not allowed when I took it, and I doubt if they are allowed now. Besides there are many problems that will simply take too long to solve, if it all has to be punched into a calculator.