Which calculator to buy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Texas Instruments 84 Plus CE Graphing Calculator

This is the one the school had us buy:
https://www.target.com/p/texas-instruments-84-plus-ce-graphing-calculator-bionic-blue/-/A-88829213?ref=&ref=OpsEmail_Order_80690&j=851229&sfmc_sub=161046288&l=652_HTML&u=42272671&mid=100019899&jb=3475330

My daughter is in SMCS and uses this same one. A lot of it is lost on me, but she says it does everything and more.

[Anonymous]

A lot of people in this thread recommend calculators they never used for purposes they don’t understand.

The price point is not that big of a factor, for the Texas Instruments line it goes from ~$100 for the low end TI 83 models to ~$150 for the high end TI Nspire. All the other brands like HP, Casio, Sharp have similar price points for comparable calculators.

The most important consideration is what they will use in class and how much time the teacher will dedicate to calculator specific tasks. This can vary a lot from “figure it out on your own” to going with the entire class step by step, ie “press this button, then press that…”.

Besides this, you need to figure out what you want to use it for. For AP classes and students aiming for a 5, the high end is better. For those TI Nspire and HP Prime G2 are the best. TI has more features but somewhat clunky data input and menus, HP Prime has a touch screen, better hardware and more convenient input (dedicated trigonometric functions).

TI-84 CE is fine for most, but comparatively, learning how to use TI Nspire well is going to be an added advantage during tests.

[Anonymous]

Buy or borrow a used calculator only when specifically demanded. The standardized exams don't need anything sophisticated. Calculators are only for making TI rich. Learning happens in Desmos and Geogebra.

[Anonymous]

TI-84 is what the school uses so probably a good choice since they'll eventually use it anyway.

[Anonymous]

At TPMS they already had them so you really didn't need to buy one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At TPMS they already had them so you really didn't need to buy one.

Listen to this!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is aiming for MIT and has another opinion, for most kids, I’d get the TI 84 Plus CE because it’s good and what the teachers and SAT/ACT tutors know. Double check that whatever you get can be used on the SAT and ACT without a lot of caveats.

Which one in this case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buy or borrow a used calculator only when specifically demanded. The standardized exams don't need anything sophisticated. Calculators are only for making TI rich. Learning happens in Desmos and Geogebra.

You don’t want to show up at the AP Calculus or Statistics exam without knowing how to use your calculator inside out, it can be extremely helpful at the free response questions where you can easily solve everything on the calculator saving time and avoiding careless mistakes. There’s no access to Desmos or Geogebra during any exams like AP or SAT, you need to have a graphing calculator. Most course descriptions in the school catalogue will mention that and often will specify the model used in the class. You can also borrow calculators from some schools, but you still need to learn how to use it. You can also borrow textbooks, often people buy their own for convenience, it’s not that different for calculators and that doesn’t make TI an evil capitalist company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is aiming for MIT and has another opinion, for most kids, I’d get the TI 84 Plus CE because it’s good and what the teachers and SAT/ACT tutors know. Double check that whatever you get can be used on the SAT and ACT without a lot of caveats.

Which one in this case?

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/exam-policies-guidelines/calculator-policies

For each manufacturer the ones at the end on the list are the more capable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is aiming for MIT and has another opinion, for most kids, I’d get the TI 84 Plus CE because it’s good and what the teachers and SAT/ACT tutors know. Double check that whatever you get can be used on the SAT and ACT without a lot of caveats.

Which one in this case?

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/exam-policies-guidelines/calculator-policies

For each manufacturer the ones at the end on the list are the more capable.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

You could also just use desmos and save a few dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could also just use desmos and save a few dollars.

Desmos is an online graphing calculator that you can’t be accessed if not online, like during a test or exam. Arguably it’s not as capable as a dedicated graphing calculator, but it’s perfectly suitable for learning, homework etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy or borrow a used calculator only when specifically demanded. The standardized exams don't need anything sophisticated. Calculators are only for making TI rich. Learning happens in Desmos and Geogebra.

You don’t want to show up at the AP Calculus or Statistics exam without knowing how to use your calculator inside out, it can be extremely helpful at the free response questions where you can easily solve everything on the calculator saving time and avoiding careless mistakes. There’s no access to Desmos or Geogebra during any exams like AP or SAT, you need to have a graphing calculator. Most course descriptions in the school catalogue will mention that and often will specify the model used in the class. You can also borrow calculators from some schools, but you still need to learn how to use it. You can also borrow textbooks, often people buy their own for convenience, it’s not that different for calculators and that doesn’t make TI an evil capitalist company.

Charging $100 for a $15 calculator is evil capitalist. The dinkiest smartphone is 100x better than a TI, except for thevcartel control of school exams that add pointless "calculator-only" questions just to promote calculator sales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Buy or borrow a used calculator only when specifically demanded. The standardized exams don't need anything sophisticated. Calculators are only for making TI rich. Learning happens in Desmos and Geogebra.

You don’t want to show up at the AP Calculus or Statistics exam without knowing how to use your calculator inside out, it can be extremely helpful at the free response questions where you can easily solve everything on the calculator saving time and avoiding careless mistakes. There’s no access to Desmos or Geogebra during any exams like AP or SAT, you need to have a graphing calculator. Most course descriptions in the school catalogue will mention that and often will specify the model used in the class. You can also borrow calculators from some schools, but you still need to learn how to use it. You can also borrow textbooks, often people buy their own for convenience, it’s not that different for calculators and that doesn’t make TI an evil capitalist company.

Charging $100 for a $15 calculator is evil capitalist. The dinkiest smartphone is 100x better than a TI, except for thevcartel control of school exams that add pointless "calculator-only" questions just to promote calculator sales.

Sure let’s allow internet capable $1000 smartphones on exams, that’s going to fix everything. Or alternatively, everything should be done with paper and pencil like during Newton’s time, and ignore the entire branch of numerical modeling, which is vastly more relevant today to science and engineering than the handful of problems that have analytical solutions.

Not saying TI doesn’t take advantage of their monopolistic market share, but so do test providers like College Board, textbook publishers, universities with their inflated tuition, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless your kid is aiming for MIT and has another opinion, for most kids, I’d get the TI 84 Plus CE because it’s good and what the teachers and SAT/ACT tutors know. Double check that whatever you get can be used on the SAT and ACT without a lot of caveats.

Which one in this case?

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/exam-policies-guidelines/calculator-policies

For each manufacturer the ones at the end on the list are the more capable.

Thank you!

Ask your child's teacher but most want the TI 84 - the color version is much nicer. We had a really old one and had to replace it.