[drmoneejd]

i am in the eleventh grade taking pre calculus. My ti-83+ just broke on me(it used to be my sisters). I'll be frank, it almost christmas, i don't have a a lot of money for a calculator. This is what i have gathered while reading on the web:

Casio- a little harder to use, but decent, and a lot cheaper.

TI- pretty easy to use, and taught in schools because they give a free one to the school for every(one)a student attending there buys, but much more expensive.

HP- real good, but VERY expensive.

so does anyone have suggestions/reviews of theirs?
oh, and if i spend a lot, i will use it in college too, if not, i can just buy a better one when the time comes

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I would recommend finding out witch one your school uses (probably TI) and and go with that. The teachers will be much more knowledgeable with that calculator, witch in return will make it easier on you. I tried getting my son the less expensive type, and he had a hard time using it, with limited help from the teachers, so I ended up buying the TI anyway.

[BHowett]

I would recommend finding out witch one your school uses (probably TI) and and go with that. The teachers will be much more knowledgeable with that calculator, witch in return will make it easier on you. I tried getting my son the less expensive type, and he had a hard time using it, with limited help from the teachers, so I ended up buying the TI anyway.

[drmoneejd]

yeah, i know thats the kind that we use. And honestly i pretty much agree with you, i just don't want to throw anything out yet. Really, i have pretty much narrowed it down to the TI-84+ or the Casio FX-9860GII(2)-L-IH Advanced. it just seems to add more features at a lower price.i just wish i could see just how hard they are to use. did you get your son a Casio at first? im not too bad at learning new things, but i would hate to get in over my head, but at the same time i don't want to spend more than i need to.

[drmoneejd]

oh, and thanks for your reply! i love how helpful the site really is for pretty much everything i can think of

[Chopin]

TI84+ SE is one of the best things that have ever been made. The TI89 Titanium has EVERYTHING, but most schools will not let you use things that know Taylor expansions of the trig functions and has an infinity button on tests.

I use the TI84+ SE and have not really had any problems with it. I would recommend it to anyone, especially considering the amount of addons that have been written for it. It's a true technological masterpiece.

[drmoneejd]

yeah, i have used them before at school, and i agree that they are good, but they are like $130. I can buy what is said to be a nice Casio for $75.00. I just want to save as much money, and make sure that this isn't like a Mac (not many use them because they might not be the standard, or the easiest, but once you get the hang of them, they can do so much more.) Im okay with learning something new (and saving 50-60 bucks), as long as its not like rocket science new. And thank you for your input, and i may just end up breaking and buying one, and thanks a lot for telling me about the TI-89. i had no idea it may not be used on standardized test.

[snowchick7669]

I had an HP 40GS calculator when I was doing calculus in my Senior year and really speaking I didn't use half of the functions that it had (I never really read the instruction manual which probably contributed to most of that). But in saying that, we never got taught to use what we didn't need unless we asked.

I miss that calculator though, it could solve most of life's problems

Oh and I had previously used a Casio for my Junior calculus year, which was pretty sufficient for what we were doing then.

Edited by snowchick7669, 10 November 2009 - 03:09 PM.

[drmoneejd]

was it difficult to learn the keystrokes since they differed from the TIs?

[snowchick7669]

I just made friends with someone who already had one, actually it had the same sort of pattern to my Casio.

I've never worked on a TI, so I can't share my opinion on that

[Chopin]

You're allowed to use the TI89 on standardized tests (eg. SAT) which is really dumb of them since it can essentially do the whole test for you in about five minutes. You can even define your own custom functions and program in C on it - it's absolutely insane. I meant that many teachers don't let you use them. Still, it's a pretty awesome toy!

Whatever you pick, good luck, hope you like it.

[drmoneejd]

Thanks, to all of you . Your suggestions have really helped. Its people like you all that make this site Great!

[dsenette]

i used a ti83 in highschool...and it was awesome...i had brick breaker and mario brothers on it...i think you could do math too but i'm not sure

[drmoneejd]

well, i finally found an affordable way to find one. I just got a TI-84+ barely used with the pc adapter, case, and TI-84 to TI-84 cord, with shipping for $69.00 on ebay! so does anyone know any cool apps i can put on it? it already has a periodic table thing on it i think, i should be getting it next week.

[dsenette]

http://www.ticalc.or...us/basic/games/

[Chopin]

dsenette...

Okay, for starters, delete the periodic table that it comes with, because it sucks. Get this one instead: http://www.ticalc.or.../192/19231.html (the only complaint is that it doesn't have electronegativity, but that's not hard). You also cannot live without Omnicalc (http://www.ticalc.or.../226/22626.html) Fiddle around with that website a bit, there's tons of great stuff on there. If you're into programming I'd pick up some ASM files and BBC Basic, but those two are the apps that I think all TIers need to have.

Have fun! The 84+ is great.