4 ms·

The price of the calculator is understandable, given the audience it is targeting. What is mind-boggling for me is that Texas Instruments can still get away wit

The price of the calculator is understandable, given the audience it is targeting. What is mind-boggling for me is that Texas Instruments can still get away with selling a TI-84 for $100 new, no doubt with The College Board's help. They are artificially keeping prices high for students by authorizing only a short list of calculators for exams. They don't even allow non-graphing scientific calculators to be used on the AP Calculus BC exam, you must use an expensive graphing calculator. https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-calculus-bc/calculator-policy https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-calculus-bc/c...

Zombieball 11y ago
That's a pretty decent list of calculators to choose from though. They allow the HP 50g which is quite a formidable calculator. Even HP Prime is on the list (never used it myself).
- falcrist 11y ago
  The Prime is excellent (and very, very powerful), but it's an algebraic machine at heart, unlike the 50g. RPN isn't even an option in CAS mode. The thing is really damn fast, too.
apricot 11y ago
Calculators with a "typewriter-like (qwerty)" keyboard are forbidden, but they allow the TI Nspire CX, which has an alphabetic keyboard (albeit in the order abcde). What kind of stupid rule is that? (Especially considering they don't clear memory, and one can install a full Debian distribution on the Nspire CX...)
hajile 11y ago
I find that list interesting because much harder exams like the FE and PE exams (engineering exams for those who aren't familiar) don't allow anything beyond a basic, non-graphing calculator (ti-30/36, casio fx-115, and HP-33/35 at present according to their website). http://ncees.org/exams/calculator-policy/ http://ncees.org/exams/calculator-policy/
- lfowles 11y ago
  I'd bet the differentiation isn't graphing ability, but being able to store user data.
  - falcrist 11y ago
    Both of the HP calculators can store programs, equations, and even text.

Zombieball 11y ago

That's a pretty decent list of calculators to choose from though. They allow the HP 50g which is quite a formidable calculator. Even HP Prime is on the list (never used it myself).

falcrist 11y ago
The Prime is excellent (and very, very powerful), but it's an algebraic machine at heart, unlike the 50g. RPN isn't even an option in CAS mode. The thing is really damn fast, too.

apricot 11y ago

Calculators with a "typewriter-like (qwerty)" keyboard are forbidden, but they allow the TI Nspire CX, which has an alphabetic keyboard (albeit in the order abcde). What kind of stupid rule is that? (Especially considering they don't clear memory, and one can install a full Debian distribution on the Nspire CX...)

hajile 11y ago

I find that list interesting because much harder exams like the FE and PE exams (engineering exams for those who aren't familiar) don't allow anything beyond a basic, non-graphing calculator (ti-30/36, casio fx-115, and HP-33/35 at present according to their website). http://ncees.org/exams/calculator-policy/ http://ncees.org/exams/calculator-policy/

lfowles 11y ago
I'd bet the differentiation isn't graphing ability, but being able to store user data.
- falcrist 11y ago
  Both of the HP calculators can store programs, equations, and even text.