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Casio makes several graphing calculators that are cheaper and faster than the TIs. $70 gets you the top color one that can run Python programs and is test compl

Casio makes several graphing calculators that are cheaper and faster than the TIs. $70 gets you the top color one that can run Python programs and is test compliant - it has a flashing test mode that disables all user memory. But the $35 b&w one works just as well for tests. So low income parents can get a good graphing calculator that does it all for around 1/4 the price of the recommended TIs. Students fear Casio because the button pressing procedures are slightly different than TI and TI also has cleverly captured the textbook market, with TI specific instructions only found in many courses, textbooks, and teacher materials. Below $35, there's $15 Casio models that can do numerical integration, solve equations, and find roots, enabling students to do most all things required for say AP Calculus exams easily, and the couple of questions that involve looking at the graph can usually be done by interpreting the critical points. One can get a 5 on the AP Calculus with a $15 calculator, though a couple questions will be slower and that might lose a few points, but not many because there's only a few questions like that. Most calculator required questions on various tests don't need the graphing capability at all even though a graphic calculator is recommended for the test. Serious bad-asses can also take calculator required tests with no calculator and attempt to still get the highest score, and some manage to do this. College Board requires you to sign a waiver when you do this since the test center will normally lend you some random calculator and wish you the best.

zelos 7y ago
Casio was the standard graphing calculator over here in the U.K. back when I did A levels in the 90s.
ars 7y ago
The Casio fx-115ES PLUS is one of the best (non graphing) and is only $16.
- droithomme 7y ago
  Yes, that's the specific model I was thinking of and which I use most often these days. It's really great for its price range. Only feature I miss on it is being able to do simple macro programming which I had in a $12 compact Casio scientific from around 1988 that was my favorite calculator.
bllguo 7y ago
i wont claim to be a serious badass, but taking these exams without a calculator is very doable when you consider how the questions are scored. I forgot my calculator for ap phys C and just left all my answers in symbolic form without numerically evaluating them. If your steps are correct you get the vast majority of the credit regardless
- derekp7 7y ago
  For one of my college trig class, there was at least one test that was "no calculator allowed". In this case, all the answers were symbolic, or used specific angles that had results that you can write out using whole numbers (or at least whole numbers under the sqrt symbol). I asked the instructor, and was allowed to use a slide rule, however (my trusty Picket N1010-ES)
- droithomme 7y ago
  > i wont claim to be a serious badass AP Physics C without a calculator qualifies you! Some of the most fun teachers had open-book open-note any-calculator tests for various technical subjects, but the questions were carefully designed so that if you stopped to rifle through a book or notes or pull out the calculator, you would run out of time. Everything was set up to be symbolically done faster if you knew your stuff. In addition many students hearing open-book open-note simply don't bother to study and thus blow the test that way despite having too many resources available to distract them during the test.

zelos 7y ago

Casio was the standard graphing calculator over here in the U.K. back when I did A levels in the 90s.

ars 7y ago

The Casio fx-115ES PLUS is one of the best (non graphing) and is only $16.

droithomme 7y ago
Yes, that's the specific model I was thinking of and which I use most often these days. It's really great for its price range. Only feature I miss on it is being able to do simple macro programming which I had in a $12 compact Casio scientific from around 1988 that was my favorite calculator.

bllguo 7y ago

i wont claim to be a serious badass, but taking these exams without a calculator is very doable when you consider how the questions are scored. I forgot my calculator for ap phys C and just left all my answers in symbolic form without numerically evaluating them. If your steps are correct you get the vast majority of the credit regardless

derekp7 7y ago
For one of my college trig class, there was at least one test that was "no calculator allowed". In this case, all the answers were symbolic, or used specific angles that had results that you can write out using whole numbers (or at least whole numbers under the sqrt symbol). I asked the instructor, and was allowed to use a slide rule, however (my trusty Picket N1010-ES)
droithomme 7y ago
> i wont claim to be a serious badass AP Physics C without a calculator qualifies you! Some of the most fun teachers had open-book open-note any-calculator tests for various technical subjects, but the questions were carefully designed so that if you stopped to rifle through a book or notes or pull out the calculator, you would run out of time. Everything was set up to be symbolically done faster if you knew your stuff. In addition many students hearing open-book open-note simply don't bother to study and thus blow the test that way despite having too many resources available to distract them during the test.