Graphing Calculators for a math dummy. (College level Applied Calc)

[rickhamilton620]

I'm taking Applied Calc for quite possibly the 5th time. I need to pass the class with a C or better to continue and no, pass/fail isn't an option (even if it was, my college counts D as fail for pass/fail).

I'm absolutely terrible at math. Just awful at it. I was in special ed for math throughout high school and late middle school(and should have been in it since kindergarten but my delusional grandmother insisted I was a genius and refused to put me in it......so I've always been behind and never caught up) and had both a paraprofessional in class with me (and the others who struggled), got pulled out for extended time for tests, and had a special study hall in the special ed room.....that's how bad at math I am.

In years past I've tried using a TI-83 I got for cheap. My ancient TI-83 is broken (a common connection point between the LCD and the circuit board has failed) and I need to look at replacements.

I will see what my prof recommends but I was wondering if it could be worth the expense of getting a higher end model like this TI-Inspire CAS: https://education.ti.com/en/us/prod...tors/ti-nspire-cx-cas-handheld/tabs/overview#!

The fact that it can do more for me hurts me, I know. It's also insane to spend that much on something I'll only use once. But if it helps me out on tests and homework it could prove worth it's steep asking price. Plus it'll have decent resale value....on the other hand...the 83/84 is a known quantity to buyers so maybe not?

I need something that:

*is dead easy to use or at least learn - tests are hard enough as it is

*can give me a edge in solving applied calc problems.

*is supported by profs/tutors if i have questions on how it works - A HP or Casio competitor could prove difficult in this regard.

 

[Nabster]

Yeah, ask the instructor which model they recommend. It will probably be the 83-plus, 84, or 89.

Those new ones are certainly fancy, but they probably have limited use for your purpose and you might want to check whether they're allowed on any standardized tests you may end up taking, as they may be not allowed in favor of the older models.

If you want an 83-plus again let me know. I have mine from high school, it's perfectly functional and you can have it. I don't have a use for it now and I also have an 89 titanium.

 

[thevictor390]

^ Do that, TI graphing calculators are a racket. If you really need a CAS get a first-gen TI-89 used, that's what I used in middle and high school and was excellent for "assisting" on tests...

 

[NecroJoe]

I had an old Casio that was the size of the normal scientific calculator. I used it to draw wavy lines once through all of high school. Yay, '90s rural Wisconsin public school system! :lol:

 

[ahpadt]

I would go with what your prof recommends. If you have a problem and dunno how to type it into the calculator, chances are he or she will know how to.

 

[rickhamilton620]

Yeah, ask the instructor which model they recommend. It will probably be the 83-plus, 84, or 89.

Those new ones are certainly fancy, but they probably have limited use for your purpose and you might want to check whether they're allowed on any standardized tests you may end up taking, as they may be not allowed in favor of the older models.

If you want an 83-plus again let me know. I have mine from high school, it's perfectly functional and you can have it. I don't have a use for it now and I also have an 89 titanium.

Awesome, if he recommends the 83 plus, I'll let ya know!

^ Do that, TI graphing calculators are a racket. If you really need a CAS get a first-gen TI-89 used, that's what I used in middle and high school and was excellent for "assisting" on tests...

I'll keep that in mind thanks!

I had an old Casio that was the size of the normal scientific calculator. I used it to draw wavy lines once through all of high school. Yay, '90s rural Wisconsin public school system! :lol:

:lol:

I would go with what your prof recommends. If you have a problem and dunno how to type it into the calculator, chances are he or she will know how to.

True

 

[LeVeL]

~13 years later, I still have my TI-83 Plus.

 

[rickhamilton620]

So, I had my first class and here's what my prof has to say about calculators:

The whole dept seems to be on a "higher standards" kick since the last time I took the class - no longer allowed to bring even a index card with formulas to a exam, even more homework w/ a focus on algebra for one half of each week's HW, mandatory attendance taking with stiff penalties, no rounding of your final grade up to the next grade level (the diff between passing with a C or failing with a D), etc.

This class is gonna kick my ass, I can feel it. I also don't know if she'll actually go over how to do stuff on the graphing calculator either unlike profs I've had in the past....this section of the syllabus seems to suggest otherwise and we'll be using the scientific calc (which I have floating around somewhere) and learning the rest the hard, complex, way.

It's a college class, I know, hard work is expected, but still....this is partly supposed to be a class for people who aren't "real calc" material.

So yeah, I'm unsure of which direction to go in still....I'll bring the scientific calc to the thursday class then ask about if she'll show us how to do things on the graphing calculator before looking around. In any case, most reviews say that the 84+ CE is worth the small price diff over the 84 just in terms of graph clarity alone.

 

[Perc]

I'm about as terrible at math as you but I own an HP 49G since I actually tried to become an engineer at one point. :lol:

I distinctly remember a math course (a much simpler one, after I scrapped my engineer plans) where I was able to enter all the math problems in the test directly into the calculator and hit enter. The teacher had no idea. :lol:

The 49G is a slow and laggy POS, btw. AFAIK it used a new CPU architecture and ran the old HP 49 software through a layer of emulation. Shortly after that came the 49G+ which was a lot faster at everything but burned through a set of alkalines quicker than you could say "I wish I had a TI."

 

[Cellos88GT]

None of my Calc or Physics classes allowed anything fancier than a scientific calculator and frankly it's turned me into a non-believer of the graphing calculator in general, especially in the day and age of Wolfram Alpha.

 

[eizbaer]

Just dumping my experience with graphing and other computerized calculators, without taking into account too much was has been going on before (sorry, just quickly skipped through).

We used to have TI-200s at school (years 12 and 13, last two year before college, whatever the hell you call it) and everybody would be playing tetris on them. It was actually horrible to have this thing, because it was capable of basically solving all your problems for you. People were supposed to learn how to differentiate, find max, min, whatever have you, but after having to do it manually basically twice, they all relied on the calculator to do all their work for them. That way, they instantly forgot all the fundamentals and later sucked at everything. Friends of mine who actually bought a TI200 kept using it also in Uni, but were of course never allowed to use it in any exam. I know multiple people who screwed up their exams because of this...

Same thing actually happened with calculators capable of working complex numbers in my basics to electrical engineering course. For AC you need to understand what complex numbers are, but because everbody had calculators that could simply do all the work with the complex numbers, they didn't know how the theory even worked and just relied on the calculator to do all the work. In the end that meant they had a nice numerical value but couldn't answer the questions in the exam, because they didn't know what those numbers meant.

Just my two cents. As is probably apparent, I'm quite a big supporter of doing all the work yourself (except for the obvious random multiplications and stuff)