Buying a Graphing Calculator

Buying a Graphing Calculator

Graphing calculators are required for our upper level math classes, including scholarship and honors algebra II, all levels of pre-calculus, and all levels of calculus. There are several different models of graphing calculators so this will give you some guidance.

TI NSpire

The TI NSpire was released about 3 years ago and is the future of graphing calculators. It is basically a mini-computer and does a lot more than the TI 83/84. Many of our teachers have class sets of the NSpires. There are two types of the NSpire, the CAS and the Non-CAS. CAS, which stands for Computer Algebra System, means that the calculator will do a whole lot of algebra for you. The CAS version is not usable on all standardized tests and will probably not be permitted on many tests in class. In purchasing a graphing calculator, we are encouraging (and the school owns) the Non-CAS CX Color version. There are some older versions of the NSpire that are not in color so we wouldn’t recommend purchasing them. See pictures on the second page to make sure you purchase the correct one.

TI-84

The TI-84 has been around for several years, so you may have one that an older sibling has used. These are perfectly acceptable in our classes, so if you have one of these, or can get them cheaply, that’s fine. There are two types, the 84 Plus and the 84 Plus Silver. The only difference is that the Silver has more memory, but that is not a big deal. There is a new TI 84+ C which has a color screen. It would be fine as well.

TI 83

The TI-83 came out before the TI-84, and it does basically the same things. However, it is no longer supported by TI, so it is running an old operating system which makes a lot of things harder to do than the TI-84. We would definitely not recommend buying one of these, but if you have one, it will suffice, but some things will be much harder to do. It is worth considering buying a new calculator if all you have is a TI-83.

If you have another brand of calculator (Casio, Sharp, etc), it may work, but your teacher will probably not be able to help you as much with how to use them.