Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: OK for a basic scientific
Comment: This is a low cost scientific calculator with all of the basic functions. The natural display is really nice and easy to enter complex functions. I was concerned about this calculator, because some of the functions on the unit do not produce answers. I tried to use the numeric differentiation function, for example. Try calculating the derivitive of the COS X at 3 degrees. The calculator gives you a "time out" error. I picked 3 degrees because I originally entered PI by mistake thinking that the calculator was in radians mode. In degrees mode, the calculator will not produce an answer for this problem. The calculator will give you an answer for -SIN 3 though, which is the derivitive of COS 3. Students, if you want this calculator to hash out integrals for you, it's not for that, it only calculates the numeric value of the integral with given limits BTW! The calculator really chugs on integrals, taking several seconds to produce an answer Even if it seems to produce answers from some pretty complex integrations. I was impressed with the integration more so than the differenciation...the integration works on some complicated functions. Impressive considering that this is a low cost calculator. I don't like the fact that some of the answers are given as fractions at times when it makes no sense for the answers to be represented as a fraction. You have to hit the S<->D button in order to convert many fractions and symbols to decimal values. There must be a way to change this default setup in the calculator, but damned if I can figure out how. The manual is totally lame. Half of the manual tells you how to open the sliding plastic cover and change the batteries. Unit has a lot of functions, but some of the calculations are slow. Basic calculations are fast.
I still like HP calculators better even though HP sold out and discontinued all of their really heavy duty models...my HP 20s is twice the calculator this one is, but it cost more when I bought it over 10 years ago. HP now is just a calculator importer like Casio & TI. All HP is now junk from China too, although I purchased and am anxious to get a new HP 35s that just came out. I believe that I can trust the precision of the HP calcs more despite the fact that all of todays calcs are made in China. I still think that students should all be trained on RPN calculators as most nested operations are faster.
Customer Rating: Summary: THE calculator for the PE Exam
Comment: I had stupidly thought that since my preferred calculator is a TI-89 that I should use the TI model for the PE Exam. Ha! I'm glad someone told me about the Casio, because it is a far superior choice. Key differences between the two that make it amazing:
A solve routine
Responsive keys
Clear display
Might I also add, for the FE takers out there, that it derives and integrates? Yeah, the TI30X is basically a cheapy free calculator in comparison.
