For the sixth year in a row, Cemetech is excited to bring you a Back to School guide, helping you figure out the best graphing calculator to get for school and how to use it. In both 2011 and 2012, we published trios of guides, showing you which calculator to buy, how to get programs and games onto your calculator, and how to learn to program your calculator. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, we held your hand through Which Graphing Calculator Should I Buy?. This year, we once again present a guide to selecting from the baffling array of graphing calculators now available to high school and college students. We'll help you figure out which calculator is right for primary school, high school, or college students, whether for yourself, your child, or your students.

The landscape of available graphing calculators in 2016 is largely the same as in 2015, so we based our selections on the same democratic vote by Cemetech's we conducted last year. In that poll, we asked our members to vote on the best calculators in three categories: (1) High School Math and Science; (2) CAS (College); (3) Programming. As you'll see in the discussion below, the recent TI-84 Plus CE released last year and updated in gold and white this summer was a very popular contender. TI's TI-Nspire CX CAS and HP's HP Prime also earned high marks. All three of these calculators are accepted on standardized tests like the SAT, and of the three, only the TI-84 Plus CE is allowed on the ACT. Like last year, we're no longer recommending the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, both of which have been effectively banished to obsolescence. Although the TI-Nspire CX is a fairly popular high school math and science calculator, we feel that the TI-84 Plus CE is a better, easier-to-use choice, and the general student, teacher, and programmer consensus appears to agree.

:: Math and Science: The TI-84 Plus CE remains TI's newest entry to the 17-year-old TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus line, offering a bright color screen and a rechargeable battery. Introduced early in 2015, the interface is nearly identical to the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition released two years earlier, but the processor is faster, the RAM is larger, and the case is slimmer and lighter. The interface is also very similar to the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, but with a higher-resolution color screen that can fit more math and more detailed graphs. The color screen makes it easier to graph and explore multiple functions, and it introduces a few new statistics features (as detailed in Chapter 12 of "Using the TI-84 Plus"). Its greatest strengths lie in how it reinforces already-proven TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus features, but its underlying CPU and memory do improve significantly on the older calculators, giving programmers more flexibility to create powerful programs and games. Cemetech and community leader ticalc.org's download statistics (along with the number of emails we've received asking why Doors CE for the TI-84 Plus CE still does not exist yet) indicate that most students buying new calculators have welcomed the TI-84 Plus CE with open arms, and we recommend that you do too. The TI-84+CE has a 48MHz z80 processor, 154KB of user-accessible RAM, 3.0MB of user-accessible Flash memory, a 10-hour rechargeable battery, and a $129 price tag (plus, it comes in 8 10 fun colors). The quintessential calculator for high school (and some college) math and science, now updated with better specs, a high-resolution color screen, a slim, light case, and a rechargeable battery.

::CAS (College) The TI-Nspire CX CAS has a color screen equal in size to the TI-84 Plus CE's LCD, a mouse-based interface, and support for Lua programs. The TI-Nspire's operating system is based around the idea of Documents, in which you type calculations, enter equations, and draw graphs. It has templates for linear, parabolic, circular, elliptical, and hyperbolic equations in which you can enter coefficients and graph the result. The OS has a "Scratchpad" for quick calculations, and like the TI-84 Plus series, variables are shared between the calculation and graph modes. It can perform all of the trig functions you need for math classes. You can name your own variables, and are thus not limited to the A-Z variables of the TI-84 Plus, and variables are "linked" with graphs so that when you change a variable, a graph that uses the variable will be updated as well. The TI-Nspire CX is between $130 and $150, depending on whether you get the CAS or non-CAS model. If you have an iPad, consider the TI-Nspire Apps for iPad, an App version of this calculator.The TI-Nspire CX CAS is physically identical to the non-CAS model, but allows students to perform symbolic computations, great for calculus, physics, and other advanced courses. With the CAS, you can integrate, differentiate, and simplify symbolic expressions. The TI-Nspire CX CAS has a Document-based interface, like its non-CAS sibling, and is generally available for about $10 to $20 more. Both the TI-Nspire CX and the TI-Nspire CX CAS are allowed on the SAT, while the non-CAS model is permitted on the ACT, but some teachers will not allow a CAS calculator to be used on school exams. A computer-like color screen calculator with a symbolic CAS. Good for some high school students and for college students.

The HP Prime is also a very powerful CAS calculator, albeit with a few growing pains. It offers a multitouch screen, a very powerful arbitrary graphing features, and CAS features similar to those on the TI-Nspire CX CAS. When it was first released, the Prime's OS was buggy, but has been improved in the interim. Certain promised hardware and software has yet to appear in the three years since its release, but with a beautiful design, powerful hardware, and an extremely fast BASIC programming language, the HP Prime promises to continue to improve into a great tool for college students and professional engineers. A sleek, powerful, improving touch-screen calculator with a symbolic CAS for college students and professionals.

:: Programming: Like last year, we are recommending the TI-84 Plus CE for programming as well as for high school math and science. In the past, we have recommended the Casio Prizm as our top pick for programming: it offers a BASIC language and can be programmed in C. However, C, ez80 ASM, and TI-BASIC are all now possible on the TI-84 Plus CE, with its 48MHz ez80 processor and 154KB of RAM. While we can't create Apps on the TI-84 Plus CE, the available C SDK/toolchain in its many forms, including online in the SourceCoder 3 IDE, has grown rapidly. Last year, the tools for TI-84 Plus CE were less complete than the tools for the Casio Prizm, but as of this summer, C programming for the TI-84 Plus CE continues to get even easier.

The Final Verdict:
Now that the three major graphing calculator companies all offer color-screen calculators, the quiet disappearance of the battery-conserving black-and-white graphing calculator seems inevitable to us here at Cemetech. We therefore are no longer recommending the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition and the TI-89 Titanium, as much as we respect those erstwhile models. Of course, if you already have a TI-83 Plus/TI-84 Plus (or Silver Edition) or a TI-89, you don't need to upgrade to a color calculator yet. If you need a new calculator, here's what you should consider:

• If you (or your child) are an primary or high school student, your teachers may recommend a TI-84 Plus CE or a TI-Nspire CX, in which case you should follow their advice. Remember, all models mentioned herein are accepted on the SAT, and most on the ACT, so none win or lose big on that count. For high school students getting a new calculator, the TI-84 Plus CE is our favorite choice.
  
• If you're looking to take college classes in higher math, science, or engineering, the TI-Nspire CX CAS or the HP Prime are the calculator for you.
  
• If you're a programmer, or you want to encourage your student to be a programmer, the TI-84 Plus CE is the best options. It allow BASIC, ez80 ASM, and C programming. The HP Prime also has a very fast BASIC language, and the Casio Prizm was the original C-programmable calculator.

Good luck with the hectic rush that is Back to School, and I hope this guide helped make at least one decision easier. If you need help picking a calculator, getting games and educational programs for your calculator and onto the device, or you want to learn to program, just stop by Cemetech and chat with us. We're always happy to help.

Can you explain your reasoning behind why an elementary school student would need such a powerful calculator? Or did you simply mean middle school? Even then, I think a graphing calculator in middle school may be a bit overkill.

By elementary, I mean 1st grade to 8th grade. At least in my school, we started using a school set of TI-82 graphing calculators in 6th grade advanced math class, then we were required to get TI-83 or TI-83 Plus calculators (which had just come out; I had a TI-83) for seventh grade advanced math. We were working on graphing in algebra, and some geometry concepts made easier with graphing calculators.

It's also good for kids to get it early so they already have it when they get to that age. However, most likely, students in elementary grades now, will get to high school with a whole new set of programmable calculators.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. I really can't imagine TI doing a great deal to change the TI-84 Plus CE in the near future, since they have a more or less successful product already. We'd love them to fix some of the delay state issues by using faster RAM and Flash, but for the average user, it's a respectable product.

By the way, for the inexplicable mass of people who would prefer to watch a video over reading the same text, I made a video version of the Back to School 2016 Graphing Calculator guide:

Better to refer to 1st-8th grade as primary school rather than elementary school.

I know experience is localized but I was under the impression that most of American schools were Elementary for 1-5, Middle for 6-8 and High for 9-12. Usually the private schools have wonky grade levels and across the pond they have Primary, Secondary and, Uni (opposed to College). And I think somewhere, education starts at Grade 12 (Level 12?) then works it's way down and you finish school at 1.

But, this all semantics and off topic. Kerm's point is valid regardless.

If one plans to learn advanced programming in the future, then IMHO the TI-84 Plus CE would be a better choice than the TI-Nspire series, especially that CX hardware revision W and higher that are most likely sold in stores by now lacks Ndless and nBoot support.

I know the vote did not include it but isn't Casio FX-CG/Prizm deserving high ranking for being able to do most of the things above despite being older?

Not seen anyone address this on here, and it is not mentioned in the original CE review from last year, but I have seen some students and teacher reviewers bring this up.

This issue is the missing Answer mode in the Answer Mode menu.

On the older CSE, you could choose to have the answer displayed in AUTO, DEC, or FRAC-APPROX, and in many math classes, when calculating fractions, you got the answer in fractions.

However, on the newer faster and improved CE, in the Answer Mode menu, TI deleted the FRAC-APPROX feature, and now if you calculate fractions, you will get your answer in decimal.

To convert it back to fraction, you have to dig through some sub menus each time (I believe it is something like "Press the "math" key and then enter twice, and your answer will be converted into a fraction").

Anyone get a coherent explanation from TI why this change was made on the CE?

It appears to be enough of a headache for some students and teachers that they are recommending the older CSE, or the monochrome Plus model instead because of this issue.

I believe the issue is also that the decimal answer can be rounded off, so converting the decimal back to fraction can throw the fraction off, potentially resulting in an incorrect answer.

Did this maybe get corrected in a later software update on the CE?

I noticed techpoweredmath.com brought this up but haven't seen it discussed here.

I'm trying to figure out a model for my high school freshman son and your thoughts on this would be appreciated.

You can always do your work with the fraction symbols ([alpha][y=][enter]), and then the answer will be displayed as a fraction:


To convert to a fraction, you can also use [alpha][y=][3]:


The absence of the automatic fraction conversion might have something to do with the absence of the exact math engine that is present on the French version. Personally, I tried using the FRAC answer setting and I found it more bothersome than helpful. By not having this option, the calculator won't convert something in decimal form into a fraction unless you explicitly want it to.

On the TI-84+SE, FRAC mode causes fractional numbers in decimal notation to be converted into fractions:

I would still highly recommend the TI84+CE as an optimal choice. It is currently going through many software updates and has a strong team backing it currently, so changes are quite likely to happen in the near future. As for the removal of the option, it was in part perhaps due to the TI83PCE having an exact math engine, which was removed for standards not present in the TI84+CE region. I would strongly urge against the TI84+CSE, as it is a decript calculator with no planned support from TI currently. The monochrome calculators such as the TI84+ are a sufficient option, but again the CE excels past it in terms of current updates and support.

The conversion to fractions from decimals currently requires two extra key presses, so it really overall isn't that big of an issue.

Hopefully this clears some things up

I appreciate the answers, and am hoping future support can negate the issue.

It may not seem for professional adults like us to do a couple of extra key presses for these functions is a big deal, but I'm not convinced the same applies to its intended market of school kids.

For kids studying Middle School or High School math, where your are going through maybe dozens of problems, any extra steps add up as far as a learning curve, time and extra key presses.

We got to keep in mind that the CE is certified to be used with the ACT and SAT. In those under time pressure, extra steps can make a difference for high stakes tests.

I would also be concerned that the math teachers would not necessarily be able to teach kids how make the CE work if they used the CSE or the Plus themselves. They probably in many cases wouldn't know the extra steps or buttons required, and would be in many cases be just as puzzled as the kids when a 2/4 + 1/4 doesn't show up as 3/4 but as 0.75000000.

With teachers reluctant to have students bring in other models such as a HP 50G or the Sharp FX so they don't waste valuable class time on calculator differences vs material, I could see this becoming an issue.

I have an AS degree in electronics and have a long background in computers and digital systems, so I completely understand the processor change from the Z80 to eZ80 would require rewriting the calculator engine code to make it work. So I understand the issue from a technical standpoint.

I just don't think many of the math teachers out there and the students themselves understand that the CE is actually different hardware than the CSE and Plus, and as such won't work exactly the same. And I think teachers mixing a cocktail of TI-84's don't really know the CE is any different functionally except for square buttons and sleeker form.

It took some research and digging on my part to even realize the differences myself.

It doesn't really help that TI went to his whole alphabet soup of calling the new model a CE when there is already a CSE out there. I figured the CSE would be newer than the CE.

I personally think they should have made the CE model a TI-85, or a unique series as it is actually different hardware than the CSE or Plus that it is linked to. Even a TI-84XE would have separated it from its earlier cousins.

Anyways, just my 5 cents on this which I hope highlights an issue many in the education world may not be aware of and may cause some confusion out there.

Hope it helps.

They don't have a clue. I would expect math teachers to be interested in this sort of thing but I guess not. Back when I was in high school, the CE didn't exist yet but we were having similar issues with the CSE. It too has different hardware in that it was the first of the 84 series to earn a color screen which brought up a few differences here and there. On top of that, some people had old calculators which didn't have Mathprint mode which deeply confused my old math teacher (he must have been at least 75)

The CSE was named CSE because of older models. It had the memory and ram of a ti-84 plus SE with an added color screen (thus ti-84 plus color silver edition?) But you are definitely correct in saying that ti has an extremely weird naming convention that is highly illogical especially when you have a look at the foreign models such as the ti-83 premium CE and the TI-Nspire CM-C CAS. However, it should definitely not have been named the ti-85 because there is already a model named ti-85 so that would have just been even more nonsensical.

Well, in my experience math teachers are not always very technical by nature. I had an older lady math teacher that was a phenomenal match teacher, she could have taught math to a Hamster and have it past the ACT.

But I wouldn't have expected her to know the differences between the CE and the CSE. Even the packaging on the CE states that it is the "newest addition to the TI-84 Plus family" implying it is the same as the old TI-84's just sleeker and shinier with square buttons.

Many excellent math teachers are getting up there and technology isn't their thing despite their amazing abilities to teach math, something I couldn't even dream of doing as math was never my subject of choice.

I have never been a fan of companies jumping up and down with their model numbers. The fact that the TI-85 was made in 1992 should have meant the TI-84+ should never have been named the TI-84+, and considering there never was a TI-84, the first model should've never had a Plus.

Even more confusing is that one could argue that the TI-84+ replaced the TI-86. Why would a newer enhanced model get a lower model than the one it replaced? Logically, shouldn't the TI-84+ have been called the TI-86+ or a TI-87?

On a separate note, is there any reason not to use the TI-89 except it being ACT restricted?

Do kids really need the software capabilities of the CE before they get into college?

I apologize if I'm filling the Cemetech board with a bunch of non relevant stuff here, but I think a lot of people like me that graduated well before these were widespread are a little confused about them.

I recall some people with the TI-81's and TI-82's in the 90's but they were more of a novelty item, I never saw more than a couple of people with them, and they were usually excluded from any math tests.

So I think we all agree that TI kind of did some weird things with their naming, but that is besides the point. Also, I believe that the 89 is being replaced by the Nspire, both are CAS calcs, (if you get the right version) but one is, of course, newer, and the future it will not be supported if I am correct..

About using the calculators before college, they really are very helpful, doing many things that regular calculators can't that the courses require.

If you think the CSE vs CE naming doesn't make sense, then you haven't seen how TI named their calculators in France. Not only they renamed the entire Z80 line several times over there, but they even went as far as re-releasing multiple models under the same name, in addition to re-releasing a long-discontinued model in the past.