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Most recommended calculator for Leaving Cert Honours Maths ?

  • 29-06-2021 2:01pm
    #1
    Swindled
    Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭


    Asking for No.1 daughter.

    What's the latest most common / popular / recommended calculator for Leaving Cert Honours Maths these days ?

    The permitted Casio, Sharp, and TI models, I would assume are all good, (and what's more important is how much work a student puts into understanding what all the functions are and what's actually behind them), but obviously some are better known / better liked than others.

    Permitted and Prohibited Calculators for the State Examinations
    https://www.examinations.ie/misc-doc/EN-CA-20210304.pdf


Comments

  • #2
    Moody_mona
    Registered Users Posts: 1,107 ✭✭✭Moody_mona


    Swindled wrote: »
    Asking for No.1 daughter.

    What's the latest most common / popular / recommended calculator for Leaving Cert Honours Maths these days ?

    The permitted Casio, Sharp, and TI models, I would assume are all good, (and what's more important is how much work a student puts into understanding what all the functions are and what's actually behind them), but obviously some are better known / better liked than others.

    Permitted and Prohibited Calculators for the State Examinations
    https://www.examinations.ie/misc-doc/EN-CA-20210304.pdf

    Get what the school recommend, or what they have on their booklist. I have four calculators in my pencil case because I have to be able to explain to every student how to do the different stat functions on their chosen calculator. It would be much smoother if everyone had the same.


  • #3
    Swindled
    Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    Moody_mona wrote: »
    Get what the school recommend, or what they have on their booklist. I have four calculators in my pencil case because I have to be able to explain to every student how to do the different stat functions on their chosen calculator. It would be much smoother if everyone had the same.

    I agree, but they've provided nothing specific from what I understand, just that it should be on the official "allowed" list

    Can I ask what the four are ? I'm also interest in current calculator tech and trends compared to the models we used in school (sad I know), and if I also also remain interested/motivated it might help Ms No. 1


  • #4
    Swindled
    Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    Anyone else got some LC Calculator recommendations . . or perhaps it's only Maths nerds like myself that are interested.


  • #5
    Moody_mona
    Registered Users Posts: 1,107 ✭✭✭Moody_mona


    Swindled wrote: »
    I agree, but they've provided nothing specific from what I understand, just that it should be on the official "allowed" list

    Can I ask what the four are ? I'm also interest in current calculator tech and trends compared to the models we used in school (sad I know), and if I also also remain interested/motivated it might help Ms No. 1

    Sure:
    Casio fx-85gtx (this is my newest one, I got it half price in Tesco.
    Sharp el-w531
    Sharp el-531vh (this is ancient, I think I have it from my own leaving cert)
    Casio fx-83gt plus (this is probably what most of my students have)
    The functionality required at LC, even at HL, is basic and doesn't require the newest or most interesting calculator. I'll repeat (even though I know you addressed it!) that the best calculator is the one the rest of the class are using.
    Not saying it about your child, but too much trust is placed in a calculator, so the proper understanding of its uses and limitations are required. All of my calculators above will tell you that - 3^2 is -9 (it's up to the user to know you need brackets) and similarly sqrt9 will only ever give you 3 (student needs to consider the negative).


  • #6
    Swindled
    Closed Accounts Posts: 374 ✭✭Swindled


    Thanks for your help Mona, all good points.

    We'll try to find out what most people in the school are using.

    Fully agree that just pressing the buttons for the answer and moving on without thought on is a waste of time for all, and you're right to emphasise that.

    (if you see this . . just do this type stuff)

    I'm far from a teacher, but Calculators I would think should be used as a great learning tool to learn and appreciate what it's doing behind the scenes, all the functions it can do, and what each of them actually mean on a fundamental level as you encounter them on the syllabus, and to check answers / try out different variables to see what happens.

    Hopefully I'm not veering too far off topic, but Maths in my slight experience cannot be learned quickly in a skimmed over / wrote memory type way . . it doesn't work long term and leaves the learner completely handicapped from a maths point of view. It's a long chain of knowledge and if there is missing link in that chain of knowledge you are stuck in the long term, unlike other subjects, where you can perhaps get away with some blanks in the knowledge chain, like perhaps history, or poetry.


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  • #7
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,681 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Slightly off topic

    Realcalc is a scientific calculator for Android phones. #1 Child can use it to practise.


    Way off topic

    If you put a terminal emulator on an Android phone you can type

    bc -l

    scale=1000

    a(1)*4

    And get a better approximation to Pi than https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shanks



  • #8
    corglass
    Registered Users Posts: 1,112 ✭✭✭corglass


    Avoid Sharp as it doesn't implement negative numbers using the regular - button.


    Casio all the way. My preference is the fx83ms as it has matrix AND 3 variable solve functions and it an allowed calculator



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