Texas Instruments - Scientific Calculator

When I was taking courses in calculus and physics, I used the TI-86 because it had more functions and was more powerful, for the kind of math that was needed. However, the TI30XIIS is an excellent scientific calculator. It has most of the functions of a scientific calculator, with the scrollable screen that lets you check your numbers before multiplying, and perform many operations using the "Ans" function. As an organic chemist, it's the only calculator I need when it comes to doing simple chemistry calculations, which involve a lot of basic operations. If you need to do derivates, integrals, polynomials, etc, then you should get something more powerful. If you just want a calculator to do your basic math yet allow you to check your numbers with ease, then this is a great calculator to have.

Nothing particularly elegant about this calculator, but it does what you need it to do. Sufficient for just about every student's needs. Durable. Affordable. I kept this as a backup for my kids to use, but went ahead and bought a different model for one reason only - my daughter really wanted to something that displays fractions better. This calculator handles fractions just fine, but it cannot display them as fractions. That was the ONLY thing we didn't like about this calculator, thus the loss of 1 star. Otherwise it is a solid value.

I bought one of these for my 8th grader and one for my 10th grader--they needed scientific calculators for chemistry and physics, respectively. The calculators have been easy to use for them both, and have been good choices--not too many extra features that will never be used but have all of the features they'll need at least throughout high school. Should be good for most of the base science and math they'll need for college, although maybe the intervening years will bring something better. No complaints on usability or capabilities, great purchases.

Compared to the other popular TI Scientific calculator (I can't remember the name, but it's dark green and has no large screen), it's just as good. The only problem I have is I lost the book and never figured out how to do fractions on it...which is quite necessary for most courses that require a scientific calculator. I recommend the other one over this one simply because it is less confusing and most of these functions you don't really need for any high school or college general math course. The pro is that the screen is larger to see what you type before you push equal...so it's up to you.

I needed a replacement for my 40+ year old scientific calculator. The TI-30X IIS has a nice touch and not too small. Using solar power with a battery backup is a good design. It switches easily between scientific and engineering, and floating to fractional notations. Basic trig and most popular functions are activated in one step. The internal value of pi provides decent accuracy. One option not included in this Calculator is the ability to store and use personal equations. For the price I would class this calculator as a good value.

Overall, the calculator does everything you would want and it is approved for the SAT, which means that moth math competitions will also allow it. However, the way that equations need to be entered in the screen requires the kids to learn a new “language”. The TI-30XS multiview is a better option with a screen that has an output that looks like a math book.

Perfect for using in my chemistry class since we aren't able to use graphing calculators. I liked this calculator because I had been used to using the texas instruments calculators in the past, and this calculator was much easier to use than the other "casio" calculator that I had purchased to use for physics class. Performing tasks like logarithmic and sin, cos, and tan functions or just being able to type out 6.13x10^5 is much easier to do with this calculator than the others around this price range.

Perfect for high school students. We purchased ours for use in an 11th grade chemistry class. The 2 line display is especially helpful as students input new, unfamiliar equations. Simple function keys allow for smooth transition during single calculations and between different types of problem solving for a more complicated question. Great value at an affordable price and students tend to be familiar with the TI series base layout. No worries at test time - The TI-30X IIS comes fully equipped with battery and solar power.