Texas Instruments TI-36X Pro Engineering/Scientific Calculator | 9.7 Inch | Black.

Best calculator out there! Great price too. You can use this for the rest of your life as an engineer, scientist, student, etc. It is allowed on all standardized tests that allow calculators. After high school, no one really uses graphing calculators. Instead, you will use software for the most part (Desmos, Python, MATLAB, Mathematica); however, there will be plenty of times where you need a calculator and this will meet all your needs including advanced math such as solving derivatives, integrals, and linear algebra operations.

This calculator is very versatile, and it is eligible to be used on most standadized test. Just from watching youtube videos on how to use it effectively, I feel like it has given me a huge advantage for future exams.

I love this calculator. I have had one of these ever since my early post college days. When I got out of the military after wartime, I was back in school and needed a calculator for an electronics course that I was taking on GI bill. I found this one (no internet searches back then :-) ). Its real beauty is that it can do advanced math up to integrals and differentials while not being dependent on batteries or recharging. It is solar powered, and you really have to love that. It has never failed me.

Great for any math class and it is a beast so don’t worry if you drop it. The display quality is fine and it is worth it overall.

This calculator is amazing for its cost. I recommend it if you don’t need to graph functions or solve system of equations with complex numbers. The interface could be faster, I find It slow if you are typing long computations.However I fully recommend it if you’re in a budget. The only reason why it gets 4 stars is because of the lack of system of equations solver that accepts complex numbers.

Good for PE exam.

Works great! I have been using it for my college Algebra class and it is everything I have needed it to be so far. Lots of nice functions and is approved for most courses.

I bought this calculator for my upcoming FE Exam in October 2013. I have been using it for the past couple of months to get acquainted and to study. When I was in school I used the TI-89 Titanium religiously. Unfortunately that's not permitted on the FE exam so I chose this one. Upon using it I must say that for a non-graphic calculator it's fantastic. The shortcut keys (for exponents, powers of 10, fractions, etc.) are a nice touch. The built in equation solver, polynomial equation solver, system of equation solver certainly shave a lot of time off of my calculations concerning static equilibrium, quadratic equations and circuits. This calculator also does Matrices, up to 3x3 and vectors in three dimensions. It even has popular constants (permittivity, Boltzmann, Ideal Gas, standard atm, etc) built in along with a whole conversion menu. On top of that it does numerical integration and numerical derivatives and plenty of other things I'm probably not going to mention.I consider it to be more user friendly than the TI-89 Titanium because of the shortcut keys and nice interface. For example, to calculate a determinant on the TI-89 you must press 2nd, MATH then scroll to Matrix, then select Det( and press enter. Then you have to remember the syntax which is det([a1, a2, a3][b1, b2, b3][c1, c2, c3]) and finally press enter.On the Ti-36X Pro all you have to do is press 2nd, Matrix and scroll to edit and enter how many columns and rows you want in the specified matrix, press enter and then put in your values. Then once the values are saved you go back to the Matrix menu and select Determinant and put in the name of the matrix where you saved the information. Pretty slick for a smaller calculator.The four line display provides enough room to see what your doing and the text is fairly large which I like. With the bigger calculators you usually have to squint to see some numbers, especially in low-light situations. This calculator also features Mathprint. This means that fractions, integrals and most other mathematical notation shows up as it's supposed to. However if you don't like this there is a feature to turn it off. This is especially useful for when you're calculating something like a parallel resistance circuit and you want to see that big fraction to make sure you didn't make a mistake.Of course no review is complete without listing the gripes. There's not too many problems with this calculator however there are something that really bug me. The first one being that there is no option to toggle "insert" like the TI-89 has. Usually I find myself needed to edit an equation that I just entered. Therefore I have to press second, then insert and put whatever I needed into the equation. Not a big deal but can get annoying at times.Second, I don't like the chrome arithmetic buttons. At times I find myself hitting the subtract button when I wanted to do some addition. However I solved this problem by running a fine-tipped sharpie over the buttons and rubbing off the excess on the surface. Now the symbols have a black color in contrast with the chrome. Much easier to see and I suggest this method if anyone else has this problem.Third, you must press a button multiple times to get what you need. For example say I want to type a complex number (3+5i) on the screen. I press 3, +, 5 and then I have to press the "pi, e, i" key three times just to get the "i" symbol. Can be a bit annoying/frustrating and you might make a mistake if you've had way too much caffeine as I normally do. Although I suppose they had to do this to consolidate space in the design process so I can respect that. Just a little annoying but I guess it comes with the territory. This can add a bit of time to the learning curve if you're not used to these "multipress" buttons.That's basically it. For a non-graphing calculator I give it a 9/10. Comparing budget calculators, I've had the TI-30Xa and the Ti-30XIIS before and this one blows them out of the water obviously, hence the name TI-36X PRO. I've never had a Casio calculator so I can't compare. With this many features and usability at the price of $17 or so it's certainly an exemplary buy. A great budget engineering calculator and certainly the best to use on the FE exam in my opinion. Go with this one!