What calculator do you recommend?

[126990]

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What calculator do you recommend I purchase for the core sciences and advanced mathematics courses we take for the pre-med curriculum? Thank you.

 

[mr burrito]

nothing like old faithful

or something more modern

 

[anteater14]

The funny thing is in high school, they tell you to buy graphing calculators because you will supposedly use them a lot in college. In chem, in math, in bio, they all ban graphing calculators from exams. I haven't used mine in 5 years. I don't even remember using it too much in calculus - i dont' know if that is the same for anyone else @ other schools.

I like the TI-30X IIS ::: It does stats, complex functions, and has two lines - so you can see if you make a mistake in your operations.

 

[dsh]

I used a TI-30xa scientific and a TI-83 Plus from 9th grade until I graduated college. Whatever the modern day equivalents are should do you just fine. Most of my professors allowed us to use graphing calculators in classes requiring calculations.

 

[TX_NFS]

I used to use a TI-30Xa scientific until I broke it; now I use the TI-30X IIS. I'll agree with anteater14 in that it is very, very useful to have the two line display. Also does some more things than the TI-30Xa (if it is even being made anymore).

 

[Disinence2]

TI-89


Theres no way i could have passed 1st semester P-Chem without it.

We should all worship this calculator...

 

[braluk]

Most schools wont allow you to use graphing calculators on exams anymore given that students can easily cheat with programs that can do anything from listing all relevant equations to even doing it for you. Ive even heard that students can upload whole texts onto calculators. In med school classes, you'll only be using nonprogrammable calculators, and some professors even bring in simple calculators for you. If you want to save yourself the $$ and stick with something you can use on exams (you might as well get used to it), go with a simple scientific non-programmable calculator. If you want something "stylish" or something to help you with your hw (but will most likely not be able to use on an exam) go with a TI.

 

[PugMD]

Haha... I remember being about 5 years old looking through the Sears catalogs and pining for these. The women love them.

 

[Law2Doc]

What calculator do you recommend I purchase for the core sciences and advanced mathematics courses we take for the pre-med curriculum? Thank you.

A scientific calculator of any kind is fine. You will want exponents, logs and trig functions. The only thing I wouldn't recommend is a business calculator.

 

[ShyRem]

I thought the most "advanced math" med school required was trig. A very few want a year of calculus (as evidenced by the plethora of pre-meds scrambling for the algebra-based physics class and avoiding the calc-based course). None of those require anything more than a $10 calculator you can purchase at WalMart that does basic trig functions.

Contact your prospective college and ask their department what the recommendation is. As a previous poster stated, plenty of schools won't let you use a calculator for your math exams (although I have seen people in basic algebra using calculators for simple math functions like addition! 😱).

 

[Law2Doc]

I thought the most "advanced math" med school required was trig.

You can actually get by without sin/cos/tan, but will be doing logs and exponentials in med school. (The OP was asking for premed though, where you definitely need those functions). Honestly, I'd say in med school you are going to need a calculator to add and divide things more than anything else though.

 

[Auron]

TI-89 Titanium, It's serving me well.

 

[ShyRem]

You can actually get by without sin/cos/tan, but will be doing logs and exponentials in med school. (The OP was asking for premed though, where you definitely need those functions). Honestly, I'd say in med school you are going to need a calculator to add and divide things more than anything else though.

I agree... I haven't had my coffee yet today. Should have been more descriptive and said I was talking about med school admissions requirements. 😳

I haven't had any need for a calculator at all in med school so far (but I don't find logs and exponents to be very difficult to do in my head. I know - I'm weird).

 

[drc243]

This calculator with be your life support in physics. It has a solve function where you plug in a formula. You then assign values for all variables but one in the formula and the calculator solves for the missing variable. This calculator also allows you to revise previse calculations.

Best,
dave

 

[Wizard of Oz]

You can actually get by without sin/cos/tan, but will be doing logs and exponentials in med school. (The OP was asking for premed though, where you definitely need those functions). Honestly, I'd say in med school you are going to need a calculator to add and divide things more than anything else though.

What? No trig functions?

I knew I was screwing up reading those ECG's, here I thought that ventricular repolarization was the sine of something. I guess I need to study more.

 

[foofish]

Most schools wont allow you to use graphing calculators on exams anymore given that students can easily cheat with programs that can do anything from listing all relevant equations to even doing it for you. Ive even heard that students can upload whole texts onto calculators. In med school classes, you'll only be using nonprogrammable calculators, and some professors even bring in simple calculators for you. If you want to save yourself the $$ and stick with something you can use on exams (you might as well get used to it), go with a simple scientific non-programmable calculator. If you want something "stylish" or something to help you with your hw (but will most likely not be able to use on an exam) go with a TI.

👍 The only class I was allowed to use a calculator in was Gen Chem (and occassionally Bio)....and then it was only to do simple calculations with big numbers on a timed exam. We especially weren't allowed it in any of my calc or physics classes, because you were supposed to be able to do it in your head.

 

[Pemberley]

This calculator with be your life support in physics. It has a solve function where you plug in a formula. You then assign values for all variables but one in the formula and the calculator solves for the missing variable. This calculator also allows you to revise previse calculations.

Best,
dave

But for goodness' sake DON'T USE THIS FUNCTION on your homework except to check the work you've done yourself. Your brain will atrophy.

 

[armybound]

Love my TI89

 

[DeadCactus]

I love my TI-89. It has a lot of features that just make life so much easier for Engineering, Science, and Math. Plus I'm an EE, so the build in EE programs rock for me.

It's probably overkill for a lot of majors though...

 

[tissueeng84]

TI-89


Theres no way i could have passed 1st semester P-Chem without it.

We should all worship this calculator...

QFT. This calculator is absolutely awesome although I used it more for my engineering studies. It's not the graphing capabilities but the solvers, differentiating, and integrating functions that make this tool so powerful. It's also nice to be able to look up and see what you typed to double check/cut/paste.

*edit*
And as said by others above, you can solve/differentiate/integrate for variables instead of numbers. It's been forever since I've done calculus but you can do those integrations with variables for the bounds(i think that's what they're called) or variables anywhere and it'll do it analytically.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

None of my science classes allow any kind of graphing/programmable calculator. For Chem I and II, the professor brought in calculators for the day of the exam. For Physics, we used $10 calculators we bought at the school store or at Wal-mart. No one was allowed to bring in anything more advanced because they could upload formulas and things onto it.

 

[CTtarheel]

the TI-89 will help in calc and p-chem (which you won't have to take unless you're a chem/physics major), because it is a symbolic manipulator and can do calculus and algebra for you. However, some profs are wisening up and not allowing students to use symbolic manipuators. Gen-chem and physics are the only pre-med req that will require a calculator, and the most difficult algebra you'll have to do is a little bit of log stuff and quadratic equations (unless you take physics with calc). Orgo and bio won't require a calculator. I used my TI-83 from high school. I say don't waste money on a calculator. $150+ on a calculator could be better spend on like 7 cases of beer. You'll have a lot more fun with the beer.

 

[Fiddlergirl]

I've made it through four years of chemistry with my TI-83. I haven't needed anything better, although I did need the graphing function for physics and biochemistry lab.

 

[degoo_]

Haha... I remember being about 5 years old looking through the Sears catalogs and pining for these. The women love them.

haha, that's me too. I actually owned one though. Mine stored phone numbers in it too! beat that.

 

[jstuds_66]

Why don't you buy my TI-86? I'll sell it for $60 plus whatever shipping is.......

 

[Funky]

get a ti-89, it plays good games

 

[senioritaelena]

You guys get to choose? At my university they only allow one exact specific model of calculator and nothing else. I guess they have some kind of deal with Casio.

 

[sejin8642]

Some specific graphing calculators give you great advantages when it comes to calculus. But not necessary.

 

[shasud88]

TI-89 got me an A in 2nd sem. calc......props to my senile prof who didnt know what it was...

 

[green453]

Scale of calculator goodness:

Score--Calculator-----------Example User
10----- Your Head---------- Euler/Gauss/etc
8-------HP 48Gxx-----------Dijkstra (you're a lightweight if you can't handle RPN)
6-------TI-89---------------Engineers who use it correctly, not like pansy premeds that can't solve real problems
4-------Basic Scientific------Normal People
2-------TI-92---------------Whiny premeds that can't sove 1+1 in their head
0-------SDN Forums---------Super-whiny premeds that post with the topic "I have a physics question."

Please note, YMMV, but really, you should be fine with anything that can do trig and logarithms. You should really be able to estimate those in your head, but hey, do what works best for you.

Edit: I used a TI-89 extensively in college and it really is useful for symbolic integration and such and for messing with ugly diff eq's when you have done all the hard parts by hand. Plus, "Pretty Print" is really nice. In my experience, any classes that banned graphing calculators had math simple enough to just pull it off in your head (ie: econ, etc). If you really need to be able to do *hard* logarithms or something and can't use a graphing calculator, just borrow your a calculator from one of your liberal arts/biology major friends. If you are a liberal arts/biology major, then what can I say. You should have gone with a "real" major 😛.