Calculator for A level maths

[Surferfish]

DS currently has a Casio FX 85GT bought from Tesco for about a tenner which was fine for his GCSE and we'd been assuming he would continue with this for A level as it seemed to have all the scientific/mathematical functions.

He seemed to think that this might not be sufficient for A level though, and when we looked on Amazon my jaw almost hit the floor when some of the more advanced ones were coming up at over £100

Will his existing FX 85GT be OK for A level or if not can anyone recommend something suitable. Obviously we want him to have something suitable for the course, but hopefully without spending the earth for a load of unnecessary bells and whistles.

[Tinkers]

The maths dept will tell you better. DD has a graphical calculator (that I can’t fathom out, and I’m an engineer). It was bought through school as a much cheaper cost than buying ourselves, so best to see if your school offer the same.

ETA it was about £50, rather than the £100. DD is off to see what model it is as she needs to pack for school tomorrow’s

[scary mum]

School required DS to have the expensive one - school sold them, and then when he lost it a couple of days before his mocks (!) I ordered another one on Amazon. He did further maths so I'm not sure if the maths folk had to have them as well, but I think so. Ask the school.
This is the one they had to have

[kenyancowgirl]

DS1 has just completed A level Maths and DS2 will be taking it too - they do have to have a different scientific calculator, which is bought through the school, but from memory it is only £25 max...

I will try and find out the model... crossed with others...

Our school uses this for Y12:

Casio FX-991EX ClassWiz Advance Scientific for Year 12 students studying Maths £23.50

[Tinkers]

*roll drum* It is a Casio fx-9860GII same as SM posted a link for

[Surferfish]

Thanks for all the advice.

We will check with the school.

Sounds like we will need to do some sort of upgrade. Checking online, the cheaper FX-991EX is said to be suitable for A level and the more expensive ones seem to be graphical whatever that means exactly (presumably draws graphs on the screen?).

Presumably the graphical ones offer more advantages, although I must say that I don't think its right that pupils from richer families studying maths A level would seem to have additional advantages over those from less well off families dependent on what sort of calculator they can afford!

I did maths A level myself a fair few years ago and we didn't require anything fancy other than the standard sine, cos functions etc that we already had on our GCSE calculators. In fact I seem to remember that certain fancy programmable calculators were distinctly NOT allowed in exams. Has the A level syllabus changed that much since then?

[Tinkers]

DD has just tried to explain why they need a graphical calculator. There’s lots of things they do with them that you can’t do with the GCSE one. Being able to draw a graph on screen is apparently a very useful feature. The stats functions are very useful too.

All the girls in her class doing A level maths have one. I think her school would help with costs for those struggling though.

[ToadMum]

DS2's school sold us the Casio FX991EX for £19.50 at the beginning of year 11.

[loobylou]

It's £25 in our Tesco today.

[2childmum]

DD has the Casio FX991EX and is doing FM as well as maths. All her year has this one, and she is quite happy with it.