Some schools and colleges required, and some still require, their A-level students to buy more expensive graphical calculators – calculators that can plot graphs on their screens, such as the CG50 – since these are often perceived to give the student an advantage. This may well have been true in the past, but the exam boards have got wise and nowadays exam questions are carefully worded so that the possession of a graphical calculator doesn’t give the candidate a significant advantage. That’s EIGHT key presses instead of two – not to mention having to remember which menus to go into. Our nominated carrier is Parcel Force. Deliveries are made Monday – Friday between 9.00am – 6.00pm (excluding Bank Holidays).

Casio describes the fx-83GT CW as “the new upgraded version of the Casio fx-83GT X” and the fx-991CW as “the new upgraded version of the Casio fx-991 EX”. That seems misleading to me, when the models are so completely different. It would be far more honest to call them “the replacement for” their predecessors. In short, the new CW calculators are a lot more complicated to use than the older X models, and don’t offer any significant improvements that I can see. The large Natural Textbook Display shows mathematical expressions like roots and fractions as they appear in your textbooks which increases comprehension because results are easier to understand. Another one that’s been brought to my attention: the functionality of the button has been changed so that it no longer “attaches” itself to the preceding number. It’s not actually wrong but it’s a change that will be very confusing for many students! Are you in need of a scientific calculator? Well, with the new and upgraded version of the Casio FX-83GT X, this calculator includes additional features and a high definition display as well as an improved UI.

Reviews

The Casio fx-83GT CW ClassWiz is the new upgraded version of the Casio fx-83GT X (the UK’s best-selling scientific calculator), containing additional features, to include a high definition display and improved menu navigation. Allowed in every UK exam where a calculator can be used. Recommended and approved for Key Stages 3 & 4 (including GCSE, National and Higher, Junior and Leaving).

As I mentioned previously, lots of functions – too many to list here – now require more key presses than they did before. A particularly annoying one is nCr (to calculate the number of combinations of r items chosen from a set of n – used in binomial expansion and the binomial probability distribution). Previously it was the Shift function above the ÷ key, but now it takes the following series of key presses to get to the same place:

Remember I mentioned that a graphical calculator is much more complex to operate than a scientific one? The CW models have narrowed that gap considerably – and not in a good way!