A lot of schools/colleges haven’t caught up with the change yet and are still telling students to buy the X versions, so at least yours is on the ball! 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. The A-level models have additional functions such as solving quadratics and simultaneous equations which can be useful at GCSE too, as well as Statistics functions that you don’t need until A-level. So if there’s any chance of you continuing with Maths beyond GCSE then it’s a worthwhile investment. (You’ll probably need it if you do Core Maths too, though it does depend on which board and which modules you study. It – or an equivalent – is certainly required for the Statistical Techniques option on the AQA spec.)

Of course, graphing software is an extremely useful teaching and learning tool, but Desmos is free and much more intuitive to use than a graphical calculator, and Autograph, also available free, is a very powerful alternative, so in my opinion there’s really no need for a graphical calculator. So what do I need to know about these new CW calculators?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: Until the current GCSE and A-level specifications came in (2015 and 2017 respectively), the standard calculator in most English schools for both GCSE and A-level for a good few years had been the Casio fx-83GT Plus – or the fx-85GT Plus, which was exactly the same except that it had a solar panel as well as battery power.

Teachers can request a free licence for use in classrooms, remote and blended learning (available in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Ireland).Schools should be telling you to get the CW now since that’s the current model, but some haven’t caught up yet and are still telling students to buy the GTX – which is now hard to get hold of new at a reasonable price. The same thing happened when the GTX replaced the GT Plus. functions; new functions on the ‘GTX’ model include Ratio, Digit Separator, Advanced Statistics, Advanced Tables and Variables List If you have the older GT Plus then it will still do everything you need for GCSE, so don’t worry about that! The really brilliant thing about this Calculator is that it displays your workings just as you would write them down on a piece of paper in school.

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!There’s no S-D button for simple conversion of results between fractions and decimals. The answer always defaults to a fraction, and to get it into decimal format you have to either (a) press FORMAT, use the arrow keys to select the preferred format and press OK or EXE, or (b) press Shift then EXE to get a decimal approximation (i.e. rounded decimal form) – but the latter option will only work correctly if pressing EXE doesn’t prompt the calculator to carry out another calculation. 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. Our nominated carrier is Parcel Force. Deliveries are made Monday – Friday between 9.00am – 6.00pm (excluding Bank Holidays). If you have exams coming up, then this calculator can be used. It is recommended and approved for Key Stages 3 and 4, which includes GCSE, National and Higher, Junior and Leaving. The A-level model now has the generic equation solver function in the same place as the quadratic and simultaneous equation solvers, rather than in an apparently random position above the CALC button.