<p>Turbo, vintage calculators are a whole other ball of wax. If it has red LEDs and reverse Polish notation, you’ll be peeling the chicks off like pants.</p>
<p>TI-84s have become pretty standard accouterments in mathematics classes across the nation. With that said, depending on your budget you could get a new TI-Nspire CX(it has a color backlit screen) for $130. At the moment this is the top of the line. I couldn’t imagine that it would be difficult to get one used for roughly $100, and I’ve seen used TI-84s easily as low as $50 on Ebay.</p>
<p>I’d get an 89, sure you don’t NEED the functions ,but I found the ability to check problems with it to be invaluable not only because you’ll catch stupid mistakes but for doing homework it speeds up the process so much, you don’t have to waste time going to the back of the book for the answers but you also get to do all the problems because typically only odd numbered questions are in the back of the book, with the 89 since you check almost anything you can odds and even</p>
<p>TomServo, your comments about needing a graphing calculator reminded me of my PE exam. </p>
<p>I personally have never owned or used a graphing calculator, but the exam boards started regulating calculators for use on the exam about the time I sat for the PE. Discussion boards were full of people saying there was no way they could pass the exam without “their” calculator. I mentioned all this to a coworker who was “significantly older” than me. His only response, was “Hmm, a calculator? That would have been useful when I took the exam”</p>
<p>So, if the graphing calculator helps, then by all means get it. You won’t fail without it.</p>
<p>Personal experience but I havent had a class at Clemson where I was allowed to use a graphing calculator. The only calculators we were allowed to use on exams are calculators allowed on the FE exam (I have a Casio fx-115 ES)</p>