<p>My AP Calc BC teacher told me to buy a TI-89 for the class, and I did .. but I have yet to open it yet because I'm just wondering how helpful it is on the actual AP exam and if it's even necessary to use one?</p>
<p>not really necessary at all... got a 5 with ti-83 plus.</p>
<p>anything u could really use it for is on the non-calculater section.</p>
<p>it does however have a lot of useful tools and other stuff for calculus which might help u like in class or for college, but in terms of the ap test, they only want u using specific functions of the calculator, alll which the ti-83 does quite well.</p>
<p>It's extremely helpful. I have a friend who didn't know a thing about calculus except what a derivative was and what an integral was, and he got a 4. He claims it was because his TI-89 Titanium was extremely helpful.</p>
<p>thorps: Does the TI-83+ compute non-numerical derivatives and integrals? The few times I've used a TI-86 I was extremely peeved at this inability.</p>
<p>Ok, seeing as my teacher told me to get it for class tomorrow I guess (more like hope) it'll be useful in class .. but thank you thorps for giving me that little info about the AP exam! And also thank you phuriku.</p>
<p>if u mean taking a function and evaluating the derivative at point X, yes it can do that. if can also graph the derivative of a function</p>
<p>for integrals it can evaluate definite integrals which is obviously needed on FR 1 of the AP</p>
<p>funny thing is i googled "non numerical derivative" (I took calc last year and dont remember being familar with this exact term; thought it was another way of saying something else) and this post came up 5th on the list of results</p>
<p>I mean indefinite integrals and the general derivative of a function. Only the TI-89 can do this, which is why it is so useful.</p>
<p>Most of the questions that ask for a derivative or an integral that is expected to be done by hand are on the non-calculator section of the exam anyway, so I don't see how the TI-89 calculator would be that helpful</p>
<p>I'll make a note that when I took the BC exam 2 years ago, there was one problem that took my calculator about 30 seconds to calculate. I was frightened at first that my calculator had just frozen up, but I asked others about it, and they said the same things happened with their calculators.</p>
<p>If this is something that the TI-89 has problems with, I can imagine that problems would DEFINITELY occur if you did it by hand and it would probably take longer if you did it with a TI-83.</p>
<p>You tend to rely more on your calculator when you have an 89 because you simply will differentiate or integrate on it when you get stuck rather than try to figure it out.</p>
<p>Hey, phuriku, do you remember what kind of problem that was? I've not heard of problems taking this long on the calculator on the actual exam before.</p>
<p>I do know that there are some problems that go significantly faster on the TI-83 even than the TI-89, because the 89 is trying to calculate an actual derivative and/or integral to evaluate, while the 83 just does a numerical approximation, but if you say that others had the same problem, then I would imagine it's not something along these lines.</p>
<p>Personally I found it very helpful...and I also passed IB HL math, which doesn't allow 89s, so it's not as though I had to use it as a crutch for ultra-basic stuff. however, it's definitely not necessary...and I will be the first to admit that math is not my stronbgest suit. I know many people who whizzed through the test with n 83/84.</p>
<p>It's useless if you don't know how to utilize it best...</p>
<p>i.e- me. :)</p>
<p>I'm the only person I know with a TI-89, so I really have no help in figuring out how to really use it to my best benefit. I also haven't read the manual, which might help. It sucks that everybody else has 83's and 84's. I thought the 89 would make me cool. I can never find buttons and functions that everyone else can find easily. It sucks.</p>
<p>It's a huge timesaver on the test, even if you do know how to do things by hand. I credit my TI-89 with helping me to get a 4 (5 subscore).</p>
<p>It's definitely not necessary. In fact, it's possible to get a 5 with no calculator at all; last year at my school a girl's calculator broke and she had to do the whole thing by hand. She still got a 5. But that's not to say that the TI-89 isn't helpful; it definitely makes life easier.</p>
<p>While it's possible to get a 5 without a calculator at all, you're certainly sacrificing some relatively freebie points (the limits of integration and/or area/volume points within the traditional question #1, for instance) that will make your task a lot easier.</p>
<p>One thing that you can do, if you have a friend who's willing to loan you a calculator (or you happen to own another one), is to bring two graphing calculators into the exam. This way, if the batteries die on you (or other calculator maladies), you still have a backup.</p>
<p>it's sooo helpful like a necessity.</p>