<p>How beneficial is it? I can get one for $50, not sure if I need it though. I have a ti83 already.</p>
<p>If your school allows them, then go for it. </p>
<p>They are a nice machine, if you will, and the main thing you will notice is that you can do your homework somewhat quicker.</p>
<p>I have had a Ti-89 for about 8 years, and my experience is that it routinely owns any calculator other than the Titanium version. That said I don’t use it much anymore.</p>
<p>if your school allows calculators for caluclus then go for it</p>
<p>The 89 is only about 1000x as useful as the 83. I’ve owned one for about 8 years.</p>
<p>I have a TI-89 Titanium and I would never use anything else. It looks much nicer, has a much cleaner interface, it is hands down much better than any other calculator. The fact that it can solve derivatives, integrals, factor, solve equations, etc etc etc just makes it that much better.</p>
<p>I have a Voyage 200, which is basically the same as the 89 but with a keyboard. I absolutely love it. It really helped me in Calc II. It probably would have helped me in Calc I, but I didn’t have it then. In Calc II I used it a lot of check my integrations and it worked probably 80% of the time. There were some really hairy ones that the calculator just couldn’t do, which is why it is a good tool but not something you can rely on. There is also the issue that there are a lot of different ways to express the same thing, so you may have something that looks completely different from what the calculator shows, but is really the same thing.</p>
<p>I also have a TI-84, which is good too. I use the 84 mostly when I am tutoring, since it is what most of my students are familiar with, and the V200 tends to be intimidating to them and makes them think things are more difficult than they are.</p>
<p>The one area where I prefer the 84 over the 89/V200 is basic stats and combinatorics. The 89 can do those, but I think it is faster on the 84. The V200 does have an advantage here over the 89, in that once you know a function you can just type it in without dealing with menus. So, for combinatorics the V200 is better than the 89, but I still prefer the 84.</p>
<p>One thing that annoyed me about using the V200 was that other students my Calc II class would claim that I was doing well because of the calculator (I was first in the class). Never mind that others with the same calculator or the 89 were not doing as well, and some weren’t even passing. The calculator definitely will not get you an A by itself. You still have to be able to setup the problem correctly and show the work. The advantage of the calculator is that if you did the work wrong you can find out most of the time when you check your integration (or whatever you are working with). Of course, that is only helpful if you actually set up the problem correctly in the first place.</p>
<p>Usually, for lower division math courses, they will not allow you to use a graphing calculator because of its programmable features and the fact that you can stick answers in it. I’ve had mine for about 6 years but I haven’t really used it so far in college all too much except for when I’m doing homework and I’m too lazy to do long math. Otherwise, I’d have to use a scientific calculator because I would have to know how to use one during an exam. I would wait a bit and see what your professors say before investing in one.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input everyone, I think I’ll go with chickenbois advice for now.</p>
<p>Turns out Ti 89s aren’t allowed at all. Absolutely no type of calculator for quizzes and tests either. Good thing I waited.</p>