A Good Calculator for many math courses

I bought this calculator to replace another TI calculator that had lost one of its display digits and also had a spongy key. It was time for that one to go.

I had already seen one important change in the TI-30-XIIS over my previous calculator that was important to me. It does a great job with statistics. It stores the data and allows mistakes to be corrected by tabbing back through the entries.

This calculator also offers a choice between univariate and bivariate stats. Most simple calculators will not do correlation and regression analysis between paired data sets. This one does it quite well. Also for both the univariate and bivariate data it displays the sums, sums of squares, both population and sample standard deviations, etc. This is very handy for going on to more complex data analysis.

The display screen is two line, so that one can arrow up to be sure that the data was entered correctly if there is a suspicion about the answer. Numbers are legible and a large number of digits is displayed. By the way, folks, this is NOT A GRAPHING CALCULATOR, so stop complaining that it does not graph anything. Buy some graph paper or spend about ten times more for a graphing calculator.

Trig functions are right on top and don't need to be pulled off menus, and inverse and hyperbolic trig functions are similarly easy to get.

Fraction operations are easy. There are ample probability functions for most basic work. Besides the square and square root functions, there is also an any power and any root function -- very nice!

I've used this calculator for everything from college algebra to engineering physics. It is certainly useful then for middle school up through university level.

I've seen many TI calculators, including my own, crash onto a hard floor and still function. The most recurring problem I have had is loss of all or part of a display digit. After that, another problem is that keys become quirky and either double enter on won't enter unless pressed with herculean force. The hard cover protects the working surface when not in use. The power is supplied by any reasonably bright light source.

I consider this (TI-30-XIIS) to be superior to the TI-34-II because the latter is less convenient to use and to get the functions needed. It also has the same statistical capability though.

Some of the other reviews suggest that a less desirable form of this calculator is now available. I bought mine about five years ago and sure hope I can replace it, if it breaks.