Casio’s recommendation for GCSE students who have not yet adopted graphing technology is the fx-991 CW, while year 7 students will find all the functionality they need on the fx-83/85GT CW.

We asked mathematician Simon May for his thoughts on the key features and advantages of the new ClassWiz series. More intuitive navigation With Casio’s ClassWiz range of scientific calculators recently getting a significant redesign, it seems like the perfect time to talk about what these upgraded models can do and the benefits they offer for teachers and students alike. That is brand new functionality, and it’s really nice because it enables teachers and students to do a lot more on the handset and to understand a lot more,” Simon said. Format key Another one that’s been brought to my attention: the functionality of the button has been changed so that it no longer “attaches” itself to the preceding number. It’s not actually wrong but it’s a change that will be very confusing for many students! For GCSE Maths, you will need a scientific calculator, but just about any model will do; see AQA’s guidance below for a list of the functions you need.

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Our nominated carrier is Parcel Force. Deliveries are made Monday – Friday between 9.00am – 6.00pm (excluding Bank Holidays). 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. It not only allows you to take a calculated value and represent the answer in either standard or decimal format, but also alternatively as an improper or mixed fraction. So students can calculate 9÷7, for example, and use the ‘Format’ key to display the answer as 9⁄7, 1 2⁄7 or 1.286 to 3d.p. 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. From a usability point of view, I think it’s a huge improvement,” Simon told us. “It’s a lot more accessible, even if sometimes there are more key presses.” Enhanced functionality

Crucially, the design and key layout of the updated fx-83/85GT CW and fx-991 CW models is identical, with only a few differences in labelling. The fx-991 CW is the minimum requirement for A-level maths, so students making the step up in year 12 will benefit from already being familiar with the fx-83/85GT CW. 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.) The Format key is another useful improvement to the ClassWiz range, replacing the S↔D (standard to decimal) button found on previous handsets. A whole number will lead to menu options including prime factor decomposition, for example, while a decimal or fraction such as 2.5 can make use of sexagesimal conversion, to display a time value of 2h 30′ 0″. If you require any further information relating to the Delivery service used, please call us at +44 (0)20 8208 9567.It’s not just the key layout and menu options that have changed in the new ClassWiz range. There are upgrades to functionality, too, which Simon illustrated for us with some mathematical examples. Function key As for the question of when is the best time to introduce the new ClassWiz range to particular year groups, we know teachers will always be the best-placed to answer this. You know your students, their learning patterns and how well they respond to different methods in the classroom. From the comments I’ve seen on social media from other Maths teachers, I’m far from alone in having a strong preference for the older Classwiz fx-83/85GT X and 991EX models over these new CW calculators. Casio doesn’t appear to have done much field testing of the new models before launching them on the world! It’s also worth considering an A-level model, especially if you’re doing the Higher Tier and there’s a possibility that you might continue to study Maths in some form beyond GCSE. Texas Instruments also produces a range of scientific calculators. Any of these – most of which start with TX-30 – are suitable for GCSE, though if you like to be able to enter your fractions as fractions then you’ll need one of the Multiview models. However, Casio pretty much has a stranglehold on the UK market and not many institutions promote the use of TI models.

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? In short, the new CW calculators are a lot more complicated to use than the older X models, and don’t offer any significant improvements that I can see. When the new specifications came in, Casio brought out new upgraded calculators called the Classwiz series. The GCSE model was the Classwiz fx 83/85GT X, and included a few extra features that the GT Plus didn’t have, although the GT Plus was (and is) still perfectly adequate for GCSE. As well as making life easier and enabling more intuitive learning for students, this can be a big classroom time-saver for teachers. Gone are the days of having to explain how certain functions are accessed through a sequence of key presses. Now, you can encourage students to delve into the menu and see what they can find for themselves. 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:

This lets students discover their calculator in a way that they will already be familiar with from other electronic devices that have menu structures. Once they know that every feature is either labelled on the keys as before or listed in the new menu, students can freely explore their device to see what it can do.