Casio FX 85 ES

This Casio calculator has been at my side for approximately at least 5years now, and is in more demand now than previous use. I have used this calculator in 3 main areas.

1. General GCSE
2. Chemistry and Biology A-level and now
3. Chemistry degree (first year only so far…)

GCSE:
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Harking back to the good ole days (why are they called the good ole days? Someone please tell me why!) My calculator joined me in my quest of maths at the tender age of 13, where the most advanced calculations it was asked to do was to deal with are such aspects as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, powers and bracketed equations. These are the basics of most maths until a level maths, and on these small calculations it doesn’t fail. One would think that if it did it wouldn’t really be a good calculator! (By the way don’t forget good old trigonometry and standard deviation!)

A-level:
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More complicated calculations that are needed, where you now need a scientific calculator to help you out, specifically maths, chemistry, physics and some aspects of biology to name but a few. The functionality of the calculator needs to be able to deal with more complex aspects such as logarithms and their respective inverses of which only a scientific calculator can deal with. This is where this calculator thrashes no scientific ones, and comes into a whole new field not needed at GCSE as much. It performs these functions just as expected.

Degree:
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This calculator (Still on its original batteries!!!) is now in use almost every day, and so I need the reliability, as well as the addition functions such as factors, and the additional memory slots to help with the calculation of complex and often long expressions.

Comments:
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I have to say that this calculator is great for GCSE and I haven’t really had many problems with it as I have continued to use it as I have furthered my education. However years of experience with this have shown me that when dealing with complex expressions, or long and tedious calculations things can often go wrong, mainly due to the user, but programming this calculator takes some care. This is why a lot of my friends, who have often completed a-level mathematics, opt for the SHARPE equivalent with its said better and more logical operation when dealing with these factors. However I am too used to the way this calculator works to change it over now, although I must say I can see where the SHARPE lovers are coming from as I have often found myself inputting stupid amounts of brackets when trying to work calculations through in one step.

But go back to basics and work it through step by step and remember your rules to apply to calculations and you should be fine.

One annoying thing on the solar power and battery powered one (which I have) is the fact that once turned on you cant turn it off unless you don’t use it for 6mins! Why I do not know! Would an off button have been so hard to put on?

A cool feature though is the different way of inputting and displaying the current calculation which you are on. It has the currently inputted numbers in a row along the top of the 2level screen, (see image included in review..) which means you can scroll back and change mistakes, when MA ERROR or SYS ERROR comes up much to our frustration.

Another good feature besides the stupidly effcient battery length is the ability to quickly do multiple steps to a calculation using the " ANS " key to input the last answer, or using the ALPHA button to input one of the A-F / X,Y or M memory slots which means you can save 9 numbers! very handy i tell you!

Conclusion:
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I have not recommended this calculator for the SIMPLE reason that it has been superseded with a higher model which might have addressed some of the complaints that I have made above, so you are probably better off looking at that one, as I don’t think they make mine anymore L. I also feel pushed to say that a lot of errors are human when using these calculators, in the omission of rules which are used in, for example algebra, that are not readily dealt with in this calculator. For example, -2 squared; as we all should know is 4, as a minus times a minus becomes a positive! However when done on the calculator it comes out as -4! These are the normal small problems caused, and this that gives you a wacky answer, which you believe to be right as you worked it out on the calculator, when everyone else has been smart and remembered the rule, and got the correct answer as a result.

Overall, this calculator and me have become good friends and I haven’t used either the instruction booklet (5 languages, Spanish French German Italian and English I think. Once nor the quick reference guide (mainly because the make you remove it during exams anyhow…grr) as most of the operations and functions are on the dashboard so to speak, there aren’t as many stupid hidden options as with the updated model, that I know for sure!

http://www.casio.co.uk/prod/product.asp?​ID=939
That is the link for the newer version of what i currently own.