I bought this calculator's distant ancestor six or seven years ago in College and loved it ever since. The old model was the first calc that gave you graphing calculator editing capabilities in a small calc package and it was a steal for the $12 or $14 I paid for it then. This new generation is nothing short of a quantum leap forward. For the first time you can enter equations exactly as you would write them. The font switches to a smaller size, so you can review the whole equation at once. It also has a solver funtion that is intuitive and quick; I used it all the time on open channel flow problems, or any equation that would require more than mild rearranging of terms. This may be the only calc on the PE approved list that has this ability.
Other high points:
* excellent battery life and solar ability
* Table function
Minor quibbles:
* you may have to slow down the pace when keying in as it will miss keystrokes if you type too fast
* you have to hit Shift to get to 'X' (alpha) or Pi
* when editing an equation, very slow to cursor to where you want Casio FX-115ES Advanced Scientific Calculator with 2-Line Natural Textbook Display
I failed the FE last semester. Yes, probably one of 5 who failed out of like thousands who did fine. Needless to say I'm ashamed. I was a last semester senior in civil with a completely overwhelming 18 hour schedule which I should have known was suicide. Plus many other personal life complications and interruptions. All that business led me to completely put off all studying for the FE thinking it would be a sinch. Plus, friends had said it wasn't that bad at all. Lesson learned. Study for this test! I will not allow myself to fail this test again. Unless you're a genius, do not put off the studying like I did. I'm a 3.5 gpa student.
I'm registered to take this test again this October. I'm now a grad student and my schedule is actually much more realistic. I have been studying with a partner 2-3 times a week, for several hours at a time. We help push each other when we we're stuck. We both have the giant FE review manual by lindebergh. Also, go to the NCEES site, print out the Reference Manual available in pdf at kinkos and have it bound there. It is vital to get to know your way around it.
CALCULATOR!!! I actually owned this Casio fx 115ES for my first time taking the FE. Though I had spent a little time getting to know it before the test, I have realized only recently that it was not near enough! I have vowed to know this thing inside and out and in the process I have realized that this may be the best calculator ever created.
I have used a TI-86 for years. I always loved the TI setup so I thought about getting one of TI approved models, but the fx-115ES was rated a lot higher and had better reviews than the other calculators permitted on the exam. I got it. It frustrated me for a while because it seemed so unlike the format of TIs. I thought I was comfortable enough with it for the test, but obviously I wasn't. I feel I'm a notoriously bad timed test taker. You should know absolutely everything about the ref manual you can and know every short cut on your calculator as possible. Each 4 hour segment moves way fast!
This semester I have actually been using the fx-115ES during classes and for all my homework. Discovering shortcuts that I had no idea existed. The display is amazing. I like seeing a fraction like how I would write it on paper and this calculator allows you to do that. In fact, you can put fractions in the numerator and denominator of a fraction! You can even put fractions in the next fractions! Does that make sense? It helps me immensely because I have realized I notoriously type things in wrong in calculators. If I get an answer that isn't one of the choices, I can press the navigation key and go back and look at everything I typed in and easily fix it. It is amazing. I have done that over and over.
You can enter constants (Avogadro's number, gravity, etc etc) and can convert units by using the little cheat sheet that is already glued on the inside of the sliding case. Figuring out how to quickly use that (which is not hard at all) is also an amazing help.
There is a genius little button that converts mixed numbers to decimal form. I know that it's in most calculators but it seems better on this one. There is also a button to convert to engineering (i.e. 10^-4). At my level of schooling, integrating and derivation are very quick and easy, but holy crap, I can do it even faster on this calculator! There are so many great little features in this calculator that you'll find yourself wondering why other calculators even exist. Because I don't need to do a lot of graphing anymore, I actually have switched so this is basically my sole calculator. I recommend everyone do this. I am beyond confident that I will slaughter the FE this time around.
And just to prove to you one more thing. I researched the hell out of the available TI calculators this summer. I got the one that I thought was the best and offered the most functions. TI-36Solar. Don't even bother. It is built way cheaper than the fx-115ES. It's only solar and I found that it had a hard time turning on and being seen in the middle of the day!!!! This is a huge issue as FE exam rooms can be very dim! The Casio is double powered and contrast is easily controlled! The buttons on the TI are inferiorly organized to the Casio.
LAST NOTE! DO NOT get the fx-115MS or ANY other model of the fx-115. My study friend after seeing me gush over this ES finally decided to get one. He accidently got the MS and to his horror, the display is only one line and with less functions. I cannot believe I have typed all this up. I think I'm just hoping to help people to not make the same mistakes I did. - Casio - Pe Exam - Algebra - Engineering'
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