FE Exam Calculator Advice
(Quick note: Affiliate links below)
Ah the trusty calculator. It’s an engineer’s best friend. It was great for when you were too lazy to think about addition or a lifesaver during those long boring lectures (those programmable games were awesome!).
Most current engineering students are probably familiar with using a calculator such as a TI-85, while if you are a seasoned professional in industry, you are probably familiar with some older HP calculator. Sorry, these won’t be allowed on test day. No graphing functions or equation solvers to help you out.
You will only be able to use approved calculators for the exam. Why? Mainly this is to prevent examinees from cheating. There are countless stories of test takers who were caught with illegal devices that communicated to outside sources or did all the work for them. In addition, examinees have been caught stealing exam questions. On test day, you need to be able to solve problems on your own.
The action item here is simple: get your approved calculator as early as possible. It is important that you get the calculator you will use on test day ahead of time so you can familiarize yourself with the functions.
Remember, time is your most important asset on test day. You don’t want to struggle trying to figure out how to work your calculator when you need to be filling in answer bubbles. Thus you need to practice with it. You need to be used to punching in numbers. Heck you need to be able to turn it on. It sounds simple but you need to take care of the little things if you want to do well on the exam.
Below is a list of approved calculators. In our experience, we’re big fans of the HP models. These calculators come from a long line of solid, well-built calculators that have been preferred by many engineering professionals over the years. While they aren’t perfect and will take time to get used to, they perform admirably and have good functioning power. Regardless of which model you choose, just make sure you get it early in your FE exam prep.
Here’s a list of approved calculators:
TI Models
• TI-30XA
• TI-30XA Solar
• TI-30XS Multiview
• TI-30XIIB
• TI-30X IIS
• TI-36X Solar
Casio Models
• FX-115MS
• FX-115MS Plus
• FX-115ES
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