Customer Reviews

TI-84 Plus Graphing Calculator for Dummies

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

If you don't buy the TI-83 Plus for Dummies book, the TI-84 Plus book won't do you any good. There are way TOO many references to the TI-83 book and the book is written in a way that implies you spent the money to upgrade to a TI-84+, rather than buying the TI-84+ out right.

Save your money, unless you agree that spending the money for both books is a good deal.

I have literally not gotten one single answer out of this book. It is a dark unholy thing...just lurching into the night. Even the index is terrible in that it is extremely limited. There is not even an entry on how to use logorithmic functions. I have literally had way better luck pressing buttons in all kinds of combinations to slowly figure out how to use my graphing calculator. Even the manual that came with the unit is way better than this book.

If you buy this rotten book, then plan to take up smoking. You will need to because it is extraordinarily stressful to try and find a single answer to anything out of this rotten text.

It was better of course than the book that came with the calculator however it didn't give you all the infomation on how to use the inverses and the finance problems in the book, needs more samples of how to enter the problems.

I tutor students in math and science and wanted a good reference book for my students to use when they are having problems using their calculator. I purchased the Ti-84 plus book because that is the calculator most of my students are required to use.
This book has a very basic intro chapter. After that, about 75% of the book is dedicated to geometry. Since no teachers in my area use GeoMaster (the main geometry program for the TI-84), all of this part of the is literally dead space. There is also some attention to statistics in the book, but not enough for a statistics course, so that section, while not dead space, is also not so useful. The main part of the book that is the most useful for me (and my students) is the two appendices, which do a good job of covering matrices.
Overall, only get this book if you want a really basic intro and/or want to use GeoMaster (which is honestly very unintutive to use). Most students will only use/need about 10-20% of the book.
Even if you have the TI-84 plus, I would recommend looking at books on the TI-84 or TI-83. I know it seems strange to get a book that covers calculators that do less, but they actually cover more of the operations that high school and college students need for their courses.

Author is good, subjects are covered well. The issue is w/ WHAT IS LEFT OUT! Why, besides greed, did the publishers think we should also have to buy the TI-83 book? I didn't have to purchase two calculators. They offer a download option for some missing information, which is great, so we know it's possible. Why not offer up the missing (and there are many) topics. Topics like complex numbers, financial calculations, logs and natural logs. We all understand that to keep the costs and pages down some topics are omitted, but come on, it costs what to post them on your site. Bottom line, this book will assist you if you're new to TI-8x products, but don't expect too much. Also expect to walk away w/ a bad taste in your mouth from the Dummies.

This book is so helpful! I often find instruction manuals confusing and this book is so much easier to use than the manual that came with the calculator. It is easy to read and the format makes it simple to find the topic you need. I am taking introductory statistics and the stats info helped me study for my test. This book is excellant and very easy to use.

I have taught Physics for a number of years, and with all of the advances in computer and calculator based labs, I have begrudgingly wadded into the pool of new technology in the science classroom. I have had considerable problems with students using "canned programs" and fancy probes and sensors. I have always felt that we are simply training monkeys, and not educating.

However, what I have failed to understand, is that the "calculator standard", for which it seems that most secondary and post-secondary institutions are at the cutting edge, will likely be the TI 83/84. Even newer models still follow the basic calculator organization, and only improve upon, or add features. In many ways, this entire organization of the calculator could be as everyday later as the Square Root key on my old calculator.

With this in mind, it is now a reality that students can use the multi-functionality of this type of calculator in a manner that might be completely different than most numerical based subject teachers are aware. I think that its proper use is exceptionally good at efficiently providing "brute force" solutions to numerically based problems.

I felt that I had to add the above, more philosophical view of education before I began with the text review.

While Texas Instruments does produce a considerable amount of support material, it is not organized in this particular way, nor written with the light language that makes study, and reflective reading, a joy. The author has done a very good job at making this model or class of calculator, very easy to use, and I think that with this rather trivial investment in money, was a big time saver for me on my road to using this extraordinary piece of technology available to my students.

I will of course further my research into the graphing calculator, and would like to know if someone finds a similar book at the intermediate or advanced level. BUT, if you are looking at this particular type of calculator for the first time, and YOU VALUE YOUR TIME, you want to buy this book. It gets you off and working quickly.

Don't even buy the TI 84 book....too many features are not explained.
Instead, you are told to buy the TI 83 book for those features.
What a rip off. I am never buying another "dummies" book again or for sure I'll be a dummy.

The calculator comes with a manual that is better written and clearer than this "Dummies" book.

The TI-84 is a very hard calculator to use but with this book, you'll use this calculator like you had it since you was a baby! This book has complete details of all the TI-84 functions and the book explain how to use the functions in a very understanding way! Overall, I think that this is a great book and you should get it right now if you own a TI-84 Plus.