How To Choose The Best Calculator For GCSE Maths

Owning a reliable GCSE calculator and knowing how to use it will give you a big boost at this vital stage in your education.

It will help you build confidence in your ability to tackle difficult topics, perform calculations with greater speed and accuracy, take control over your own learning and check your work in exams.

A scientific calculator should be considered the minimum requirement for GCSE maths studies. These devices provide essential functionality for tasks such as scientific calculation, displaying tables of values, working with ratios and analysing statistics.

How to choose the best calculator for GCSE maths

When choosing a GCSE calculator, make sure you know your options. The fx-83GTCW is the UK's best-selling scientific calculator and is fully approved and recommended for key stages 3 and 4 (years 7 to 11).

The fx-85GT CW offers exactly the same functionality, with the addition of solar power and a battery backup.

You can access a broader range of features - complex number calculations, for example - on the fx-991CW, which is our most advanced scientific calculator.

Check which calculator best suits you.

Compare

GCSE calculator FAQs

What is the best calculator for UK GCSEs?

While this depends on what GCSE maths course you're studying, you can feel confident that any Casio scientific calculator will offer the core functionality you need to support your learning up to year 11.

If you're studying higher-tier maths from year 10 onwards, you'll benefit from some of the more advanced functions of the fx-991CW.

This handset's equation solver is a good example of the sorts of tools that will be useful for students sitting higher-tier GCSE papers and preparing for the step up to A-level maths.

Do I need a scientific calculator for GCSE maths?

It's strongly recommended that all GCSE maths students have access to a scientific calculator. This is due to the more complex concepts and calculations you'll come across at this stage of your education.

When the time comes to sit your exams, you'll be expected to demonstrate an understanding of topics such as decimal and fraction calculations, prime factorisation, powers, roots, probabilities, statistics and more.

Scientific calculators offer specific functionality dedicated to these and many other topics and tasks. Moreover, you can use your device in all but one of your GCSE maths exams.

As you become more familiar with your calculator and start to use it more frequently, you'll discover how much potential it offers to strengthen your understanding and help you work quicker and more efficiently.

How can I use a scientific calculator in my learning?

The range of ways in which you can use a scientific calculator is vast and open to exploration in any way that suits you.

Taking the fx-83GT CW as an example, you could use the calculator to:

● Perform arithmetic and fraction calculations much quicker than on paper, and with accurate results
● Input powers, power roots and reciprocal functions
● Display inequalities on a number line
● Run dice roll and coin toss probability simulations
● Input values and find their greatest common divisors and least common multiples
● Work with trigonometric functions
● Register equations using the f(x) and g(x) functions

What about graphic calculators?

Graphic calculators are the next step up from scientific calculators. As the name suggests, they are capable of producing graphs, which allows you to visualise a range of mathematical topics and concepts. This can offer big benefits when it comes to understanding and analysing some of the more difficult aspects of the curriculum.

Casio's graphic calculator range comprises the fx-9860GIII and the fx-CG50, which is our most advanced calculator approved by exam boards.

The full power and benefits of these handsets become clear at A-level. If you're planning to continue studying maths beyond your GCSEs, you could give yourself a head start by starting to use a graphic calculator in year 10 or 11.

Which calculators are permitted for use in GCSE maths exams?

All Casio calculators - from our entry-level scientific calculators up to the most advanced graphing handsets - can be used in exams that permit the use of calculators.

Where GCSEs are concerned, it's important to remember that one of the three maths papers currently prohibits calculator use.

To find out more about the rules around calculators and exams, head to the Casio Education website, where you can download a leaflet and read some FAQs from the Joint Council for Qualifications.