[moksly]

I wonder how many people on HN have even seen a TI-83, I don’t think I’ve seen one since I sold mine when I finished the Danish equivalent of high school in 99. I mean, they were apparently discontinued in 2004, that’s 15 years ago.

[corysama]

In the US TI has established a multi-decade monopoly in schools. Basically, the teachers are only familiar with specifically them, so they require student only use them, so new teachers are only familiar with them.

As a result, a new TI-85 equivalent is only trivially upgraded from what I used 25 years ago and costs exactly as much minus inflation.

[moksly]

Wow, why aren’t students using laptops?

[corysama]

In college some students use laptops for taking notes. Not so much in high school. But in both during tests, electronics are strictly regulated to prevent cheating. Teachers know how to factory reset TI calculators. So, they and only they are allowed. Also, teachers know how to instruct how to use TI calculators. So, they are sometimes even required for certain classes.

[sinni800]

Lol in Germany i was only ever allowed to use non-programmable calculators all the way through high school, college, university.

[woodruffw]

I'm from the US and graduated high school in 2014; TI-83s were ubiquitous. I'm not sure if they were the original model or the "plus," though.

[joks]

Probably the plus. The TI-84 Plus was the calculator my high school (and maybe middle school) offered - I graduated in 2016.