Sharing teachers’ latest views on the fx-CG100

It’s now six months since the launch of the fx-CG100 and we’ve had the opportunity to gather more feedback from the education community about our most advanced graphic calculator.

Here’s what secondary school maths teachers attending the 2025 MEI Conference at Keele University had to say about the handset.

Intuitive user experience

A common theme in the responses we’ve received from teachers is how intuitive the fx-CG100 is to use. Its broad range of functionality is arranged logically and easy to access from the home screen, or by pressing keys such as Tools, Catalog and Settings.

One teacher, who said he was “a little bit in love” with the calculator, highlighted its user friendliness as a major advantage.

“Everything I need feels really easy to get to,” he said. “If I’m not quite sure where I am or what I’m doing, there’s the Back button, the keys that show the different menus, and knowing that the three dots gives you the Tools menu. It’s just a big step forward.”

Another teacher we spoke to at the MEI Conference highlighted how the logical menu structure of the fx-CG100 should feel familiar to the current generation of tech-savvy students. This also means that anyone can pick up the calculator and start exploring it without too much difficulty.

“I could just start playing with it and be able to do a lot of things pretty quickly,” one teacher said.

Familiarity, plus new features

A major motivation behind the development of the fx-CG100 was to create a graphic calculator that feels consistent with the ClassWiz scientific range. This helps to ensure that, when students make the step up from GCSE to A-level maths, the transition from a scientific to a graphing handset feels more like a natural step than a drastic change.

Attendees at the MEI Conference told us that students being able to build on their existing calculator knowledge, rather than having to learn an entirely new skill set, is a big plus.

“For the calculator to have the same, or similar, software to the scientific is very helpful, especially if students have both calculators,” one teacher told us.

“The interface alone is quite familiar, so it’s an easy transition. The only difference is the fx-CG100 has more features and a bigger screen.”

Another teacher said it was “really nice to see” that, in addition to the similarities with the ClassWiz scientific family, the fx-CG100 has some notable additions and improvements. The Format key, for example, has been updated to make standard-to-decimal conversions easily accessible with one press.

Exam uses and benefits

Another positive change introduced with our newest handset relates to Exam Mode.

On the fx-CG50, the predecessor to the fx-CG100, activating this feature requires a specific sequence of key presses. However, with the new handset, it’s much easier to access via a dedicated menu option on the home screen.

One teacher at the MEI Conference highlighted how useful it is for students to be able to easily turn on Exam Mode and show invigilators that nothing is stored in the handset’s memory.

We also spoke to attendees about the broader benefits of graphic calculator usage in examinations. They all agreed that, given sufficient time to learn the device and get comfortable with it, there’s no doubt students benefit from using graphing technology in exams.

Simply being able to graph functions and other concepts to back up their algebraic working can make a big difference to their speed and confidence.

“If they’ve been doing that for two years and they can do it quite quickly, it’s extremely helpful in an exam,” one teacher said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a student use a graphic calculator in an exam and say it hindered them. It’s always the other way around.”

Recommendations for schools and students

On the question of whether they will be advocating adoption of the fx-CG100 within their schools and to their students, the teachers we spoke to were pretty emphatic in their responses.

One said he had already updated his guidance for the 2025-26 school year to give his full and unequivocal backing to our new graphing handset.

“With previous calculators and new models coming out, I recommended both [old and new], because the old model still worked well,” he said. “This is an exception where I’m going to recommend the fx-CG100 solely. There’s no reason for me to recommend previous models.”

Another teacher said he will be advising his students to think carefully about how much they could have to gain from making the transition from their scientific handset to graphing technology.

“The fx-CG100 is a bigger investment [than a scientific calculator], but if you use it from day one, by the time you get to the exam, the benefits to you will be huge,” he said.

On the subject of the investment required in the handset, teachers highlighted the benefits of schools taking steps such as providing class sets of calculators. This can give students from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to access the technology and benefit from it in their learning.

If you’re looking to accelerate the adoption of graphic calculators in your school, we offer resources to help.

You can sign up for free departmental training, for example, to help your colleagues get up to speed with the fx-CG100’s most useful functionality.

More information on our newest calculator and resources to support its adoption and use are available on our fx-CG100 homepage.