hi guys,
Which Calculator should i buy a Texas Instruments BA II Plus or Texas Instruments BA II Plus professional… If i buy a Texas Instruments BA II Plus instead of a professional version will it make a difference?
Please help me guys i am really confused.
I am getting a BA II plus easily available as compared to the professional version.
Well, make sure you have time to acclimate to the HP if you choose it. It uses post-fix entry, or “Reverse Polish Notation” (RPN). If you haven’t used it before, it takes a little while to get used to (a few days), but longer to be proficient at it. I have the HP, and personally would never go back to the TI series.
Doesn’t make much of a different if you get the TI BA II plus or the plus professional.
My mistake, I didn’t realize you were only considering the TI models; they are both the same so I don’t think it matters.
Get the regular one. The TI BAII+ is basically identical to the pro. The Pro has a few features you won’t need for the CFA exams, other than that it is just shiny metal construction and personally, I think the plastic buttons on the regular BAII+ are easier to use. The only real advantage to the Pro in my mind is it has a battery door so changing batteries is easy, whereas the BAII+ you used to have to use a screwdriver to switch batteries, although I’m not sure this is still the case. That being said, the original batteries should last you for many years, so it’s not really an issue and definitely not worth the extra cash.
Thank you guys for your suggestion. Which one is better and easy to use?? HP or TI
Go TI, HP’s are for 70 year olds that talk about the good ol’ days of the typewriter. Also, the RPN entry means you’ll have trouble using any other calculator if you do learn the HP system, so best to just not hobble yourself. Plus the TI processes faster and costs less.
Get the professional one, it is better, has more features that could be useful any time, in your work, in your exam, etc. I think the marginal benefit of get it is higher than the marginal cost, so get it.
Will you spend much more money? No
Is it extremely difficult to get it? I don’t think so
Is it funnier? Yes, when you can solve some problems directly instead of doing calculations by hand.
Is it shinier? Yes 
Is it more fancy? Yes
Is it waterproof? Ok no, but all this is enough right?
Choose well, choose the pro !
Other than the ease of changing the battery that Black Swan talked about, there is no real difference between the “regular” and the Pro. The Pro has some nice aesthetic qualities, but other than that, there’s nothing “Pro” about it.
I do believe the Pro has one or two additional features that the regular doesn’t have, like Net Future Value. But that’s not on the exam, and if it is, you can learn to do it using pencil and paper and drawing a timeline.
An interesting observation–when I took L3, I noticed that the vast majority of those who were taking L3 had the Professional. Don’t really know why, but that seemed to be the calculator of choice for those who made it that far.
once you get use to 12c, you most likely won’t touch ba again