Casio fx-CG50 field manual for IB Math
Calculator settings for IB
The settings to lock in once, and the angle mode you must check before every problem.
Press (SET UP) inside any app to open its settings. Move with and ; the soft keys list the choices for the highlighted row, so press the – key under the one you want and leave with . Each app shows only the rows that concern it, but they all read and write the same settings: change the angle unit anywhere and it is changed everywhere.
The status bar already shows your settings. The chips along the top of every screen read them off live: Math (input mode), the angle unit, the display mode, d/c (fraction form) and Real (complex mode). Make glancing at that row a reflex — it answers "what mode am I in?" without opening SET UP at all.
Most factory settings are the right ones. Input/Output: Math gives textbook-style entry and exact answers; on Line the templates and fractions vanish and the calculator behaves like a much older model, so if yours ever looks wrong, check this row first. Frac Result: d/c answers with improper fractions, the form IB working wants.
Change Display to Norm2. The factory Norm1 writes any result smaller than 0.01 in scientific notation — 5×10−3 instead of 0.005. On the Display row, press (Norm) once to flip Norm1 to Norm2, and ordinary calculations keep their decimals all the way down to nine decimal places. One honest caveat: the statistics result screens print small values like p-values in scientific notation whatever this setting says, so still know how to read the exponent.
The exception: the angle unit. A new fx-CG50 is set to Rad. Use Deg when the problem measures angles in degrees, and Rad for radian measure and any calculus with trig. Maths AI SL uses degrees only: open SET UP once, set Angle: Deg, and it holds across every app until you change it. The status chip confirms it at a glance.
Nothing needs switching on. Unlike some calculators, regressions here always report r and r2 automatically — there is no hidden diagnostics setting to find. And if settings ever end up in a strange state on a borrowed calculator, → System → (RESET) → (SETUP) restores every setting to factory without touching lists, programs or anything else in memory.
Keep Math and d/c; set Display: Norm2 and Angle: Deg once for Maths AI SL.
Check one thing before every problem: the angle chip in the status bar.