Which calculator for the FRM Exam, and how to set it up

GARP allows only a short list of financial calculators in the exam room. This guide lists them, shows the setup steps that most often go wrong, and walks through one solved example with the keys for both families of calculator.

The approved models

The 2026 FRM Candidate Guide lists these as the only calculators approved for use during the FRM® Exam:

• Hewlett Packard 12C (including the HP 12C Platinum, 12C Platinum 25th Anniversary Edition, 12C 30th Anniversary Edition and HP 12C Prestige)
• Hewlett Packard 10B II
• Hewlett Packard 10B II+
• Hewlett Packard 20B
• Texas Instruments BA II Plus (including the BA II Plus Professional)

You must bring an approved calculator with its memory cleared. GARP says candidates using unauthorized calculators may not have their exams graded. A phone or a calculator app is not allowed in the exam room.

The two families in one line

The BA II Plus is algebraic: you type 2 + 3 = and get 5, and it has a time-value-of-money row (N, I/Y, PV, PMT, FV and CPT). The HP 12C is reverse Polish: you type 2 ENTER 3 + and get 5, and its financial keys (n, i, PV, PMT, FV) compute directly with no CPT key.

Set up before every session

1. Show four decimals, so you can see what you typed and what came out. BA II Plus: [2ND] [FORMAT] 4 [ENTER]. HP 12C: [f] 4. 2. Check payments per year. On the BA II Plus, P/Y (payments per year) starts at 12 on the original model and at 1 on the Professional model; setting P/Y also sets C/Y. With P/Y = 1, the I/Y you type is the rate per period. The HP 12C has no P/Y: its i is always the rate per period. 3. Clear the time-value registers before every new problem. BA II Plus: [2ND] [CLR TVM]. HP 12C: [f] [x≷y] (CLEAR FIN). 4. Check END mode (payments at the end of each period) unless the question says payments are in advance.

A worked example: pricing a bond

A 6-year bond pays a 4.5% annual coupon on a face value of 100 and has a yield of 5.19%. What is its price?

• N = 6, I/Y = 5.19, PMT = 4.5, FV = 100, and compute PV.
• BA II Plus: [2ND] [P/Y] 1 [ENTER] [2ND] [QUIT] · [2ND] [FORMAT] 4 [ENTER] [2ND] [QUIT] · [2ND] [CLR TVM] · 6 [N] 5.19 [I/Y] 4.5 [PMT] 100 [FV] [CPT] [PV] shows −96.5190.
• HP 12C: [f] 4 · [f] [x≷y] · 6 [n] 5.19 [i] 4.5 [PMT] 100 [FV] [PV] shows −96.5190.

The price comes out negative because it is cash you pay. The bond's price is 96.5190 per 100.

Practice the keys, not only the answers

FRM Prep has on-screen BA II Plus and HP 12C style calculators, lessons for setup, time value of money, cash flows and statistics, and more than 20 drills that generate fresh numbers and check your answer. More than 550 calculation questions have a key-by-key solution, and each one is replayed on the calculator engines in the app's automated tests, so the keys it shows give the number it prints. The on-screen calculators are for practice only; they are not allowed in the exam room, and there is a setting to hide them in simulations if you want to train on your own calculator.