I had a similar story -- just absolutely acing math with my TI-89 until one teacher finally learned that this TI-83-looking calculator could do symbolic stuff ... just an absolute nightmare after that

Spent some time on ticalc.org too, making some not-great stuff to get me thru those years

https://www.ticalc.org/cgi-bin/acct-view.cgi?userid=34493

Got the 89 first year it came out, loaded a periodic table on it and used it on my high school chemistry exam. Teachers had no clue back then