What is the difference between the hsc style past paper book (e.g. Atar Notes book and Excel Success) (1 Viewer)

[Dane Red]

Also what would be the best hsc-styled book to buy?

 

[Masaken]

i have a success one as a hand-me-down, and judging from what i've flipped through at the bookstores, i believe atar notes has topic tests made by the authors (both with questions they made with the occasional sprinkling of past HSC questions), while excel is just a compilation of past HSC papers as far back as the early 2000s and their worked solutions (but they tell you which ones aren't in the new syllabus, though i would say for the mx1 one they cross out a bunch of binomial ones still in the syllabus which is kinda annoying). to replace the crossed out qns they put in new original qns from the new syllabus though

i'd say strive would be the best, especially for sciences since they go through a much more extensive archive of papers from older syllabi (all the way back to the 80s i think) and they arrange it based on module. but at the same time, you can just go through older past papers on the nesa and board of studies websites without having to purchase a book, but i'd still say they're pretty good so you don't have to search for all the questions yourself

 

[Dane Red]

Would the hsc books distributed by the Government be a good option as well?
e.g.

 

[Masaken]

Would the hsc books distributed by the Government be a good option as well?
e.g.View attachment 37615

i personally don't think it's worth the investment, especially for the price, it's just a bunch of exemplars for one past HSC paper, rather than actual practice questions. i think you can find those books at your local library though so if you want you can borrow it or just flip through it in the library because i don't think it's worth buying

 

[NotW4NG]

I would personally recommend the excel books for maths as they have questions from past HSCs, for other subjects such as legal studies it is very good as well. I use a combination of excel books and Cambridge checkpoint.

p.s. certain bookstores allow you to use the NSW back-to-school vouchers which is worth $150.

 

[Jos:)]

STRIVE is the only book I will use for sciences. the NESA books are really good for English because it shows what scores well and what the standard is. Apart from that, they aren't really valuable for science.

 

[MJRey]

STRIVE is the only book I will use for sciences. the NESA books are really good for English because it shows what scores well and what the standard is. Apart from that, they aren't really valuable for science.

I used ATAR notes for Physics. Those notes were a godsend. And yeah, those NESA books were great for English.