Cambridge exercises: are they unnecessarily challenging? (1 Viewer)

[nuvardex]

I have a general question.

My school currently uses the Maths in Focus textbooks - they're clear, easy to understand, and the homework questions aren't too difficult. I, temporarily, wanted to give the Cambridge Year 11 2U questions a go, and I found that they are quite challenging and vary in difficulty compared to Maths in Focus; the questions aren't as "example orientated" as MIF, if that makes sense (in other words, they're not very similar to the examples).

Doing practice exams, I tend to get an average of 80-84% at the moment SOLELY from technique that I've developed from doing the questions in MIF, yet, people in HSC discussion groups advise that Cambridge is just "the better textbook" and that the questions they offer are able to prepare you for exams, although, I would have to disagree. From the practice exams that I've completed off acehsc and Thsc, the questions aren't much more difficult when compared to MIF. Sure, there are some in there which make you think slightly harder, but I find them more intuitive than Cambridge questions, hence, is it really necessary for someone doing 2U to bother with Cambridge?

I understand that Cambridge would be a good option for EX1 or EXT2, but personally, did you or your friends, each who used a different textbook, actually differ in marks depending on whether you used MIF or Cambridge?

Hope someone can help!

Thanks

 

[yanujw]

I would reccommend Cambridge to MIF, it has more nuanced examples and better practice for harder questions. Looking at MIF, my opinion is that it's a waste of time to consistently repeat the exact same skill for 10 questions.

If you want a good middle ground between easy explanations and questions of varying difficulty, I reccommend the Howard Textbook + 1000 revision questions for Ext 2. Maybe others can comment on other good textbooks for 3 and 2u?

 

[specificagent1]

Cambridge as good questions but the explanation isnt very good which is why you should have a teacher that teaches the concepts first

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

I have a general question.

My school currently uses the Maths in Focus textbooks - they're clear, easy to understand, and the homework questions aren't too difficult. I, temporarily, wanted to give the Cambridge Year 11 2U questions a go, and I found that they are quite challenging and vary in difficulty compared to Maths in Focus; the questions aren't as "example orientated" as MIF, if that makes sense (in other words, they're not very similar to the examples).

Doing practice exams, I tend to get an average of 80-84% at the moment SOLELY from technique that I've developed from doing the questions in MIF, yet, people in HSC discussion groups advise that Cambridge is just "the better textbook" and that the questions they offer are able to prepare you for exams, although, I would have to disagree. From the practice exams that I've completed off acehsc and Thsc, the questions aren't much more difficult when compared to MIF. Sure, there are some in there which make you think slightly harder, but I find them more intuitive than Cambridge questions, hence, is it really necessary for someone doing 2U to bother with Cambridge?

I understand that Cambridge would be a good option for EX1 or EXT2, but personally, did you or your friends, each who used a different textbook, actually differ in marks depending on whether you used MIF or Cambridge?

Hope someone can help!

Thanks

MIF is regarded as a textbook better for teaching concepts (or at least what I've heard, I don't really see anything better but thats what I've heard), I would say use MIF if learning from cambridge is exhaustive or confusing (which for most is the case). MIF doesn't have the same style of difficulty as Cambridge and is considered easy, which it tends to be, so it does not adequately prepare for the harder questions found in exams. Cambridge does a much better job in that regards since it has a variety of questions but I would say confidently that your best source for exam preps will be Ace or THSC as you pointed out.

Even if you're solely doing advanced, I believe that cambridge is still the superior choice. You learn less techniques in comparison to a MX1 student and you practice maths less on average than a regular MX1/2 student in your advanced class, The best way to be ahead of them, imo, is to be able to consistently do generally harder questions. If you really don't like cambridge and feel its useless, then there's no point using it, don't force yourself to do stuff you dont want to - just use MIF instead then.

One thing you must do though is constantly use THSC or Ace for exam prep, they're the best resources for really improving exam technique which is all that matters in the end when it comes to getting higher marks. Textbooks shouldn't be that much of a worry, use whatever you feel like as long as you feel like you're mastering the concepts and techniques for topics. I just refer to one book or another if I feel one does a poor job.

 

[AKONS]

Cambridge exercises are designed to build up from incredibly easy questions to questions that are unnecessarily difficult. I'd say cambridge questions are great for building up answering techniques but the last questions in the chapters (extension questions) are usually just not even worth attempting as they are actually unnecessarily complicated.

Overall Cambridge is great for LEARNING the technique and not all questions are unnecessarily difficult, but in the lead up to an actual exam just do past paper questions.

 

[uniqueusername1]

Fitzpatrick >>> Other textbooks

 

[ExtremelyBoredUser]

MIF is really good in explaining concepts, but in terms of questions I think Cambridge is better as it progresses in difficulty. However personally I feel like the enrichment questions are not really good, mainly because they overcomplicate it and it's not even that useful

i just go between terry lee and cambridge and cherrypick qs that seem hard

 

[coolcat6778]

I have a general question.

My school currently uses the Maths in Focus textbooks - they're clear, easy to understand, and the homework questions aren't too difficult. I, temporarily, wanted to give the Cambridge Year 11 2U questions a go, and I found that they are quite challenging and vary in difficulty compared to Maths in Focus; the questions aren't as "example orientated" as MIF, if that makes sense (in other words, they're not very similar to the examples).

Doing practice exams, I tend to get an average of 80-84% at the moment SOLELY from technique that I've developed from doing the questions in MIF, yet, people in HSC discussion groups advise that Cambridge is just "the better textbook" and that the questions they offer are able to prepare you for exams, although, I would have to disagree. From the practice exams that I've completed off acehsc and Thsc, the questions aren't much more difficult when compared to MIF. Sure, there are some in there which make you think slightly harder, but I find them more intuitive than Cambridge questions, hence, is it really necessary for someone doing 2U to bother with Cambridge?

I understand that Cambridge would be a good option for EX1 or EXT2, but personally, did you or your friends, each who used a different textbook, actually differ in marks depending on whether you used MIF or Cambridge?

Hope someone can help!

Thanks

yes, they are absurdly difficult incomparison to actual hsc questions. Don't waste your time doing them unless you want a band 3. If you hate MIF, you probably are garbage at math but there's no one to blame but yourself if you fail.

 

[ss2000]

I think Cambridge textbooks are excellent to learn the topics in terms of the organization and examples. The foundation and development level questions are well prepared. But the challenge questions have a different purpose. Don't bother with them unless you have a special interest in mathematics . I recommend studying the topics from Cambridge, then looking at all textbooks (MIF, Cambridge , NSM and Terry Lee) and try the different or interesting looking questions. You can find the copies in most libraries.

 

[coolcat6778]

I think Cambridge textbooks are excellent to learn the topics in terms of the organization and examples. The foundation and development level questions are well prepared. But the challenge questions have a different purpose. Don't bother with them unless you have a special interest in mathematics . I recommend studying the topics from Cambridge, then looking at all textbooks (MIF, Cambridge , NSM and Terry Lee) and try the different or interesting looking questions. You can find the copies in most libraries.

Nah, I studied the entire advanced calculus from Math in Focus, they teach it the best because they are concise in their explanations, meaning you can actually learn very quickly and forget less. I only rarely referred to Cambridge when I needed slightly more depth.

 

[KloppsAndRobbers]

If you hate MIF, you probably are garbage at math

Quite the opposite. Anyone half decent at math realises how shitty MIF actually is.

 

[coolcat6778]

Quite the opposite. Anyone half decent at math realises how shitty MIF actually is.

You do exam questions with past papers (hsc or thsc questions), not with a textbook... That's how it is with any other subject too. Also how is it shitty when 60% of the questions in the actual hsc are just like the textbook questions? The 40 percent is for discriminating stupid people, which cant be fixed by using a specific textbook because they require more thinking.

 

[KloppsAndRobbers]

You do exam questions with past papers (hsc or thsc questions), not with a textbook... That's how it is with any other subject too. Also how is it shitty when 60% of the questions in the actual hsc are just like the textbook questions? The 40 percent is for discriminating stupid people, which cant be fixed by using a specific textbook because they require more thinking.

If you think 60% of MIF are in the HSC good luck with that bro lol

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Quite the opposite. Anyone half decent at math realises how shitty MIF actually is.

Naw ifl it doesn’t even matter what textbook you use for 2u since they’re fairly similar and you gotta do past papers for grinding anyway
I used mainly mif and fitz roughly equal amounts (barely used either tbh) and did fairly well in 2u

Edit: for non 2u im a mif hater

 

[coolcat6778]

If you think 60% of MIF are in the HSC good luck with that bro lol

Literally those 60% of questions are in the textbook is what I'm saying. Any textbook will have those simple questions.

Naw ifl it doesn’t even matter what textbook you use for 2u since they’re fairly similar and you gotta do past papers for grinding anyway
I used mainly mif and fitz roughly equal amounts (barely used either tbh) and did fairly well in 2u

Edit: for non 2u im a mif hater

This, I haven't started extension math yet so I only know about advanced. And for advanced I believe its very good.

 

[coolcat6778]

I think Cambridge textbooks are excellent to learn the topics in terms of the organization and examples. The foundation and development level questions are well prepared. But the challenge questions have a different purpose. Don't bother with them unless you have a special interest in mathematics . I recommend studying the topics from Cambridge, then looking at all textbooks (MIF, Cambridge , NSM and Terry Lee) and try the different or interesting looking questions. You can find the copies in most libraries.

Or you could just find it from annas archive - this website allows you to p****e any book or textbook you can think of

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Literally those 60% of questions are in the textbook is what I'm saying. Any textbook will have those simple questions.

This, I haven't started extension math yet so I only know about advanced. And for advanced I believe its very good.

It's shit for extension maths
as for advanced, it's good enough, certainly not very good
personally I find videos rly good, especially those from mathsonline (kinda surface level) and mcgrathematics (the goat)

 

[KloppsAndRobbers]

Literally those 60% of questions are in the textbook is what I'm saying. Any textbook will have those simple questions.

mb bro i didnt read the original post so i didnt know you were being 2u specific

you're right about 2u mif vs cambridge

 

[bruhmoment.]

I would reccommend Cambridge to MIF, it has more nuanced examples and better practice for harder questions. Looking at MIF, my opinion is that it's a waste of time to consistently repeat the exact same skill for 10 questions.

If you want a good middle ground between easy explanations and questions of varying difficulty, I reccommend the Howard Textbook + 1000 revision questions for Ext 2. Maybe others can comment on other good textbooks for 3 and 2u?

I would also recommend the "Mastering Maths" textbook. its pretty good for most topics esp for revision.

 

[iloveeggs]

mif is not bad for 2u, cambridge's developement thingos are also not bad. the challenge ones are a bit extra tho ill admit

but if we are talkign 3u or 4u mif is too basic imo