Study Guides (1 Viewer)

[turtle67]

Hi Guys,

I know there are a lot of study guides around, such as atar notes, excel, Cambridge checkpoints, dot point and so on. Just wondering what you thought would be best for the following subjects:

Maths 3U
Chemistry
Business Studies
Economics (or would it be better to get another text book + work book, my school uses Parsons' Strategic Economics so would it be best to get another textbook like the Tim Riley one?)
English Adv (text guides, like atar notes ones)

Thanks a lot in advance

 

[Mu-123]

For chemistry I would definitely reccommend the Strive 2020 Chemistry Book, it's similar to the excel one but the questions and answers are closer to actual HSC questions, I reckon. Checkpoints is also pretty good, but a few of the questions they invent are nonsensical/have wrong answers which is frustrating. Dot points is ok - it's very thorough in terms of picking apart the syllabus so you understand everything, but the questions aren't really HSC-style, so it would probably only be a useful resource to supplement homework and stuff, not for revising for trials or HSC. Wouldn't reccommend the ATAR notes or Excel book, but also consider maybe getting a 2nd textbook, depending on if your school regularly shares photocopied resources from multiple places with you, or not.
For 3.u. Maths, all I would say is get the Cambridge textbook, if your school doesn't already require it, because it covers everything and other textbooks blatantly leave things out that are in the syllabus. If you have the budget for a 2nd textbook, I prefer New Senior Maths over MIF, but either are a good option. Otherwise, study guides are mostly a waste of time for maths - textbooks have better explanations already in them.
For English, I haven't used any guides so can't help there, but probably reccommend if you are doing a Shakespeare play, to read through your copy thoroughly before buying a text guide, because usually schools require the Cambridge companion versions, or whatever, and they usually have good notes on the play at the back, that students ignore.

Good luck!

 

[turtle67]

For chemistry I would definitely reccommend the Strive 2020 Chemistry Book, it's similar to the excel one but the questions and answers are closer to actual HSC questions, I reckon. Checkpoints is also pretty good, but a few of the questions they invent are nonsensical/have wrong answers which is frustrating. Dot points is ok - it's very thorough in terms of picking apart the syllabus so you understand everything, but the questions aren't really HSC-style, so it would probably only be a useful resource to supplement homework and stuff, not for revising for trials or HSC. Wouldn't reccommend the ATAR notes or Excel book, but also consider maybe getting a 2nd textbook, depending on if your school regularly shares photocopied resources from multiple places with you, or not.
For 3.u. Maths, all I would say is get the Cambridge textbook, if your school doesn't already require it, because it covers everything and other textbooks blatantly leave things out that are in the syllabus. If you have the budget for a 2nd textbook, I prefer New Senior Maths over MIF, but either are a good option. Otherwise, study guides are mostly a waste of time for maths - textbooks have better explanations already in them.
For English, I haven't used any guides so can't help there, but probably reccommend if you are doing a Shakespeare play, to read through your copy thoroughly before buying a text guide, because usually schools require the Cambridge companion versions, or whatever, and they usually have good notes on the play at the back, that students ignore.

Good luck!

Thanks for the response, I'll definitely get a hold of the Strive book. One of my siblings did the HSC last year so she had some resources for chem (unfortunately they are excel and atar notes hahah xD). I might consider a second textbook maybe, we use Cambridge so I may get the Nelson one if that's any good?

For 3u maths, the school uses MIF for year 12, even though we used Cambridge for prelim I'll get the Cambridge one though. Thanks a lot for the help