Excel (1 Viewer)

[FadeToBlack]

I'm wondering how many people have bought the excel textbook things, and how much use they were (alongside the normal textbooks) for like a 2nd source of info

I'm thinking of buying some (for IPT/Legal/business/religious studies. Not sure if i need one for english adv/ext.)
but at about $30 each i wanna know if they are gonna really help

so whos used em, were they worth the money?

 

[McLake]

I bought the Excel books for Phys and Chem, Phys was useful, chem was not. I don't know about the specific subjects you asked about, but my point is flick through it first to get an idea ...

Originally posted by natstar
Oh yeah, and dont buy the english study guide for either stan or adv, cuz they have all the prescribed texts and electives for the whole subjetc sin them, so its a bit of a waste of money. I would advise u, that if u were to get a study guide for english, to buy the individual elective study guides, which i found are alot of help (well to me anyway)

I aggree with this, buy the individual guides for the subjects you want (the guides I bought were good ...)

 

[Mambomeg]

Theres a shop in Hornsby that sells them second hand for like half price, and they're all in good con bcoz they were only used for a year or two - Village Booktique, Dural Lane, Hornsby.

I used the IPT one, and it helped, but only because my teacher was useless and the other textbook I had (heinemann) had so much crap in it that you had to wade through to get the info. So yeah, its worth it for that.
I also used Phys and Chem ones, and like McLake said, the Chem was crap, and the Physics ok. It depends on what your main textbooks are like. If they have all the syllabus info then why try and cram non relevant stuff into your head.

Oh - one thing I noticed was that for some of the excel books, they didnt follow the syllabus, like they skipped around and excluded bits.

$$$ But if you dont want to spend the money, then you can borrow them from a library - our school one had them all - or photocopy relevant bits from friends, or just get info from somewhere else, like this site.

One more thing - if you are planning on selling them afterwards, dont write in them. ( I got bitten by that)

 

[zannaz]

I bought the modern History, business studies and Legal studies. I wouldn't recommend the business studies as it was totally crap IMO. It was to pre-new hsc and had too much economics (according to my teacher). The Legal studies one was the best. It helped alot and was so to the point but without being too general, was concise and had everyting i needed. Modern History was good too but it only had two of my three topics. I paid $27 for each. I recommend the Legal one and Modern History if it has all your topics.

 

[t-i-m-m-y]

i don't think the english advanced excel is worth it

 

[tooheyz]

yeah for individual option topics you should just go and get the individual books... especially for english... or you can just go to the library and fotocopy the stuff from your option in the big english advance excel book.. its only about 5 pages each for each subject anyway

yeah i've got physics, bio, ipt past maths papers... all r good... except for the ipt one.. it doesnt help me much... its just all summaries from the text book (i use the hienman text book)... yeah but most excel books come with a CD with them which helps alot! theres the 2002 papers on them with solutions as well as past questions with worked solutions... i have got these for physics and bio

 

[Butterfly_Wings]

I bought the Modern History one, and we were issued with the biology one as our main textbook.

The modern history one was pretty good for the World War 1 stuff...it didn't have one of my options in it (The Chinese Revolution), and it had some stuff on my second option (The Cold War), but that wasn't too helpful. It also had some totally stupid practice essays that they would never ask in an exam, so I'd be careful before you bother spending any time on them.

The biology one was totally brilliant-I cannot recommend it enough! It follows the syllabus really well. It doesn't have the practical stuff in it, or some of the extended research you're expected to do, but it tells you what you need to find so you won't forget about it.

A lot of people who bought other excel textbooks said they were pretty shit, so before you go out and buy them you should try to have a look through them first to see if it is worthwhile. I think you can borrow some of them from public libraries, and our school had some in the library to look at, too.

 

[FadeToBlack]

yeh sounds like the excel books have helped a fair few people who used them, so i might go check em out... legal, business, IPT, religion specifically
to hell with the price, if its gonna help me this year, its worth it

Is there an Excel book out there on crime fiction (ext. english)? this is one subject i particularly want/need to do well in (as my other recent thread states)

 

[Rahul]

i have bought the excel books for all my subjects (except 1) they r good a s supplementary guides. buy them second hand always cheaper!!

 

[kini mini]

I bought the physics, chem and advanced eng excels and the Hamlet/Ros and Guil study guide. I think the science ones weren't very good, but they were second hand and cheap so that wasn't too bad. The English one was quite good I thought, with the confusion about the Eng course at my school I liked the printed "second opinion" . While the analysis of the texts in the guide wasn't great, it gave me a better understanding of what the outcomes meant.

 

[zannaz]

The modern history didn't have the South Africa topic! but still worthwhile for ww1 and america!!!