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physics textbooks (1 Viewer)

~*pig*~

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hey guys. Just a quick question. Which physics textbook would be the best to work out of? Ive heard alot about physics contexts and jacaranda, but which do you guys prefer? and no. i dont want to hear that using a combo is good. i prefer to stick to one textbook. Oh by the way, my school issued us with macmillan. is that even worth looking at? thanks guys!
 

Jase

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its hard to give u a verdict just like that, so i guess youll have to give them all a try :D
i personally like physics in context better.
but jacaranda has nice colours which really helps when you're reading Physics.
Both have bad solutions (or none) to the revision questions, unless u get the teacher's resource CD with Physics in Context.

i've never tried macmillian, but im sure that it *would* be worth looking at, it must cover every required point, or else they wouldn't issue it .. would they?

so anyway, get Physics in Context + Cd.
 

t-i-m-m-y

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macmillan is old (the yellow, green A5ish sized one)

contexts- nice; would recommend it

nothing is as good as ur own notes- tailored for urself and ur learning style, written by urself of course
 

xiao1985

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Originally posted by t-i-m-m-y
nothing is as good as ur own notes- tailored for urself and ur learning style, written by urself of course
cannot agree more.. =)

also, answers to jacranda is horrible... some r even wrong... >.< '
 

Constip8edSkunk

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i never did any of the textbooks questions, cept the compuilsory 1s for homework. the past trial papers with sample answers are better for practise. the rest is just for understanding of the concepts and any book would b good, even the from summaries.

on the other hand, use as many books as u can (id esp. recommend jacaranda and longman(context)) for writing your own notes in extended formats, corresponding to single and collective syllabus pts.
 

t-i-m-m-y

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i reckon we should have a separate thread/sticky/sub forum just discussing resources
 

smegthehead

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our teacher makes powerpoint presentations covering all the dot pts and gives us handouts from the slides with examples of questions, we then make our own notes from there.

because i find this method so good i haven't touched my textbook(jacaranda) since the beginning of year 11, however it does make a handy paperweight.
 

:: ck ::

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longman's for the old syllabus... well the one i have is anyway...

but in my opinion its also a good book :)
 

untamedanimal

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My school uses heinemann. But i reckon the book used is irrelevant, a good student should make his own notes like stated above
 

*jjaeyin*

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ma skool issues us wif *macmillan* too..but its pretty crap if ya ask me..cuz there aint anyyyyything on prac's at all ,,uno the first-hand investigation thingO's~~

i personally like jacaranda, it being all colourful and all^^ but ye its pretty good if you want a sound understanding on hsc physics and not get bored uno? cuz context bores the crap outta me.. maybe its the layout? hMMm*

but if ur in for last minute cramming.. jacaranda's too much for one nite... i suggest u look at excel for that... altho excel is too concise for a detailed understanding of the course~

u decide^^
 

TheKey

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i used the jacaranda and it covers what you need to know pretty well, yet i remember it had wrong answers in the back half the time, but anyway now that im in uni, i would say " PHYSICS : Calculus second edition, by Eugene Hecht" is a real good buy.

From what i remember of the HSC, the projetiles, forces, newton, electrostatics and all that stuff on space is covered in this book, as well as quanta to quarks.. But the thing that makes me like this book is the CD, i had a few maths books with CDs and they were all shit.

This one u get a nice chaper summary in terms of 1. easy multiple choice questions, 2. explenations on how to 'read' the questions, so u know whats really being asked (very important) and finally 3. talks about the concepts by giving u a graphical way of understanding different things, eg, projectiles...

I did see similar graphical demonstrations on the web, but were all lazy and as someone said, we prefer to have 1 book, or 1 source which covers everything well, i would say this book is the one.
 

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