txtbook? (1 Viewer)

[mazza_728]

which is the best? is chemistry contexts good?

 

[Ragerunner]

Most of them are pretty good.

I used Chemistry Context, Surfing chemistry, Conquering Chemistry and Pathways.

In my opinion I still reckon Context and Conquering are both equally good along with good use of the surfing chemistry book.

 

[mazza_728]

Im going to get context, i already have conquering .. do u think its necessary to have surfing?

 

[Ragerunner]

I can't say it's necesarry, but I -highly- recommend it.

If you do every question in that book and understand it your guaranteed at the least 70% in all exams. Don't quote me on that though.

I found that book extremely useful. Not only does it give you good summaries, it has answers at the back and most importantly it's only aobut $13 for each topic!

 

[kimmeh]

mm i find the surfing stuff is good for physics and biology .. havent bought the chem ones though
i dont think one particular textbook is going to help you.. i think a variety of textbook is good.. one book may have more on this than the other

Originally posted by Ragerunner

If you do every question in that book and understand it your guaranteed at the least 70% in all exams. Don't quote me on that though.

really ?
*runs out to buy surfing*

 

[Ragerunner]

I would say it's worth it.

At least you can buy the first topic and see how it goes, if you don't like it you don't buy the next one

I bought every series for my subjects. They were sooo useful.

 

[abdooooo!!!]

get all of the books...

conq chem:
advantages - easy to read and understand, most of the stuff are relevant, not too detailed, good exercise for understanding, good website

disadvantages - nothing on pracs, nothing at all on the 'students:' column, website seldom updated

pathway:
advantages - very detailed stuff, has many pracs and other useful infos, very challenging questions

disavantages - a lot of irrelevant crap, hard to read, heavy

surfing:
advantages - good summary of infos on the syllabus, simple explaination for the year 11 stuff that you need to know for hsc, hsc type questions

disadvantages - missing a lot of dot points, answers are too brief and sometimes wrong

context:
advantages - good for some dot points, easy to read, some random stuff

disavantages - too brief on a lot of points, too big to carry

excel:
advantages - ok summary, very challenging questions

disavantages - most questions are completely irrelevant, missing and too brief on most dot points, weird layout

jacaranda hsc study cards:
advantages - better summary than most, key points highlighted, covers most things

disavantages - no questions, cards are easily lost, hard to carry

hsc study packs:
advantages - one of the modules is really good, can't remember which one, has pracs and all

disavantages - others are crap, because written by different people

the hsc stage 6 syllabus/standard packages:
advantages - all relevant, some cool answers, and some stupid band 1 answers to laugh at

disavantages - can't believe it costs $16.95 each, schools aren't even allow to lend it to students as its against the law , and for some reason the board site doesn't even have the last year's standard package for chemistry to purchase


oh yea, and that revise in month book... looks cool with the time thingy on the pages

 

[iambored]

surfing is supposed to be good, i didn't buy it though.

i bought contexts and conquering. i made my notes from those, and didn't really use study guides. then i practiced questions and i suppose that's where surfing comes in handy

damn, how good is it to be on the other side? i still can't believe it! speaking in past tense

 

[abdooooo!!!]

i forgot about SUCCESSONE

never use their answers in exams... you get killed

damn liars... even their advices are lies

Originally posted by iambored
damn, how good is it to be on the other side? i still can't believe it! speaking in past tense

yes. other side is good.

 

[Ragerunner]

I would agree not to use SuccessOne answers in your exam.

I certainly lost more marks than what I could of got if I wrote it myself.

SuccessOne certainly isn't wrong, but they talk about stuff that's beyond the syllabus sometimes and it's not structured that well.

But it's a very good book to learn from as well. After you have finished writing dot points you can use this book as practice questions along with surfing chemistry.

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

hehe success one...some of their answers are just plain wrong...

 

[perfectionist]

Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
the hsc stage 6 syllabus/standard packages:
advantages - all relevant, some cool answers, and some stupid band 1 answers to laugh at

disavantages - can't believe it costs $16.95 each, schools aren't even allow to lend it to students as its against the law , and for some reason the board site doesn't even have the last year's standard package for chemistry to purchase

we got em from skool 4 like $1.5 OR $2...can't remember!

 

[abdooooo!!!]

Originally posted by perfectionist
we got em from skool 4 like $1.5 OR $2...can't remember!

are you serious? the standard package for 2 bucks each??? does you're school just burn the cds?

Originally posted by Ragerunner
But it's a very good book to learn from as well. After you have finished writing dot points you can use this book as practice questions along with surfing chemistry.

why would you need practice?

i mean, chemistry is not like math where practice makes perfect... the only things that is worthwhile practising at all is the multi-choice questions and probably the calculation questions.

for the extended responses its just all memory work...

 

[Ragerunner]

Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
why would you need practice?

i mean, chemistry is not like math where practice makes perfect... the only things that is worthwhile practising at all is the multi-choice questions and probably the calculation questions.

for the extended responses its just all memory work...

I agree that a lot of parts are based on memory, but practice i mean being exposed to a good variety of questions.

For example, in the surfing book there are a quite a lot of questions you can complete that involve writing explanations and just simply reading a textbook you may of missed a certain point or a question that they asked you in the exam may not have been what you memorised.

Also because you understand the concept may not necesarrily mean you will gain full marks.

Practice will help a lot. SuccessOne is a book that will re-inforce this understanding and being able to answer any english type question throughly and gain full marks.

 

[abdooooo!!!]

Originally posted by Ragerunner
Also because you understand the concept may not necesarrily mean you will gain full marks.

thats so true. its about knowing (guessing) what to write to satisfy the marking guidelines, and writing well and clear enough so the marker will think that you satistied all the guidelines.

Originally posted by Ragerunner
Practice will help a lot. SuccessOne is a book that will re-inforce this understanding and being able to answer any english type question throughly and gain full marks.

yea it would help in that sense

but how would you know if you gain full marks or not with these so called "english type questions"? because i wouldn't trust the answers in successone or any other books.

although if you got a good teacher you can probably ask her, and if you don't then too bad... read the standard package and learn to guess the marking guidelines with the questions given.

 

[Ragerunner]

Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
but how would you know if you gain full marks or not with these so called "english type questions"? because i wouldn't trust the answers in successone or any other books.

although if you got a good teacher you can probably ask her, and if you don't then too bad... read the standard package and learn to guess the marking guidelines with the questions given.

It's not so much the answers that will provide the most benefit - rather the range of different questions you will get exposed to. SuccessOne in my opinion (if you complete the entire book), will manage to cover almost every type of question the HSC can throw at you.

By looking at their answers (which majority isn't always wrong) you can at least see what you need to put in your answers and adjust it to what you think is best.

 

[perfectionist]

Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
are you serious? the standard package for 2 bucks each??? does you're school just burn the cds?

Yeah..we can buy em of our library...i think it should be allowed...who would buy the original from BOS...well yeah i wud have bought em if they were not allowed

 

[abdooooo!!!]

Originally posted by perfectionist
Yeah..we can buy em of our library...i think it should be allowed...who would buy the original from BOS...well yeah i wud have bought em if they were not allowed

i think it should be allowed too... but its not. teachers could lose their job or schools could be heavily fined if BOS people found out.

BOS is making money out of students from students answers... something wrong with the government

 

[iambored]

Originally posted by Ragerunner
It's not so much the answers that will provide the most benefit - rather the range of different questions you will get exposed to. SuccessOne in my opinion (if you complete the entire book), will manage to cover almost every type of question the HSC can throw at you.

By looking at their answers (which majority isn't always wrong) you can at least see what you need to put in your answers and adjust it to what you think is best.

i don't agree with the 1st part - i think you need other resources

i agree with the 2nd - they give you general answers. of course you can't take them as the absolute correct answer, but they (what was said above, i dont want to type it out)

 

[Ragerunner]

Originally posted by iambored
i don't agree with the 1st part - i think you need other resources

I didn't mean that you can learn off SuccessOne on its own.

I'm talking about how to practice once you have done studying and written up your dot points. I hate the questions in the textbooks. It's set out in a way that makes doing them very boring, not to mention the lack of answers.

Thats where I said SuccessOne and Surfing Chemistry comes in