checkpoints 2008 Vs 2009

[Hielly]

hey

would it be okay if i bought the biology checkpoints 2008? what new context would their be for 2009 edition?
or should i wait for the 2009 edition to come out?


thanks for any advice

[shinny]

I'd pretty much advise against buying Checkpoints altogether for most subjects. They're just VCAA exams which you can download for free arranged categorically into topics. The only difference between '09 and '08 would be that the '09 includes questions from the '07 exam in the main section, and the whole '08 exam would appear in the back which you could download from VCAA anyway. You're better off buying the NEAP SmartStudy books.

[Hielly]

ohh alrites then, ill just purchase neap. how about leading edge?
Any recommendations?

[shinny]

Try and just borrow that from the school library or something. It's useful, but only for a once off read for learning how to word your answers and so on.

[xox.happy1.xox]

I agree with Shinny. I had Checkponts for basically every subject (except Italian) and learned absolutely nothing from them. I didn't even finish half of my maths Checkpoints books because I simply didn't have the time. Past exams (in the form of Checkpoints books) do not deserve to be bought at ~$30 each, as they are free off the Internet, and are easily accessible by every student off the VCAA website. No point in using them at all full stop.

[lacoste]

and the 2009 checkpts have a diff cover on them...really diff

[xox.happy1.xox]

and the 2009 checkpts have a diff cover on them...really diff

They still all have the same content... A pretty cover wouldn't convince me to fork out ~$30.

[shinny]

The new covers are ugly anyway though. BURN THEM.

[Toothpaste]

Just borrow one from your library for a whole semester. Ignore all librarian warnings to bring them back, unless there's a fine. In that case, return and reborrow.

Saves money and effort to re-sell at the end of the year. (It's hard to sell Checkpoints unless you reduce the price heaps)

[khalil]

The new covers are ugly anyway though. BURN THEM.

he he.....although checkpoints have questions from 1999 or 1998 which are relevant to the course.
using checkpoints to study for psych was terrible. i did the unit 4 one ...then when it came to do the past VCAA exams in TIMED conditions....it didnt work out cos' i already knew almost all the answers...which i didnt do under timed conditions...so that was a waste!
i bought the specialist checkpoints...whats up with the 2 ppl on the front?....there not even good looking...not that that is relevant

[xox.happy1.xox]

The new covers are ugly anyway though. BURN THEM.

he he.....although checkpoints have questions from 1999 or 1998 which are relevant to the course.
using checkpoints to study for psych was terrible. i did the unit 4 one ...then when it came to do the past VCAA exams in TIMED conditions....it didnt work out cos' i already knew almost all the answers...which i didnt do under timed conditions...so that was a waste!
i bought the specialist checkpoints...whats up with the 2 ppl on the front?....there not even good looking...not that that is relevant

Ewww... They have photos of people on Checkpoints covers now? :S... Big waste of money in that case.

[lacoste]

and the 2009 checkpts have a diff cover on them...really diff

They still all have the same content... A pretty cover wouldn't convince me to fork out ~$30.

The new covers are ugly anyway though. BURN THEM.

thats what i meant when i said ^different^... didnt want to bother ppl using the term ugly though

[NE2000]

I would say get Checkpoints Unit 3 because for Unit 3 the past papers pre-2006 have some irrelevant questions that you wouldn't be prepared for and its good to sort through them and just do the questions that are relavent. However, if you can get a 2007 copy of checkpoints (not even 08) or if you can borrow a copy that should be fine. The 09 version will only have the exact same stuff as the older ones but it will also have the 08 paper and really you can download that. Other study guides are probably better.

[Hielly]

what do you guys think about leading edge, A+ publishing ?

[NE2000]

what do you guys think about leading edge, A+ publishing ?

A+ BiolNotes is good for notes and sometimes has some extra info there that can help (eg. this year there was a question on fibrous proteins that it seems one or two of the textbooks missed out on)

Leading Edge also has decent notes and the Unit 4 practice exam is good seeing as you want to do as many as possible once you understand the concepts. The Unit 3 practice exam was a tad off the study design but anywayz...the part that annoys me about that book is the 'sample lower level response part', it may have been okay but the way they do it is they give the sample lower level response as something completely useless like just getting the answer wrong completely...sometimes the 'sample high level response' has weaknesses too and gets marked 7/10 in the book while what I like to see is a concise 10/10 answer. I was expecting a bit more from them there. If you want to accumulate as much as possible like I did then you might as well buy both.