ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => Victorian Education Discussion => Topic started by: Christiano on November 24, 2010, 09:15:16 pm
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If you look at my subjects below;
1) What study guides do you recommend? Checkpoints for chemistry, Neap, etc
2) What revision lectures have you guys/gals found to be helpful/worth the money?
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The biozone book is really good for bio
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Checkpoints wasn't very useful for Chemistry for me, I thought practice exams were much more effective
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The biozone book is really good for bio
Definitely, and the model answers are always posted on this forum. The NEAP book is also useful ,as it is written by the chief assessor, so he knows his stuff really well!
I did TSFX lectures and if you get Mr Mac (and ignore all the controversy related to the company that has been posted in recent times), which is likely, then it is awesome! I found their notes (come with the lectures(s)) to be really comprehensive as well. Can't comment on other subjects -still figuring it out for myself too!
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Neap has always impressed me, see if you can buy a second hand copy of their intensive 10 week course. Which reminds me...I have to get my copy of that back from the girl I loaned it to this year lol
If not, I feel that writing your own exam questions and answering them is the best revision.
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Personally I believe it is more beneficial if you skip getting any of those commercial books and just get trial exams off VN instead (this assumes that you are after them for questions rather than notes).
Either way AVOID A+ noted like the plague. They suck so bad, you know it's wrong when they write that RF (retention factor) is retardation factor multiple times in their chem book (revise in a month one, and I only got it because it was being cleared out at a low price)
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....no study guides or external comapny lectures needed...at all
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....no study guides or external comapny lectures needed...at all
Why? Not even if someone is having problems?
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....no study guides or external comapny lectures needed...at all
Why? Not even if someone is having problems?
He uses the word needed. You do not need it. What you need is what is listed on your booklist.
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I was asking kyzoo...
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i have a full-on collection of biol resources! :smitten:
this is wat a have for biology btw
--> neap books for exam 1 and 2, A+ 2nd edition notes for units 3 and 4, 2008 and 2010 set of checkpoints for both units, getting biozone next year since 2011 version isnt out yet, i have heinemman and nelson's biology hardcopy, NoB pdf copy, TSFX Summer and Winter school biol booklets, A+ exams but for unit 4 only. got all this for under 100 :P
AT least get the neap, A+ notes and biozone student workbook i reckon.
:D
methods: derrick ha's book, 2010 chekckpoints 3/4, neap books again, and CD packed of exams.
i probably dont need all this stuff but who cares ;D
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Happyface, you should be swimming in bio after doing all of that! Definitely set for next year :)
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....no study guides or external comapny lectures needed...at all
Why? Not even if someone is having problems?
What kind of problems? =X
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....no study guides or external comapny lectures needed...at all
Why? Not even if someone is having problems?
What kind of problems? =X
Like problems in understanding certain concepts in the course, for example.
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For English, I personally find the Neap study guides particularly useful. Lots of information and ideas.
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Are Exambusters good?
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....no study guides or external comapny lectures needed...at all
Why? Not even if someone is having problems?
What kind of problems? =X
Like problems in understanding certain concepts in the course, for example.
=/ It's best to ask someone else (Tutor, VN, friend, teaacher, etc) in that case
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@happyface Wow, you'll be drowning in bio resources! My principle is just to stick to the one textbook and know it well :)
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true that.. why does everyone keep saying A+ is bad?
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Anyone have any good books for p.e or business management they used tha they though were good?
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i'm doing yr 12 next year, and i went to the library and borrowed a ton of book like; revise in a month, insight textguide, checkpoints, a+ notes etc. and i just wrote down a few pts that were really important and returned them
e.g. one of the insight text guides for 'the player' was really good, so i just wrote down the stuff that would actually help. the english checkpoints 2010 had some really good oral pointers etc. but the rest of the book was useless.
i personally am not buying any commercial study guides, because if you rely on them too much you don't learn the stuff as best as you could -> e.g. just using the stuff from a textguide isn't that good, because chances are a lot of other people are using those points, but if you get your own ideas, you'll probably be able to write a better quality essay, however, sometimes the insight guides are a good way of getting started and then developing your own ideas from there.
this is just my personal opinion, and i know a lot of people probably don't agree :)
in terms of lecturers, i don't think they are always worth it, it really depends on the person you are, for me i find it difficult to work at such a fast pace and i usually get very lost, but other people can work at that pace and they may benefit from them, so overall it really is up to the kind of personyou are
hope this helps ;D
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true that.. why does everyone keep saying A+ is bad?
I have no idea but i reckon A+ notes are one of the better summaries out there. definitely better than the leading edge biology book that leaves out quite alot of the study design. A+ notes are usually all borrowed out from my school library during pre-exam study period time
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cengage?
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The biozone book is really good for bio
Definitely, and the model answers are always posted on this forum. The NEAP book is also useful ,as it is written by the chief assessor, so he knows his stuff really well!
I did TSFX lectures and if you get Mr Mac (and ignore all the controversy related to the company that has been posted in recent times), which is likely, then it is awesome! I found their notes (come with the lectures(s)) to be really comprehensive as well. Can't comment on other subjects -still figuring it out for myself too!
Agreed, Mr Mac is really passionate about biology and communicates and explains biological concepts in an effective manner :) Teaches at university high school
and yes, biozone is also helpful...but they do include some questions which arent in the vce bio study design but are in the IB course or HSC study design. so don't panic if you feel like you can't remember everything
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checkpoints for nearly all my subjects are on the book list... but a lot of students say that they are useless, and my brother said he hates them because all they do is draw out questions from previous exam papers...
should i just do lots of exam papers instead?
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For English, I personally find the Neap study guides particularly useful. Lots of information and ideas.
yay i got them on order :D
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Different companies are good for different subjects. One company isn't good at every subject. Personally, I have NEAP for English as well. Checkpoints suck for Accounting.
checkpoints for nearly all my subjects are on the book list... but a lot of students say that they are useless, and my brother said he hates them because all they do is draw out questions from previous exam papers...
Yes, that's all Checkpoints really is - past exam questions from different years. Checkpoints is more of a quick book for revision. You'd be better off doing past exam papers. Checkpoints only choose a select few questions from past exams and in some cases, the solutions can be dodgy as well.
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checkpoints for nearly all my subjects are on the book list... but a lot of students say that they are useless, and my brother said he hates them because all they do is draw out questions from previous exam papers...
should i just do lots of exam papers instead?
I got but never used checkpoints, exam papers are much more worthwhile particuraly if u time yourself when doing them.
in terms of methods A+ notes, i like how its set out, (revision notes followed by questions increasing in difficulty) and how they separate each topic but the questions were just your basic textbook exercises, nothing that tests ur brain. Its good for light revision though.