Biology Books/Notes Units 3/4 2012 Advice

[duquesne9995]

Hi guys,
I'm doing Biology 3/4 next year, and I'm wondering what extra books I should buy. I've seen a lot of Checkpoints and A+ notes for sale. Any advice, which ones are good, worth the money?
Also, I haven't done Biology 1/2 and am thinking of getting the Jump Start - VCE Biology Units 3&4 [Borger-Smith] book. It's $27.95 and recommended by my school. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks heaps! 

[LOLs99]

Well, I'm jumping 1 and 2 and doing 3 and 4 next year as
Bio doesn't need units 1 and 2. Do you have any recommendation
for me? I will introduce some  to you tho

[WhoTookMyUsername]

I dislike checkpoints, didn't touch it for U4. Basically, for bio, you do the VCAA 06 - 11

If you want, you then go onto the prev study design '98 - '05 i believe (very similar for U4 in particular)

If not, you don't have to.

Just get A+
Books that say Jump Start are generally bad :\ Never heard of it, probably means it's not very reputable and less likely to be comprehensive and useful.

[LOLs99]

Alright I might agree that the Jump Start is not basically useful tho.
But I thought the NEAP bio and the TSFX bio stuff would be more
beneficial and efficient.

[Drunk]

I've never even heard of Jump Start...
I definitely recommend A+ Notes, helped me quite a bit throughout the year with SACs, revision and whatnot.
The NEAP practice exam book is a bit advanced, but if you're able to complete questions on their level, then it'd be boding well for your actual exams.

[HERculina]

Ive heard of jumpstart used it and thought it was good back then when i was doing unit 1. But looking back now i was a pretty shiety book cause its too simple in context  and the questions are merely straight forward comprehension compared to the stuff ur gonna face in three four anyway. IF i were u i would just start right away with the 3/4 books. Anyway, one word of advice; START exams ASAP! ( as in try to get ur notes or understanding process done as quick as u can so u can face the real tricky q.s) .  I also liked tsfx notes they were good as, easy to understand

[duquesne9995]

Thanks guys!
Could anyone comment on
Biology Leading Edge
Excel Revise in a Month
Lisachem study guide
Neap/TSFX notes
?

[LOLs99]

Well, I'm skipping too..could someone recommend some good study guides?
Hey duquesne9995, I heard that NEAP and Lisachem study guides are pretty useful.
Tips on errors made by many students.

[louise_2012]

In class today we were given the Jump Start book to do over the holidays. I think that they are good in making sure you have all the foundation knowledge that would be useful for 3/4, as it is pretty much a book summarising (including a lot of 'revision' activities) what was in units 1/2 that is applicable to 3/4. But as wenhao said, unit 1/2 knowledge isn't actually required, it's just helpful. So, it would be useful in getting that foundation as such that you missed, but its not actually necessary as you will go over it all eventually anyway. Up to you whether you want to spend the money on that or other study guides which may be more beneficial in the long run.
I don't have any personal experience with A+ notes, but from what I heard they are quite good and I'm looking into buying them myself.
In short, Jump Start would be useful but personally... I think that other study guides would be more useful/worth your money .

[LOLs99]

In class today we were given the Jump Start book to do over the holidays. I think that they are good in making sure you have all the foundation knowledge that would be useful for 3/4, as it is pretty much a book summarising (including a lot of 'revision' activities) what was in units 1/2 that is applicable to 3/4. But as wenhao said, unit 1/2 knowledge isn't actually required, it's just helpful. So, it would be useful in getting that foundation as such that you missed, but its not actually necessary as you will go over it all eventually anyway. Up to you whether you want to spend the money on that or other study guides which may be more beneficial in the long run.
I don't have any personal experience with A+ notes, but from what I heard they are quite good and I'm looking into buying them myself.
In short, Jump Start would be useful but personally... I think that other study guides would be more useful/worth your money .

yeah right, and yes indeed A+ notes and prac exams are good for revision tools. Checkpoints and Biozones are important for exams too.
I heard that the study design is gonna change for Bio in 2012 if I did not mistaken, yeah so they advise me to buy the books on Jan. Can still catch up anyway as ppl are going for holidays..haha

[WhoTookMyUsername]

the study design is not changing; it is reacreddited till 2014

[LOLs99]

Are you sure? i went to the bookshop to buy unit 3 A+ Bio notes and they told me the book was from 2008(can't remember) till 2011..they advise me better to buy the books in mid Dec or Jan. So, basically the VCAA just renew the old study design so it doesn't look too outdated?!
Thanks Bazza16, I thought they were gonna make major changes to the study design. Then all the stuffs/topics are still same?
Well, then I should get a kickstart with some Biology books lol..^^

[jchow]

It's great to see you guys getting so prepared for next year. When I did biology a few years ago, I used JumpStart as a tool to motivate myself to do work during the holidays. It's November now, and you're all probably buying your textbooks for Year 12 so you'll be excited to start reading through them, but by the time Christmas comes and then the New Year, you might find that you're no longer as keen to "get ahead". So for those of you who are like that, I would recommend that you use something like JumpStart to make sure you're still preparing - it might be as simple as going through a few pages before going to bed at night, but it'll keep you engaged and will make sure you have a solid foundation to go off as soon as you start the year.

In terms of Unit 1 and 2 not being in the Unit 3 and 4 course, I have found that this may be somewhat true, but there are certain things that you will have learnt if you did Unit 1 and 2 that would help. Not only content wise, e.g. learning the names and functions of cellular organelles, but also skills and techniques that you will have developed throughout the year. Learning biology can be difficult. I've always found that it's like learning a new language. There's new vocab to be learnt, new ways of wording things, new concepts to learn. It is not a breeze. So it's best to be prepared for that.

Keep up the enthusiasm, and you'll do your best. Good luck with your holiday preparation 

[LOLs99]

It's great to see you guys getting so prepared for next year. When I did biology a few years ago, I used JumpStart as a tool to motivate myself to do work during the holidays. It's November now, and you're all probably buying your textbooks for Year 12 so you'll be excited to start reading through them, but by the time Christmas comes and then the New Year, you might find that you're no longer as keen to "get ahead". So for those of you who are like that, I would recommend that you use something like JumpStart to make sure you're still preparing - it might be as simple as going through a few pages before going to bed at night, but it'll keep you engaged and will make sure you have a solid foundation to go off as soon as you start the year.

In terms of Unit 1 and 2 not being in the Unit 3 and 4 course, I have found that this may be somewhat true, but there are certain things that you will have learnt if you did Unit 1 and 2 that would help. Not only content wise, e.g. learning the names and functions of cellular organelles, but also skills and techniques that you will have developed throughout the year. Learning biology can be difficult. I've always found that it's like learning a new language. There's new vocab to be learnt, new ways of wording things, new concepts to learn. It is not a breeze. So it's best to be prepared for that.

Keep up the enthusiasm, and you'll do your best. Good luck with your holiday preparation 

Yeah, if your motivation for study can't keep it for the whole holiday, then just try the easy and basic understanding ones-Jumpstart...and you won't need much time to go for others as those others really take up your time to thoroughly read through and know the concepts.

[Panicmode]

I skipped the Unit 1/2 when I did biol 3/4 this year. Here's what I used;

A+ notes (very useful for general summaries of all required knowledge. Includes mind maps for visual learners)
Biozone (incredibly useful)
Nature of Biology (it's your standard text book I 'spose)

But really, in terms of getting the leg up, the thing that helped me this year the most was sheitloads of practice exams. The thing is, as the course is fairly knowledge based (as apposed to skill based) after a while of doing all these practice exams, you're unlikely to come up with any thing you've never seen before. In particular, I recommend, NEAP and Lisachem past exams. Insight are ok, but the answers are twice as big as the exams and tbh, sometimes not all that helpful.

I would definitely recommend A+ notes and Biozone. However, with Biozone, make sure you fork out the extra 10 or so dollars for the model answers. It makes things so much easier to check your answers. As far as text books go, NOB was meh. I'm sure any textbook would be sufficient enough tbh.