best specialist text book?

[mr.politiks]

yeah so what brand specialist maths book is best? any reasons why?

Keep it really simple. All you need is :

Textbook : Essentials
Other: Checkpoints, A+ Mathematical Notes

If you are interested in a logical study plan b/w now and EOY exams, let me know and I'll put something up


.

sure that would be great

I'm not sure if A+ would help too much, and Checkpoints will give you VCAA qs prematurely. But I definetely agree with argonaut on the keeping it simple. Indeed, in the end it is really as simple as two words: Practice Exams

[b^3]

yeah so what brand specialist maths book is best? any reasons why?

Keep it really simple. All you need is :

Textbook : Essentials
Other: Checkpoints, A+ Mathematical Notes

If you are interested in a logical study plan b/w now and EOY exams, let me know and I'll put something up


.

sure that would be great

I'm not sure if A+ would help too much, and Checkpoints will give you VCAA qs prematurely. But I definetely agree with argonaut on the keeping it simple. Indeed, in the end it is really as simple as two words: Practice Exams

Yeh checkpoints for maths subjects don't really seem to do much. For my revision I used the NEAP smart study guides and the insight books that you can buy (insight were a bit easier though, too easy). That way you can use it as revision for sacs that aren't just textbook questions, or as a whole revision at the end (plus brushing up on the areas that you struggled) then the practice exams. Really once you know you're stuff practice exams are where you are going to expose yourself to the types of questions you are going to need to face.

[mr.politiks]

True. Study guides will help to a point, but its best to try to finish the course ASAP then go straight into trial exams ASAP. One guy who got 50 in MM that I know finished the course and started MM trial exams in the summer holidays b4 year 12, and he ended up doing 120 trials! Pretty freaky, but it seemed to work.

[max payne]

yeah im planning to finish upto ch 12 in the holidays ...upto ch 4 atm and dpesnt seem difficult at all so far and ive even taken a look through the whole book and tbh it looks very sinilar to 1&2...might be exageration though as i havnt actually done the book:P

[Planck's constant]

yeah so what brand specialist maths book is best? any reasons why?

Keep it really simple. All you need is :

Textbook : Essentials
Other: Checkpoints, A+ Mathematical Notes

If you are interested in a logical study plan b/w now and EOY exams, let me know and I'll put something up


.

sure that would be great

OK.

1. Start reading your Essentials Textbook, from page 1 and dont stop until you get up to Kinematics and the Revision Chapter following Kinematics. You will do ALL the problems taking good notes and highlighting the interesting/challenging problems. Hopefully you will complete this task but mid term 1. Do the same for the Last 3 chapters during the mid year break. At this point you will have no further need for your textbook, because you will have good quality revision material in your notes.

2. When School starts, you start over, reading your notes, making sure you are a week or so ahead of your teacher. Do not redo more problems than your teacher asks you to do.

3. When preparing for SACs/Tests you do the following: a) Read the relevant sections of your notes b) do the online tests on the Essentials website c) do all the relevant questions in Checkpoints d) do all the relevant (**) and (***)  rated problems in A+ Mathematical Notes

4. Prior to the EOY exam, plan to re-read your notes for a final time, while at the same time do praccies. Plan to do at least 30 praccies (15 of each) leaving the last 4-5 years of VCAA until last


General advice: Once you find a good way of solving a particular type of problem, stick to it. For example, dont be swayed by the way the Checkpoints people solve a particular problem. If you have a fast and accurate way of solving it yourself, stick to it. Consistency in your methods is EVERYTHING.
You will also find in most textbooks some unsatisfactory explanations. A good example is the way Essentials deal with the constant of integration when the antiderivate involves logs. They dont really do the job properly. It will be up to you to find a proper way of doing it and record it in your notes.



.

[mr.politiks]

In addition to this, recording your mistakes from prac exams in a logbook and revising it regularly will help you remember were you make mistakes as similar questions re appear continuously. This will in turn help you avoid these silly mistakes. Be meticulous in your recording and attend Derrick Ha lecture for more info on this awesome exam technique.

[b^3]

In addition to this, recording your mistakes from prac exams in a logbook and revising it regularly will help you remember were you make mistakes as similar questions re appear continuously. This will in turn help you avoid these silly mistakes. Be meticulous in your recording and attend Derrick Ha lecture for more info on this awesome exam technique.

Yeh this definitely works and works well - did meth is and spesh "mistake log book" in one book, meth at the front and spesh at the bad. From this I ended up with putting a list of the things that I kept getting wrong or tripped me up in the front cover of my bound reference. So for exam 2 I had a checklist to go through to make sure I didn't do the same mistakes.

[#1procrastinator]

Essential looks more rigorous (and terse), MQ explains things better but seems less formal.

[chocolatedaddy]

Hey argonaut could you do one of those for Methods as well.