Best study guides, practise exams and lecture companies?

[vashappenin]

Hey all,
As the title says, which study guides, practise exams and lecture companies are the best and most useful for chemistry (esp. with no mid-year) and why?

[brenden]

AN Study Guide because AN Study Guide.

[ggxoxo]

I like the AN study guide the most tbh- because it gradually leads you up to the hardest of the hardest exam questions (a question like the errors of the back titrations actually showed up on unit 3 exam) AND it also has detailed solution (like you know how sometimes when you look at an answer you're like: "What does that mean" and you need more clarification from your teacher... well VERY RARELY do you need that with this book); it is also a great book to learn how to apply theoretical knowledge into unfamiliar contexts (which, as you know, is VERY IMPORTANT!!!)!

I also used NEAP study guide (it has really neat application questions that actually showed up on exams) AND checkpoints (they actually have original questions here; not just recycled past exams).

[pi]

Study guide -> AN Study Guide

Lectures -> TSFX or Connect

[vashappenin]

I'll defs be getting the AN study guide, and most likely go to connect cos I've had good experiences with them before! But is checkpoints any good to study for SACs and all? Or is the AN study guide just good on its own?

[pi]

Checkpoints has a lot of VCAA questions, which I don't like because I prefer to do VCAA questions towards the end of the year

[nisha]

For chem, I found that Thushan's studyguide is great as well as the (blue) Lisachem book that has revision questions to do. As far as practise exams go, DO THE KILBAHA. I did them nearing the end of my revision and found that a few explain questions in the 2008/2009 exams were actually in the 2011 unit 4 exam.Other than that, try: Neap, Stav, Insight (is a bit easy, but it makes you feel good about yourself), VCAA, CSE (definitely do these).

Connect is the best, afaik.

[vashappenin]

Any thoughts on the Neap smartstudy guide?

[nisha]

I had it for Unit 3, but found the questions a bit simple. Nevertheless, I had studied pretty hard for chem on the hols, so I wouldn't really know. Afaik, writing your own notes, the an study guide, lisachem review questions should be enough alongside with your school textbook.

[ggxoxo]

Study guide -> AN Study Guide

Lectures -> TSFX or Connect

However, for the weekly classes, being both a TSFX and a NEAP student in the past, I enjoyed NEAP Chemistry (with Faye Jeffreys) a lot more! But for holidays lecture, TSFX is the best IMO! It goes for like a couple of days and so they tend to cover things more in detail than NEAP.

[vashappenin]

If you had to choose between Neap smartstudy,  A+ notes and the blue lisachem book, which do you think is most beneficial? I want to buy one of these alongside the AN guide

[charmanderp]

I did them nearing the end of my revision and found that a few explain questions in the 2008/2009 exams were actually in the 2011 unit 4 exam.

Which ones?!

[paulsterio]

Checkpoints, well they're alright, but to be honest, they're just ripped off VCAA questions which you can just find on the VCAA website for free, so if you're asking me if it's worth spending money to get something you can get for free, I would probably say that it's not - that's pretty much common sense isn't it?

Anyways, out of the other ones, I reckon the ATARNotes Exam Study Guide would be the best, it's definitely the most comprehensive out of all study guides and the detailed solutions will help you heaps, plus it's written by one of the best authors going around (i.e. Thushan).

The truth is, I don't think many companies will be releasing books for the 2013 - 2016 Study Design just yet, as ATARNotes are really hoping to be first off the block, but if so, I would say go with NEAP, they're generally pretty good and reputable, Lisachem is generally up there as well, I would take a pick between those two. I honestly think that NEAP books represent terrible value for money, given that you get less than half of what you get with the ATARNotes books, but Lisachem generally is quite decent value.

[nisha]

I did them nearing the end of my revision and found that a few explain questions in the 2008/2009 exams were actually in the 2011 unit 4 exam.

(Image removed from quote.)

Which ones?!

LOL. Yea. I found the 2009 Kilbaha explain questions very similar to the 2011 VCAA exam. They just changed it around, but the fundamentals were the same. I think people generally overlook the Kilbaha for the sciences (and use them generally for methods, spesh and further -and english ones are damn good too). But definitely check them out.

[charmanderp]

From experience A+ Notes is the one that I found most useful. The explanations (goes through the entire course) are really clear and concise, and they definitely helped me understand topics like instrumental analysis, which can be really complex and confusing at first. The questions are very outside the box too, and they help you to reaffirm certain theories and such by making you apply your understanding of chemistry to real life situations, making you think quit a bit.

Definitely grab a copy of the ATAR Notes guides as well; the questions are fantastic (an amalgamation of all of the trickiest and most important questions) and the detailed solutions will highlight any deficiencies in your understanding, as well as give you some fantastic solution pathways, etc.