What on earth is a bound reference?

[nerdmmb]

Is it just a book version of a "cheat sheet" that covers the entire course? I'm confused. 

[achre]

Pretty much, yeah. You compile it throughout the year and you can take it into the exam/your SACs. The process of building it tends to be more handy than actually using it in the exam, you just include worked solutions to problems you found difficult, rules that you personally have trouble remembering, CAS tips, glued in pages from past exams/SACs, stuff like that.
Edit: though there are a bunch of VCAA restrictions on the form of your bound reference. You should check with your teacher that your book is fine before you start it.

[Zealous]

Something you shouldn't need in an exam if you're adequately prepared =p

(there usually isn't much time available during an exam to look through many pages of a bound reference due to the difficulty and length of the paper...)

[nerdmmb]

Something you shouldn't need in an exam if you're adequately prepared =p

(there usually isn't much time available during an exam to look through many pages of a bound reference due to the difficulty and length of the paper...)

That is so true. I honestly don't remember the last time I used my cheat sheet- not that I scored well either but I think it just increases students' confidence.

[Thorium]

Personally, I am ADDICTED to doing my bound refererence or preparing notes for any subject, for even the subjects that do not require bound reference. If I dont do my bound reference first, I simply dont feel like doing the exercises. Although it is vastly time consuming, I think it is quite worth It. I usually read the book at home and write the important points down. As the teachers have a limited amount of time in class, they tend to neglect some of the minor informations. So reading the book and writing down notes can avoid missing out on those infos, which might become very important when u get stuck with some questions. Besides this, it is quicker to refer to ur bound book rather than spending minutes tuning back and forth in the text book. And one of the major purposes of having a bound book is to have some of the tricky questions on them or having a "danger zone" section where u can have dot points about some of the reasons why silly mistakes can be made.

Different people have different learning styles, so I cant really state that you must have a bound reference, but I sort of find it vital for myself for getting good scores.

[vox nihili]

Those who have the best bound references, often find that they need it the least.

[Einstein]

it helps consolidate your knowledge every night after you've learnt a concept, then you can go into chapter questions to further consolidate it. Great resource