Study Guide Help

[mandy]

Hi, I'm gonna be in Year 12 next year, so I thought I'd get a headstart on all my subjects in the holidays and get study guides. There are so many to choose from and I have no idea which ones to pick. I'll probably get them from Academic & General, and have no idea what they have there. What would you recommend for my subjects?

- English;
  Context: Conflict
- Chemistry
- Specialist Math
- Math Methods
- Further Math

Thank you so much :]

[GerrySly]

I found Insight good for English. For Spec and Methods just doing a buttload of questions worked for me, maybe try that before you buy books?

[THem]

I'd probably recommend you get them off ebay/vce forums and stuff because a lot of people buy it, barely use it and end up re-selling.

English - I used insight encountering conflict study guide. They had a lot of good ideas/notes and exercises to try and get you to make your own intrepretations/ideas but I couldn't be bothered doing it. Used NEAP one also and it probably isn't worth it to get both. Basically, you can use this to get ideas/sample essays but in the end, the most effective thing will be the exercises that try and get you to broaden your intreptation,understanding and analysis of the text/context.

Specialist - Probably just textbook and exams would be sufficient. If you have the time ( finish the course early), you could probably go through A+ notes, exam busters, leading edge exercises, A+ exams but your first priority should just be the textbook, checkpoints ( if you want) and exams.

Methods - Found that the textbook and checkpoints and exams was sufficient. A+ notes wasn't too bad.
Basically for the maths subjects, i'd just say textbook to understand + do questions and then checkpoints + exams to improve. The other stuff may/may not help. EG: I did the A+ exam books and I found that it was practically useless.
I dunno how much time you're gonna spend on year 12 but if you managed to finish the course early, then you would probably have time to do all the extra exam revision books.

[mandy]

I found Insight good for English. For Spec and Methods just doing a buttload of questions worked for me, maybe try that before you buy books?

Would Insight be only for the context bit? Or are there seperate books for each novel? Yeah, I'm gonna do the questions while looking at study guides, haha. I hope that works too.

For spesh, I have this years A+ notes and checkpoints already. I'm using the Heinemann books for the maths, so is that enough in terms of textbooks?

[jimmy999]

I found Insight good for English. For Spec and Methods just doing a buttload of questions worked for me, maybe try that before you buy books?

Would Insight be only for the context bit? Or are there seperate books for each novel? Yeah, I'm gonna do the questions while looking at study guides, haha. I hope that works too.

For spesh, I have this years A+ notes and checkpoints already. I'm using the Heinemann books for the maths, so is that enough in terms of textbooks?

Depends on the company who made them. I got my English study guides from Leading Edge, and for Context, they were for each individual novel. Personally I found the Leading Edge books to be really useful. Also you could consider getting Checkpoints for English. It offers some great tips for writing

[mandy]

If I buy the study guides second hand, will the content be much different?

[naved_s9994]

No ofcourse not!
 

[THem]

If I buy the study guides second hand, will the content be much different?

Should be the same. I think they made a study guide to cover 3-4 years ( before the study design gets re-evaluated)

[mandy]

No ofcourse not!
 

If I buy the study guides second hand, will the content be much different?

Should be the same. I think they made a study guide to cover 3-4 years ( before the study design gets re-evaluated)

Okay, good. Thank you.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Chemistry: I like Checkpoints and A+ notes. I didn't even do any textbook questions, just Checkpoints all year. A+ notes is a pretty useful summary.

Methods: As someone who sucks at Maths I found Exambusters useful. It's basically a supercharged examiner's report. I found the real examiner's report skipped too many steps and I couldn't really understand anything >_> Checkpoints might be more helpful if you're good at Maths.

[mandy]

Is exambusters only for the previous year's exam paper or theory and qn format?

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Is exambusters only for the previous year's exam paper or theory and qn format?

it doesn't really have a normal theory section like A+ notes, it mainly goes through lots of old VCAA qns (divided by topic) and gives a more methodical way to do the questions, and shows things to look out for etc. It also has lots of tips for solving using calc, which is nice. There are some questions to do as well but checkpoints would be better for that purpose.

[mandy]

Oh, Exambusters sounds good. Does it have ones for Chem as well? Or just maths?

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Oh, Exambusters sounds good. Does it have ones for Chem as well? Or just maths?

They have Chem too but I find it lacking. It's like, half the thickness and not quite as in depth as the Methods ones. A+ notes is probably better for Chem. Also due to the nature of Chem something like A+ notes which covers theory would be better than Exambusters which covers technique more.

[mandy]

Alrighttt, thanks SmRandmAzn :]