MIF (1 Viewer)

[Drsoccerball]

Can someone explain the jokes and innuendo's made about MIF i kind of get it but not the ful story ahaha can someone explain?

 

[integral95]

It's the band 6 text book brah

 

[Drsoccerball]

Im guessing a bunch of unco mathematicians got together and made the book :L?

 

[Ekman]

It's the band 6 text book brah

*State ranking

Im guessing a bunch of unco mathematicians got together and made the book :L?

Are you kidding me? Its a state ranking textbook made by state rankers, for state rankers. I heard that it won the 2015 New York Times Bestseller.

 

[Squar3root]

it's a really really good book used by the top students

 

[Squar3root]

inb4enigma

 

[mreditor16]

On a more serious note, I think these posts would give some insights into MIF and also clarify the treatment of it on BOS -

My school uses only MIF for 2u and we manage to get around 15 b6's every year.
It's not the best of course but it's not 'useless'. If used alongside past papers it should be fine.
It really depends on the skills of the individual though, if they can handle more difficult questions from like Cambridge then by all means they should, but otherwise MIF caters well for the below average to average student

I've been meaning to say what Swaan said (very on-point above) for a while now - I too reckon the hate of MIF is a bit excessive. Yes, it might not be the best textbook to help above average students boost their marks etc, but for relatively weaker students who are struggling to get right the more straightforward questions, MIF is a useful resource, because Cambridge and the like don't have enough of such questions. Such struggling students would be confused and mind-boggled by the sophisticated and more complex questions in textbooks such as Cambridge. So could the hate for MIF be toned down a bit please - it is actually a more useful textbook for some students (e.g. Band 4 and below) and less useful for others (e.g. Band 5 and above).

I can agree with swan .

This is because when I was doing notes and questions from Cambridge .... I honestly found it a huge struggle .

MIF Helped me build up my knowledge base to a level where I could attempt harder questions .
*personal anecdote *

My brother used MIF

Mathematics HSC Mark: 97

Mathematics Extension 1 HSC Mark: 47 / 50

Cambridge for 2unit is ideal. It has the skills section, development then challenge. But if you guys are talking about 3 unit and higher then...idk

What's wrong with telling people to not use MIF?

Some people don't know that it's a really basic textbook and then they do their school exams and wonder why the questions were so hard and ones that they'd never come across. It's mainly for people who are unaware that there are better textbooks out there than those provided by their school. For people that struggle with maths, there are several factors which might have caused this including the useless education system from kindy to year 6 and teachers not suited to teaching higher level maths.

I know many people who were capable at doing really well in maths, but using mif gave them a false impression of exam difficulty and as a result, didn't do as well as they could. Yes, people can do numerous past papers and still do really well using MIF but some people simply don't even know that past papers exist. Seriously, people at my school starting getting overexcited when my maths teachers provided some western regions past papers. *facepalm*

There's no harm in informing people, whether or not they choose to take the advice is entirely up to them.

In some of the threads, MIF is strongly presented as an utterly hopless textbook that is useful for no students, and if you use it, you're going to "fail". That's some pretty unfair treatment and stereotyping of the book as a resource for HSC students.

Well then clearly it's an exaggeration. Hyperbole can be used to prove a point.

~ hsc english ~

I actually agree with this. Sure, MIF may not be a textbook that matches completely the HSC standard of questions, but nevertheless it serves as very good foundational knowledge before tackling harder textbooks like Cambridge, for some-tackling Cambridge straight away can be disheartening. To be honest, I used MIF in year 11 to study HSC maths course-and I honestly don't think it deserves to be slammed so much-and I did not fail my HSC maths, so really, different resources works for different people, and past papers will always be the best indication of HSC standards-no need to overwhelmingly promote hate sentiments towards MIF or implicitly see people who use it as inferior or stupid or something along those lines.



Whilst I acknowledge your good intentions and personal experience, the only deficit in your argument about telling people not to use MIF is you don't consider/present the possibility of the other side of the story as well-this can potentially present a limited, subjective, albeit possibly true, but non-holistic view of MIF as universal fact when it is not.

I think that it's hated on because of the fact that most BoSers here are Band 5 - 6 students and hence are more likely to have used / use higher order textbooks such as Cambridge which makes MIF questions look a lot easier

To be honest I think its got more to do with the user than the actual resource itself

^ If you're given the best resources in the world it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll get the best marks; you have to learn how to use these resources most effectively

I was coming 86 / 120 in preliminary Physics last year (I cringe evrytiem) and I am now in the top 10 without any tuition

The only thing that changed from then and now is my ability to use my resources more effectively (i.e. I started doing the plethora of past papers available on BoSers dropboxs, etc.)

I think the point here is that regardless of what textbook you use, the point of study is that it should not be easy - it should be challenging and help you work on areas you need to strengthen. The only thing that should ideally feel easy is the exam, when your answers actually count. If someone is challenged and feels that they are learning from what others consider a relatively "easy" textbook/past paper, then good on them. The problem arises when people think that if they've got 100% on a practice exam, then they've done well. It's great, but you've learned nothing doing it. As long as people use relevant material that teaches them useful new things, it's good.

Same thing applies to studying from something too difficult right away. You won't be learning from it because you can't process it. Gotta always be able to take a new skill away from your studies, which means studying at a level appropriate to you.

That's why a "best" study resource does not exist - nothing is one size fits all.

Yeah, well all this is based on assumptions. We're assuming all BOSers fall under that category. What about a BOSer who has newly signed up, is struggling immensely, is getting 25/100 in past papers and then when asking on a thread about how to improve, they get an answer of "Use Cambridge. Ditch MIF". That student will probably we worse off after implementing the suggestions provided by other users. In my opinion, little time/consideration is being given to the specific circumstances of the individual, instead we seem to be proceeding with sweeping generalisations.

Take what you want from these posts, I just thought I'd link you the posts, since a discussion was had about this a while back.

 

[astroman]

Most ppl think the book doesn't provide hard enough questions so BOS has developed a hate against it

 

[porcupinetree]

I used MIF last year when I did accelerated 2U - it was the school's suggested/prescribed text so I didn't really think to get another book. Was a bit stupid of me - MIF is loaded with tons and tons of easy, pointless questions and has the worst formatting imaginable (~8cm margins on every page??)

 

[Speed6]

I'll admit that I use MIF- my school uses it and I have to follow. But what I do is I use independent past papers with it as well as some other resources such as excel and Cambridge for extra revision.

 

[Chris_S]

Every single person who has gotten a band 6 ever in the history of HSC maths has used MIF and used it as their bible! Follow the legacy!

 

[Drsoccerball]

Every single person who has gotten a band 6 ever in the history of HSC maths has used MIF and used it as their bible! Follow the legacy!

I didnt (which is probably why i got a band 6)

 

[Speed6]

I didnt (which is probably why i got a band 6)

huehuehue

 

[enigma_1]

Mif is a fucking joke

 

[enigma_1]

Every single person who has gotten a band 6 ever in the history of HSC maths has used MIF and used it as their bible! Follow the legacy!

wanna fkn die

 

[Flop21]

Can someone explain the jokes and innuendo's made about MIF i kind of get it but not the ful story ahaha can someone explain?

It's an overused joke that's not really that funny.




MIF doesn't have a range of harder questions. Their questions seem to cut off at quite an easy level. Which is fine if you're just using it to learn. But obviously if you want to be prepared for the HSC you need to do more difficult questions.

 

[Queenroot]

It's Math cancer

 

[sy37]

Why do people say cambridge is harder than maths in focus? I struggled so hard when I did 2 unit because maths in focus explanations were *absolute horseshit*. I finally understood maths when I found out other textbooks like cambridge existed thanks to enigma mainly, lol. I learnt so much and actually UNDERSTOOD what I was doing, particularly for the sin/cos/tan identities that literally looked harder than hieroglyphics to me. Unfortunately it was too late by that time for me to catch up, and MIF completely fucked me over so I dropped to general. It's the one my class uses too. The highest 2 unit mark was around 53%, not counting the extension kids who all went tutoring. Seriously, do yourself a favour and get cambridge. MIF is bad in every way comparable.