I just realized something about Physics Textbooks (1 Viewer)

[coroneos]

It seems to me that ALL Physics textbooks waffle on for agesss on all this irrelevant information: e.g. Contexts 2 and Jacaranda 2.

Why can't some Physics writer come up with a book that is like 100 pages long and has point summaries for each dot point without any EXTRA information??

Why give extra background information in a textbook when questions can ONLY be derived from the 2003 PHYSICS SYLLABUS?

For this reason I have felt that I have not been able to cope with the large amount of information that I must cover because of the superfluous information contained in Contexts and Jacaranda 2.

What do you think? It is a bit late - HSC next week - But still..
Is there a Physics book that I missed out on that I should have bought earlier?

 

[jims]

i think they waffle on so so so much because the author enjoys writing. also, they may also be trying to actually teach the concepts involved, which could not be done by simply following the sillybus.

personally i think this is a good thing because the school teacher generally has a mental capacity equal to or less than the information contained in the textbook; so you should be grateful that there is so much extraneous crap in the textbook, otherwise u would have very boring lessons learning only what you need to know for the HSC.

furthermore, as any avid notetaker would note, there is a great sense of achievement felt after condensing a 40 page chapter into around 8 concise points. i think this may be the main motivation fuelling the author's hand. its not: 'haha im going to really piss these poor sods off', but rather: 'i really want to help these kids feel some achievement in this otherwise pointless persuit of pseudo-physics; i should probably write more.'

 

[+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+]

the surfing books are pretty good on this.. srzly there is like MINIMAL waffle... good summary/revision books.

 

[Rahul]

yes, but do you think reading a summarised thing is enough?

1. the waffle, big chunks of wrtiitng is often important stuff. its just your mind telling you, "boring"
2. reading the whole text will do you wonders, believe me.
3. from scratch, do you think you could learn better from jacarnanda or surfing; got nothin agiainst surfing, top 'revision' books, but nothing is going to beat a big chunky jacarnada!!!

contexts2, yuck!! ;p

 

[bails]

lol agreed

 

[littlemic21]

hmmm if someone published a book with answers to syllabus dot points and updated them as the new syllabi came out... do you think they would sell good?

 

[Rahul]

well it could work well....at first

but, after people realise that making own notes is the best way, then those books would go down!

 

[littlemic21]

damn there goes my money making idea

 

[saki_saska]

trust me

:wave: So the thing is, read thru excel, get notes off your teacher, make your own dot point analysis and do past papers

 

[deyveed]

Excel has minimum waffle

 

[Rahul]

yes, waffle is good but, esp jacaranda waffle!

 

[+:: $i[Q]u3 ::+]

waffle makes it mildly interesting (only mildly, mind you) - and sometimes u read something kinda important - and u might remember it, and that might help u in exams.

 

[Rahul]

yep, its waffle, only relative to our psyche

 

[Shoey]

Don't know about textbooks, but that dot-point summary can be found on the web at:

http://www.hsc.csu.edu.au

and follow the links to physics.

 

[Shoey]

Also, the 'Revise In A Month' books have nice dot point summaries (except you will have to read extra stuff, like the practicals and the longer-response type questions).

BTW, the excel book is available for download on this site.

 

[tonberry_kun]

waffle is good cuz it actually helps u remember things... "like this goes with that" etc... and it starts the train of thought...

then u make ur own summaries/dot point notes u study for ur exams, its way better making your own because when u read someone else's u tend to scim through it really fast thinking "yehyeh i know this..." then when u go into an exam... its all goneee

 

[ezzy85]

the reason they woffle on is because the syllabus is stupid and its almost impossible to write a book covering the syllabus without knowing the background. you cant explain most of the crap we learn just through dot points and a short 100 page summary.

 

[freaking_out]

Originally posted by ezzy85
the reason they woffle on is because the syllabus is stupid and its almost impossible to write a book covering the syllabus without knowing the background. you cant explain most of the crap we learn just through dot points and a short 100 page summary.

yeah, i agree, also if u wanna get ahead of the state, it is always gonna b betta to have more knowledge up ya sleeve, coz examiners don't have to necessarily ask exact syllabus points.

 

[Rahul]

it will be related to the syllabus, some q's may be worded differently or in a hard way.
they cant ask for anything unrelated to the syllabus.
although, people who have read the 'waffle' will benefit for some sections as chances are they would have a better understanding.

 

[slyball]

ich mchte essen...

mmmmmm....
waffel, waffel, waffel!

textbooks that waffle are beneficial to you if you remember it all.