Maths textbooks (1 Viewer)

[slinky]

i am currently using groves and just obtained fitzpatrick. i know that grove is very basic so i obtained fitzpatrick from my teacher to do over the holidays. i tried to get cambridge and coroneous of my teacher but they didnt hav any. so i got fitzpatrick instead.can u please tell me if fitzpatrick is any good. and if i need different textbooks cause i dont really know if they are helpful for the hsc exam. any comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[gman03]

Slinky, from my personal experience fitzpatrick is sufficient for your study, as long as you do those excercises. Don't be tempted to possess many textbooks and like 50 past papers and in the end just figure out you don't have time to do them.

 

[...]

yea

do fitz
i didn't use fitz for high school, i used the couchman (back of book has errors in them, but the exercise helps)

and for revision, try to use that phoneix past paper by topic

and just before HSC exam, just do past paper and ur set

 

[Estel]

It makes no damn difference whatever textbook you use (provided you don't use Maths in Focus). The important thing is you actually get some practice and feel confident when you do practice papers. (i.e. what gman said).

 

[:: ck ::]

well actually i would say doing fitz is good enuff

in my opinon, best txtbook [for questions.. definately not for explanations though]

oh and when doin inverse trig chapter.. theres more errors in this chapter than the others...

 

[redruM]

do about 20+ past papers (at least)

 

[kpq_sniper017]

fitzpatrick is good.
but u need cambridge to supplement it - they go pretty well together coz they both have difficult questions and pretty good explanations.
only problem with cambridge is that u probably have to buy both books coz some of the hsc stuff is in the yr11 book.

 

[Slidey]

My teacher uses Maths In Focus for the 2 and 3 unit prelim courses. He says it is awful. Is he correct? I have the 3and 4 unit Fitzpatrick books, as well as the Excel ones, but nobody else in the class does.

I guess I should ignore MIF and just use Fitzpatrick?

 

[dark`secrets]

we have both the couchman and fitzpatrick

try phoenix textbooks, they are said to be good.

 

[ameh]

We use couchmann for 3u but for 2u its MIF

 

[kpq_sniper017]

Originally posted by Slide Rule
My teacher uses Maths In Focus for the 2 and 3 unit prelim courses. He says it is awful. Is he correct? I have the 3and 4 unit Fitzpatrick books, as well as the Excel ones, but nobody else in the class does.

I guess I should ignore MIF and just use Fitzpatrick?

my teacher says MIF is awful too...in relation to both the difficulty of the questions and the sequence of work.

i don't think couchman is that good either. MIF and couchman are probably better for an intro. to a topic, then u'd use fitz and cambridge for reinforcement/harder qs. i would then use excel to revise and for extra questions. then finish with past papers.

 

[slinky]

thanks for all your suggestions & help people.

 

[Zarathustra]

Having compared both MIF and Cambridge - I would agree whole heartedly with pcx - MIF is too easy for 3 Unit - you must do harder questions to have any chance of going well in 3U. The order of the topics in Cambridge is also much more logical and gives you a better understanding of the course as a whole. Much of the course that seemed difficult to me was due to it being taught in a weird order. For example, the t-results and subsidiart angle being taught before inverse-trig or even trig functions. Cambridge puts all of the calculus in the prelim and builds from there - MIF is all over the place. It does have decent examples and explanantions for intro (as has been previously mentioned).
MIF is not completely terrible - I think the reason for the dislike comes from students thinking they have mastered something because they can ace MIF - then realising it ain't so

 

[MoNNiE]

i'd agree

..
i think if u were in need for difficult questions or u want more to do, try to get hold of the cambridge one. we used it at school [i made a photo copy version myself...note. do not ever trty doing it unless u went on a wacked photocopying machine like me]

 

[kpq_sniper017]

i agree that MIF can't be totally disregarded. it has a few interesting questions. however, i think the only section you'll find those in is the "challenge" section. apart from that, they aren't very challenging.

but then again, every textbook has its positive and negative aspects and are better suited to particular people.

btw. i think coroneos (despite the bad layout) is a good source of difficult questions for some topics as well.

 

[velox]

MIF has good explanations but the questions are piss easy

 

[Cutieangel]

I am using the Maths in Focus textbook for 2 U maths... is Maths in Focus that bad? Doesn't it help you at all? However, other than the questions from that textbook... I do extra questions... from other textbooks..

 

[Zeitgeist]

Oh, I learnt all my trig from MIF and then I started using Fitzpatrick. MIF teaches you all the basics about the subjects: how to use the formula correctly, what the formulae are, usually why the formulae are. But once you've gottent that down pat, you really need to be going onto Fitz or the lick to do the harder questions.

 

[kpq_sniper017]

I am using the Maths in Focus textbook for 2 U maths... is Maths in Focus that bad? Doesn't it help you at all? However, other than the questions from that textbook... I do extra questions... from other textbooks..

it can help to a certain extent, up till the point where u find the questions too easy. if you want to succeed, u need to challenge urself. and this can't really be done with MIF....only with a book like fitz.

 

[Zarathustra]

...or Cambridge and past papers.