Which textbook to choose from? (1 Viewer)

[Dzeeshr]

Which Extension 2 textbook do I choose from out of :

Cambridge
Maths in Focus
New Senior Maths
Terry Lee
Steve Howard

- We have just started Vectors and I am going to learn ahead for Integration and Mechanics so I can get into exam prep super early. What textbook is the best for imparting the concepts onto me whilst elevating and proving challenging at the same time?
I just don't want to stick with the wrong one and not realise the other one could be better. and I don't really want to flick between them too much for learning because it can get annoying.

any suggestions appreciated

 

[Dzeeshr]

Steve Howard, Cambridge, Maths In Focus and Flitz Patrick New Senior Maths are all really good in my opinion. You won't regret choosing any of them. But I think using Steve Howard might be the best, according to my friend it is the best one and they did get band E4 in both 4unit and 3unit Maths.

Thanks for your response! I'll see if anyone has any other recommendations and if not then I'll stick it through with Steve Howard for my main TB.

 

[deepthought]

My two cents (I'm doing 3u and 4u this year and going alright but this advice is also from people I've spoken to); cambridge is the best 'textbook' if that's what you're looking for. Howard maths has some interesting problems and explanations, but tbh I don't think the rest are that valuable.
Carrotsticks made an excellent textbook for 3u and 4u called mastering mathematics or something like that and it's really good; not really a textbook tbh but more a catalogue/exercises of classic and hard problems for each point in the syllabus.
And on the whole, while a textbook has its value I kinda feel that just doing past paper questions is a lot better practice than any textbook can give, simply because it's way more reflective of the test and will push your thinking in the space you need to be in to do well in 4u.
So for what you're planning to do I'd just go with cambridge for learning the content (+ mcgrathematics/wootube is a solid yt option), and then perhaps do some of the carrotsticks questions and the harder mid to end of exercise cambridge qs but not spend a lot of time on those and instead dive into past paper trials or topic tests (plus other random 4u stuff that floats around on the internet) and pull out relevant questions.

 

[Dzeeshr]

My two cents (I'm doing 3u and 4u this year and going alright but this advice is also from people I've spoken to); cambridge is the best 'textbook' if that's what you're looking for. Howard maths has some interesting problems and explanations, but tbh I don't think the rest are that valuable.
Carrotsticks made an excellent textbook for 3u and 4u called mastering mathematics or something like that and it's really good; not really a textbook tbh but more a catalogue/exercises of classic and hard problems for each point in the syllabus.
And on the whole, while a textbook has its value I kinda feel that just doing past paper questions is a lot better practice than any textbook can give, simply because it's way more reflective of the test and will push your thinking in the space you need to be in to do well in 4u.
So for what you're planning to do I'd just go with cambridge for learning the content (+ mcgrathematics/wootube is a solid yt option), and then perhaps do some of the carrotsticks questions and the harder mid to end of exercise cambridge qs but not spend a lot of time on those and instead dive into past paper trials or topic tests (plus other random 4u stuff that floats around on the internet) and pull out relevant questions.

Hey , thanks for your response! Yes, hitting trial papers is my absolute goal. I think I'll stick with Cambridge, learn the rest of the course from there and yes as you said digest past papers + an array of challenging questions across the web. Thanks for all your suggestions, I really appreciate it, I'll keep them all in mind!

 

[Dzeeshr]

My two cents (I'm doing 3u and 4u this year and going alright but this advice is also from people I've spoken to); cambridge is the best 'textbook' if that's what you're looking for. Howard maths has some interesting problems and explanations, but tbh I don't think the rest are that valuable.
Carrotsticks made an excellent textbook for 3u and 4u called mastering mathematics or something like that and it's really good; not really a textbook tbh but more a catalogue/exercises of classic and hard problems for each point in the syllabus.
And on the whole, while a textbook has its value I kinda feel that just doing past paper questions is a lot better practice than any textbook can give, simply because it's way more reflective of the test and will push your thinking in the space you need to be in to do well in 4u.
So for what you're planning to do I'd just go with cambridge for learning the content (+ mcgrathematics/wootube is a solid yt option), and then perhaps do some of the carrotsticks questions and the harder mid to end of exercise cambridge qs but not spend a lot of time on those and instead dive into past paper trials or topic tests (plus other random 4u stuff that floats around on the internet) and pull out relevant questions.

Oh, is mastering mathematics a textbook I actually have to buy?

 

[deepthought]

Oh, is mastering mathematics a textbook I actually have to buy?

Yeah it exists as a hard copy that you buy, although there are scanned online copies floating around.

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Which Extension 2 textbook do I choose from out of :

Cambridge
Maths in Focus
New Senior Maths
Terry Lee
Steve Howard

- We have just started Vectors and I am going to learn ahead for Integration and Mechanics so I can get into exam prep super early. What textbook is the best for imparting the concepts onto me whilst elevating and proving challenging at the same time?
I just don't want to stick with the wrong one and not realise the other one could be better. and I don't really want to flick between them too much for learning because it can get annoying.

any suggestions appreciated

maths in focus is ass vro

just use cambridge
perhaps terry lee/mastering maths for some harder qns if u so desire

 

[aeternus]

Which Extension 2 textbook do I choose from out of :

Cambridge
Maths in Focus
New Senior Maths
Terry Lee
Steve Howard

- We have just started Vectors and I am going to learn ahead for Integration and Mechanics so I can get into exam prep super early. What textbook is the best for imparting the concepts onto me whilst elevating and proving challenging at the same time?
I just don't want to stick with the wrong one and not realise the other one could be better. and I don't really want to flick between them too much for learning because it can get annoying.

any suggestions appreciated

Cambridge and Mastering Mathematics are the best ones in my opinion, Cambridge is obviously good and Mastering Mathematics has some insanely good questions. I can send you a free PDF if you want the MM textbook

 

[Dzeeshr]

Cambridge and Mastering Mathematics are the best ones in my opinion, Cambridge is obviously good and Mastering Mathematics has some insanely good questions. I can send you a free PDF if you want the MM textbook

Thanks for your response- I have just done the nearly all exercises of Cambridge Vectors and I like the flow of it a lot so I’ll stick to it. And yeah, if you can send the MM over it would be awesome!

 

[aeternus]

Send me your Email so I can send it to you

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Cambridge and Mastering Mathematics are the best ones in my opinion, Cambridge is obviously good and Mastering Mathematics has some insanely good questions. I can send you a free PDF if you want the MM textbook

mastering maths also has some very out of syllabus questions

still good tho

 

[Dzeeshr]

mastering maths also has some very out of syllabus questions

still good tho

Bad in the fact it makes me learn more stuff that isn’t relevant to the hsc?
or good in the sense that it may increase my problem solving capacity to answer those Q15 and 16’s?
Or neutral, it won’t really help to do them?

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Bad in the fact it makes me learn more stuff that isn’t relevant to the hsc?
or good in the sense that it may increase my problem solving capacity to answer those Q15 and 16’s?
Or neutral, it won’t really help to do them?

i never even said it was bad what

some of the stuff is somewhat not useful but a lot of it is still worth doin

 

[aeternus]

mastering maths also has some very out of syllabus questions

still good tho

Not really, only some of the vectors questions involve planes (out of syllabus) but Cambridge and Terry Lee both include it. It is undoubtably the best textbook, tied with Cambridge

 

[WeiWeiMan]

Not really, only some of the vectors questions involve planes (out of syllabus) but Cambridge and Terry Lee both include it. It is undoubtably the best textbook, tied with Cambridge

there's also cross product and lowkey a lot of OOS integrals
still nice to know ofc

 

[Dzeeshr]

i never even said it was bad what

some of the stuff is somewhat not useful but a lot of it is still worth doin

Sorry, your little rose emoji made the intention of your comment ambiguous to me

 

[RZ1234]

Cambridge and Mastering Mathematics are the best ones in my opinion, Cambridge is obviously good and Mastering Mathematics has some insanely good questions. I can send you a free PDF if you want the MM textbook

A Note on PDFs: The user in the screenshot mentions sending a "free PDF." Please be aware that sharing or downloading copyrighted textbooks via unofficial PDFs often violates copyright laws and the terms of service of many educational platforms. It is always best to use official digital versions provided by your school or the publisher.

 

[s_0]

 

[aeternus]

A Note on PDFs: The user in the screenshot mentions sending a "free PDF." Please be aware that sharing or downloading copyrighted textbooks via unofficial PDFs often violates copyright laws and the terms of service of many educational platforms. It is always best to use official digital versions provided by your school or the publisher.

My appologies