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HL Textbooks


chokophilia

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As I told you before, I am using the Cambridge textbooks and find them really good. The questions are hard enough to challenge you and the way the textbooks explain stuffs is good as I can understand it. Well yes the contents are a bit messed up but who cares if the content is good? The induction chapter is also good, the words they put as the conclusion are clear and coherent. Plus they also give some introduction for some chapters so we could recall what we have probably learned before. Now what do you want to know about the books?? If I cannot give a good review, I would go and ask my teacher's opinion to her experience with the books.

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As I told you before, I am using the Cambridge textbooks and find them really good. The questions are hard enough to challenge you and the way the textbooks explain stuffs is good as I can understand it. Well yes the contents are a bit messed up but who cares if the content is good? The induction chapter is also good, the words they put as the conclusion are clear and coherent. Plus they also give some introduction for some chapters so we could recall what we have probably learned before. Now what do you want to know about the books?? If I cannot give a good review, I would go and ask my teacher's opinion to her experience with the books.

Is it possible for you to scan me a few pages from the textbook so I could have a sample of it. They have a sample online, but it's pointless in my opinion. Could you please scan Chapter 13 - Tangents and Normals (pg 199), since it's only 4 pages. Answers would be a bonus. I want to see how difficult the questions are, in addition to how well they can explain the content. Thank you.

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Well I have just got a scanner but I haven't tried to use it. Maybe I should be able to scan them and send you by this weekend at the latest :) well if the scanner works.

Anyway I asked my math teacher about this, for you, already. She commented the explanation in the Cambridge books are good enough for us to understand; but for our age, she said that Haese & Harris book would be a better one, in terms of its illustrations, color, examples, etc. She said that the Cambridge's contents are, yes, messed up, but its good, and it's still cheaper than maybe the H&H book (I cant remember which book she was comparing it to).

It is all up to you, though. But before you are thinking to, please do not ask me to scan the whole books so you dont need to buy them xP LOL

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Well I have just got a scanner but I haven't tried to use it. Maybe I should be able to scan them and send you by this weekend at the latest :) well if the scanner works.

Anyway I asked my math teacher about this, for you, already. She commented the explanation in the Cambridge books are good enough for us to understand; but for our age, she said that Haese & Harris book would be a better one, in terms of its illustrations, color, examples, etc. She said that the Cambridge's contents are, yes, messed up, but its good, and it's still cheaper than maybe the H&H book (I cant remember which book she was comparing it to).

It is all up to you, though. But before you are thinking to, please do not ask me to scan the whole books so you dont need to buy them xP LOL

Yeah, I think I might just buy both the Pearson and Cambridge books for HL Math, plus the OSC revision guide. The main reason is so that I have many questions, and since people say HL math is hard, I don't want to regret not buying the book later on.

And don't worry, I won't ask you to scan the whole book. :) Only 4-5 pages. :)

This weekend would be great! Thank you. :sadnod:

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  • 1 month later...

Hey guys, just started IB, and our school recommends the 'Harris and Haese Mathematics for the International Student (HL)' book. What do you guys think about this book?

I heard it's good. At least it's colorful and good for students like us who need some mental entertainment which are the colors in the book :P

It's a good book, really. Don't be afraid, though. A good teacher will teach you to hell and back even if the book is dull.

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  • 3 months later...

My school provides us with the Haese & Harris which I find is good but some of the problems are not as challenging as those which I have seen on the actual IB exams. I got a hold of the Oxford book as well as the IBID and those are very good for the amount/toughness of questions but the oxford one does have a few typos here and there. The IBID one is good for questions but the explanations and lay-out of the textbook isn't as good as some of the other textbooks. My personal favourite is the Pearson Baccalaureate book which combines good explanation with good questions. If you want the best available book, Pearson is the way to go. You can easily get a hold of H&H, the oxford book as well as the IBID book, however, you will probably have to buy the Pearson book.

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@wrcr87 i think you might be able to find a copy of the H&H textbook online somewhere. As for the exam prep/practice guide i havent really worked through those but a friend of mine actually bought them and said that they were helpful but nothing beats the pearson HL textbook.

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  • 5 weeks later...

For me, i think that the Cambridge book is the best. I bought it because my school is using the haesse and harris book, and i don't like it because its question are easy and don't prepare you for the real examinations.

I heard that the oxford book is great,

My question is which book is better: Oxford or Cambridge?

Edited by Desy ♫
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I heard that the oxford book is great,

My question is which book is better: Oxford or Cambridge?

I have both books. I use Cambridge textbooks at school and have Oxford ebook in my laptop. I never bring my Math TB home unless I have a HW from the textbook so I sometimes use the Oxford book too.

I haven't covered that many of chapters, but my teacher doesn't use the textbook to teach. only for exercises. I also have read only some chapters in the ebook. So I don't know both books that well.

However I do like both books. There are some stuffs I can find in one but not in the other, so it's good that I have both textbooks. They are kind of complementary and it's good to study from both.

I can't tell which one is better, but both are good IMO. just the Cambridge set has 2 books and both are thick (i.e. heavy), making me not want to bring them home. I heard the Oxford one has some mistakes, but not major ones. I suggest you to get both if you feel like it :P

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We used the IBID book for core and a Cambridge one for the option (sets, relations and groups). I like the IBID book - it's got pretty good explanations and an ebook version attached (I personally prefer studying from the ebook). The option textbook is for me rather confusing and I don't recomend it as the only source of knowledge.

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Just to put this out there, I use the Oxford HL Maths textbook, and it has quite a few errors in the answers at the back of the textbook as well as errors in the questions. This wasn't simply spotted by us, but our teacher acknowedged this as a fact. I think a revised version would be better.

Some questions for the Trig Identities in the excersises are impossible to do. If I were you, I'd not go for the Oxford HL Maths texbook and instead opt for the Cambridge one.

Edited by nametaken
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  • 3 weeks later...

The Haese and Harris one is decent, but a little too simple at times. The IBID book provides more realistic examples - I liked that one quite a lot. It had good, detailed explanations as well. The Cambridge one was alright for my option (Series and Diff.) if not a little excessive.

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is the Oxford press for HL useless?is not good for preparing you at the exam?

because i am always wondering that my maths is that easy in the class and then other students always say is very hard...and i am not a genius so i dont know...any help

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is the Oxford press for HL useless?is not good for preparing you at the exam?

because i am always wondering that my maths is that easy in the class and then other students always say is very hard...and i am not a genius so i dont know...any help

No, I think the Oxford textbook isn't useless in preparing you for the exams. None of the textbooks are. The good thing about the Oxford one, in my opinion is that it has a lot more context to it. What I mean by this is that it has brief histories of the topics in the book (eg. mathematicians who helped develop ideas, theorems).

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