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What study guides and/or course companions should I get?


Strawberina55

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Hey, guys. Even before I joined the IB, I used to be that person who got the guide for every subject ever. 

But the IB study guides/course companions are really expensive, and not all of them are good. So I wanted to know what study guides/companions you guys liked for any of the subjects in the list below, mainly the sciences. 

My subjects are: 

HL: Biology, Chemistry, English (Language & Literature, Language A) 

SL: French (Ab Initio, Language B), Psychology, Maths 

 

I'm mainly only thinking about guides/companions for the sciences, and maybe Maths SL as well. My teachers (Biology and Chemistry) aren't that good and honestly, I barely understand anything in their class unless I knew about the topic already. I have Pearson's textbooks for Chemistry (HL), Biology (HL), Maths (SL), and Psychology; I have the Cambridge textbooks for Physics (I just bought it because I was interested in the subject. I haven't taken the course.), French, and English Language & Literature. And an Oxford textbook for TOK. 

But yeah, to clarify, I'm mostly interested in guides/companions for Biology HL, Chemistry HL, and MAYBE Maths SL. 

What do you guys recommend from experience? 

Edited by Strawberina55
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First things first, I can't speak for all the courses you mentioned there, as I'm only taking Maths SL out of them.

However, for the languages, you cannot really get a guide. You did not specify which language is your A language and which one is your B, but I assume it's English A and French B. And of course, you didn't say if it's Lang and Lit or Literature only. Either way, both of those courses, just like History, will be built up by your teacher, taking materials from a seemingly endless list of options and possibilities. Sure, you could get a guide for the papers only, but it wouldn't help you all that much: From experience, Lang A classes are just learning how to score well on the papers and discussion of the works you have to read at home in preparation for the classes.

Same goes for French B as well: While there you've got a narrower choice of topics, really you can't do much more to prepare for the classes and for the exams other than doing your homework and actually speaking French. Another thing is, I'm not sure if anyone even makes guides for Lang Bs? I mean, I am personally taking Swedish B, which must be one of the least popular Lang Bs out there, but still, I have not heard of any guides from my classmates taking Spanish, French, Italian or English B... 

And as for Math SL: I own the Cambridge Exam Preparation Guide and well... It is just that. It is not the sort of guide that makes up for your teacher's awful explanations or plain dumbness. It is the sort of guide that you can race through in two days before your final exams and refresh your memory on both the content of the course and common. but avoidable mistakes.

So, overall, all I can say is that I don't think you should or even could get language guides, and if you need a good _exam prep_ guide for maths, get the Cambridge one. For the rest, I sadly don't take those subjects, so I don't really have any firsthand experiences with them. And also, here's one last bit of advice. Just because the X subject book from Y publisher was great, it does not mean all their IB books are great. I have a bunch of Pearson History books, and they are great. Their Physics SL textbook? Not. So. Much. Same goes for Oxford: Their mathbook is generally great with a lot of exercises and available worked solutions. Their Physics textbook though? It's okay, but not nearly as good. So, don't order four-five guides from the same publisher or author just because you have heard one of them is great. And also: Always check out the publishing date and edition of a book before you get it: A Bio or Chem guide for the last syllabus will help you in some areas, but it could seriously **** you up in others...

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10 minutes ago, Rey said:

First things first, I can't speak for all the courses you mentioned there, as I'm only taking Maths SL out of them.

However, for the languages, you cannot really get a guide. You did not specify which language is your A language and which one is your B, but I assume it's English A and French B. And of course, you didn't say if it's Lang and Lit or Literature only. Either way, both of those courses, just like History, will be built up by your teacher, taking materials from a seemingly endless list of options and possibilities. Sure, you could get a guide for the papers only, but it wouldn't help you all that much: From experience, Lang A classes are just learning how to score well on the papers and discussion of the works you have to read at home in preparation for the classes.

Same goes for French B as well: While there you've got a narrower choice of topics, really you can't do much more to prepare for the classes and for the exams other than doing your homework and actually speaking French. Another thing is, I'm not sure if anyone even makes guides for Lang Bs? I mean, I am personally taking Swedish B, which must be one of the least popular Lang Bs out there, but still, I have not heard of any guides from my classmates taking Spanish, French, Italian or English B... 

And as for Math SL: I own the Cambridge Exam Preparation Guide and well... It is just that. It is not the sort of guide that makes up for your teacher's awful explanations or plain dumbness. It is the sort of guide that you can race through in two days before your final exams and refresh your memory on both the content of the course and common. but avoidable mistakes.

So, overall, all I can say is that I don't think you should or even could get language guides, and if you need a good _exam prep_ guide for maths, get the Cambridge one. For the rest, I sadly don't take those subjects, so I don't really have any firsthand experiences with them. And also, here's one last bit of advice. Just because the X subject book from Y publisher was great, it does not mean all their IB books are great. I have a bunch of Pearson History books, and they are great. Their Physics SL textbook? Not. So. Much. Same goes for Oxford: Their mathbook is generally great with a lot of exercises and available worked solutions. Their Physics textbook though? It's okay, but not nearly as good. So, don't order four-five guides from the same publisher or author just because you have heard one of them is great. And also: Always check out the publishing date and edition of a book before you get it: A Bio or Chem guide for the last syllabus will help you in some areas, but it could seriously **** you up in others...

 
 

Sorry! I added all that information up there now. I wasn't very aware of all those things actually. Thank you, though! It'll help me with future queries. 

And yes, I'm not really looking for guides for the languages, It's really just Biology HL, Chemistry HL, and Maths SL that I'm looking at for guides. 

Thanks for the tips! I'll keep those in mind when looking at guides. :) 

Edited by Strawberina55
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Get the Oxford Course Companion for Biology. In conjunction with the Pearson Textbook, which imo is the best for Science subjects, everything's perfect. I personally don't like the use of study guides as we end up making our own personalized study guides anyways in the process of note taking, but the Oxford Course Companion manages to explain things clearly without being overly descriptive as the textbook version tends to be, hence helps with review.

Can't say much about Chemistry as I really only use the Pearson textbook. However, I do get supplement notes from the Cambridge Steve Owen Textbook, which is also pretty good. 

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