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Textbook and Study Guide


youngbloodz

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My teacher told me that an IB study guide would be very helpful going through Chemistry and I started looking online for a book. But, when I look on Half.com, there are two books for IB Chemistry, a course companion made in 2010, and a study guide made in 2007. I was wondering which is the better one to get in order to study for the IB exam and assist with explaining concepts. I am not sure what the differences are between the course companion and the study guide, so I need to know which one is better to buy. If it helps, I'm taking SL Chemistry and the teacher is very good but there are a few topics where I need to refresh on from Chemistry I (Sophomore Year).

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Buy the revision guide it is concise and brilliant. Admittedly if has a few spurs of missing elementes from the syllabus but is so much more of an efficient way to revise than the companion guide. The companion guide for bio and chem are in my opinion dull and very long winded. I suggest therefore : SYLLABUS, REVISION GUIDE and REFERENCING FROM INTERNET or another book such as the pearson baccalaureate one which is heavenly. DO as I say and you'll be top notch. This is for learning the stuff after this you'd have to past paper'it' like a BITCH :)

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Well the problem isn't really learning the topics and concepts, like I said, I have a really good teacher. It's just that there are a few topics which she expects us to remember from Chem I which has been a year since I took it so its not really fresh in my mind (Like Redox Chemistry). I'm mostly "worried" about the IB exam as it's hard for me to prepare for a test where I don't know what I should be expected to know. It's pretty much just "know everything."

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you're worried about the exam (and you should be), get the study guide. Basically:

Course Companion: it teaches you the concepts in detail. some books may be a bit complicated, so you might need teacher assistance.

Study Guide: summarized version, usually with the assumption that the reader has learned the concepts but may have forgot. useful for exams.

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  • 3 weeks later...

hi everyone!

i just started chemistry HL and our teacher wasnt really specific on the textbooks we ought to use (he would just give us notes O_O.....)

he mentioned the Damji-Green text book and Neuss study guide but i'm still really unsure on what i ought to get

any suggestions guys? I'm not the biggest chem genius out there, so ones with decent amount of practice questions should be good

im totally down for getting more than one textbook, cost isnt first priority.

Thanks!!

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I'd get the Neuss Chemistry Course Companion :console:

Unless anybody can recommend a better one, I believe the Course Companion is the standard textbook for people. It's generally pretty good and it's comprehensive. Not many practice questions but to be honest you should be using past papers for practice anyway -- you want to practice exactly the IB format!

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I am having the green-yellow textbook from IBID by John Green & Sadru Damji. My teacher said that this book is good. A friend of mine said so. I have everything in form of a CD (from the textbook itself), but I am not sure if it is legal to upload it here for you guys to download.

I also have the green-blue IB Study Guides Chemistry for the IB Diploma from Oxford by Geoffrey Neuss. My teacher always tells us to refer to this study guide when studying for tests, so I guess it's a good one.

I do not know if I am just way too stupid or what; but I find some of the questions in the Green&Damji textbook hard. Those two that I have are good books, I believe. You might want to get them :P

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I think pearson Baccularate is the best, and Neuss guide is also a very good one. We are now using both peason Baccularate and IBID book, and i can say that Pearson is much better in images, questions, way of explaination. IBID book has many mistakes on questions and it is a bit complicated to read, and it has no much real world images.

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  • 1 month later...

I find that the Companion Guide usually doesn't give very good explanations. But then again, when I read it I'm usually clueless about the concepts and am in the process of teaching them to myself. If you're teacher is already awesome (you're so lucky!!) and you already know the concepts, I'd still recommend the study guide anyway since it's compact and quick. Also, the companion guide doesn't have many practice questions. Well the study guide doesn't have that many either, but if you're teacher provides you with a lot of practice it should be fine either way.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I find that the Companion Guide usually doesn't give very good explanations. But then again, when I read it I'm usually clueless about the concepts and am in the process of teaching them to myself. If you're teacher is already awesome (you're so lucky!!) and you already know the concepts, I'd still recommend the study guide anyway since it's compact and quick. Also, the companion guide doesn't have many practice questions. Well the study guide doesn't have that many either, but if you're teacher provides you with a lot of practice it should be fine either way.

Well the thing about the course companion, is that it contains EVERY little detail, where as the study guide reviews and generalizes everything. I personally think that is better to get them both, and use the companion for the two years. And when you have a test or the exam, use the study guide to quickly skim over and review. In the end, they are both good books.

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I know that course companion is a detailed summary for the book, and the study guide is the summary for the course companion and the book. Study guide contains, all the information you need to know, by small points. If you are reading from the book, then to use the study guide will make it easy for you to revise, retain information.

If you want to buy..... i advise to buy:

A book: IBID or Pearson Baccularaate.

A course companion: Oxford or Cambridge.

A study guide: Neuss oxford study guid

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  • 2 weeks later...

The three most popular books for chemistry IB are:

*Chemistry Course Companion

*Pearson Baccalaureate Chemistry

*Chemistry Study Guide

I used the course companion and ended up getting a 5 for SL Chem. A couple of friends went to the study guide and found it great for revision but not for understanding concepts. The pearson bacc. one is really complete, but if you´re sick of it, try to switch to the study guide which is short and to the point, u won´t get tired of it! good luck!

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Really for me pearson, is difficult to understand, it has much of vague information, I started to love IBID (I am using the both), you can look at ibid, really a nice book. Even the questions are good, make good revision and also challenging.

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