Which maths HL textbook worked for you?

[fcb1013]

I would like your opinion on the following textbook, if you have used it before:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pearson-Baccalaureate-Mathematics-Diploma-International/dp/0435074962

For maths HL students, are there any textbooks or combination of textbooks which helped you succeed in the course? Any recommendation on other resources on the internet would also be great.

Thank you!

[Absolutely Positively]

I haven't used the Pearson textbook, but I can recommend the Haese & Harris textbook. Everything's well explained and there are a lot of examples so that it's comprehensible.

I also liked the Exam Preparation & Practice Guide because it summarizes the theory and the solutions are explained step by step.

[yii yann]

Try out the IBID math HL book. Has great examples and questions.

[elaifyanre]

I like the Cambridge one, but I haven't used any other ones yet.

↑Seems that everyone is recommending a different book...

[cricketcrazynerd]

(from experience)

IBID --> hard questions

H&H --> good notes and worked examples, if you want to find the questions challenging, do them under timed conditions some of them can be hard

Oxford --> some good questions otherwise just a place for more practise

Cambridge --> another practise resource, some of the explanations are good

[elaifyanre]

(from experience)

IBID --> hard questions

H&H --> good notes and worked examples, if you want to find the questions challenging, do them under timed conditions some of them can be hard

Oxford --> some good questions otherwise just a place for more practise

Cambridge --> another practise resource, some of the explanations are good

Wow the IBID one seems tempting!

By the way, as I'm taking FM self study, I'll have to study 3 of all the 4 HL options on my own (the one remaining will be taught at my school as the option our teacher chose for HL). So in your view, which book has the best explanation?

↑I know a textbook cannot replace a teacher but...well.

[flinquinnster]

H & H is quite a popular option (particularly in Australia, given that it is published in an Australian-based context). It's fairly comprehensive, segments the syllabus done in ridiculous detail. However, I think that at times its over-segmentation of all the different techniques is a bit ridiculous, as some exercises are just one or two questions long. It's a bit tedious. However, it's review exercises are useful and so is the H & H study guide. By the way, all of these H & H resources can be found somewhat easily online (a bit of searching) - so you can use them for revision/catch-up. We're using this for the Option topic, and it's not too bad - quite comprehensive in terms of notes, a bit weird regarding questions. But still useful. H & H is also getting updated for the new syllabus, so it should be useful.

We used some weird textbook for the Core - I thought it had good exercises, but it is safe to assume that nearly 30% of the answers given by the back of the book are a) wrong or b) mislabelled or c) don't actually exist. So whilst it was useful and I thought more clear in the way it was set out than H & H, it was just angst-inducing for much of our course. It's not getting revised either I think, so it might not even fit the new syllabus.

There should be posts on this forum about HL textbooks. This is quite long, but this may also be useful.

[ctrls]

My teacher uses the newer Cambridge textbook, which I like quite a bit. I mostly use it for practice questions, the questions seem to be well balanced and the coloured marking of difficulty is also pretty useful.

I've also got the newer Oxford book, but I find the questions are needlessly complicated in many cases. It may just have been the questions I've tried, but it seemed like some of the questions were well above the level of the actual IB questions.

Haven't used the IBID book, but I'm tempted to check it out since it seems to be pretty popular among a lot of people.

[cricketcrazynerd]

H & H is quite a popular option (particularly in Australia, given that it is published in an Australian-based context). It's fairly comprehensive, segments the syllabus done in ridiculous detail. However, I think that at times its over-segmentation of all the different techniques is a bit ridiculous, as some exercises are just one or two questions long. It's a bit tedious. However, it's review exercises are useful and so is the H & H study guide. By the way, all of these H & H resources can be found somewhat easily online (a bit of searching) - so you can use them for revision/catch-up. We're using this for the Option topic, and it's not too bad - quite comprehensive in terms of notes, a bit weird regarding questions. But still useful. H & H is also getting updated for the new syllabus, so it should be useful.

We used some weird textbook for the Core - I thought it had good exercises, but it is safe to assume that nearly 30% of the answers given by the back of the book are a) wrong or b) mislabelled or c) don't actually exist. So whilst it was useful and I thought more clear in the way it was set out than H & H, it was just angst-inducing for much of our course. It's not getting revised either I think, so it might not even fit the new syllabus.

There should be posts on this forum about HL textbooks. This is quite long, but this may also be useful.

H & H is quite a popular option (particularly in Australia, given that it is published in an Australian-based context). It's fairly comprehensive, segments the syllabus done in ridiculous detail. However, I think that at times its over-segmentation of all the different techniques is a bit ridiculous, as some exercises are just one or two questions long. It's a bit tedious. However, it's review exercises are useful and so is the H & H study guide. By the way, all of these H & H resources can be found somewhat easily online (a bit of searching) - so you can use them for revision/catch-up. We're using this for the Option topic, and it's not too bad - quite comprehensive in terms of notes, a bit weird regarding questions. But still useful. H & H is also getting updated for the new syllabus, so it should be useful.

We used some weird textbook for the Core - I thought it had good exercises, but it is safe to assume that nearly 30% of the answers given by the back of the book are a) wrong or b) mislabelled or c) don't actually exist. So whilst it was useful and I thought more clear in the way it was set out than H & H, it was just angst-inducing for much of our course. It's not getting revised either I think, so it might not even fit the new syllabus.

There should be posts on this forum about HL textbooks. This is quite long, but this may also be useful.

That weird textbook is the Oxford one I was talking about! I tots agree with everything you've said...some of the questions in H & H are quite ridiculous, but the reviews are good.

(from experience)

IBID --> hard questions

H&H --> good notes and worked examples, if you want to find the questions challenging, do them under timed conditions some of them can be hard

Oxford --> some good questions otherwise just a place for more practise

Cambridge --> another practise resource, some of the explanations are good

Wow the IBID one seems tempting!

By the way, as I'm taking FM self study, I'll have to study 3 of all the 4 HL options on my own (the one remaining will be taught at my school as the option our teacher chose for HL). So in your view, which book has the best explanation?

↑I know a textbook cannot replace a teacher but...well.

You should definitely get the H & H one (google it) and if you like having your notes organised go for Cambridge...lucky for being able to do FM!! Good Luck with it But for questions, IBID is a MUST HAVE!!!

[elaifyanre]

My teacher uses the newer Cambridge textbook, which I like quite a bit. I mostly use it for practice questions, the questions seem to be well balanced and the coloured marking of difficulty is also pretty useful.

I've also got the newer Oxford book, but I find the questions are needlessly complicated in many cases. It may just have been the questions I've tried, but it seemed like some of the questions were well above the level of the actual IB questions.

Haven't used the IBID book, but I'm tempted to check it out since it seems to be pretty popular among a lot of people.

The old IBID book was said to be hard to understand blabla, and the old Oxford one, as @flinquinnster said, had many errors, so I didn't buy the newer version of the two. Maybe I'll check the new IBID one out too.

Also, have anyone used the Pearson one? I'm also tempted to try it but as our school library is totally useless so I must buy the books on my own and a textbook like this costs much...

You should definitely get the H & H one (google it) and if you like having your notes organised go for Cambridge...lucky for being able to do FM!! Good Luck with it But for questions, IBID is a MUST HAVE!!!

The H&H one is going to publish a book for the FM topics later this year Love them. Cambridge published one for FM SL before but they don't seem to plan to publish a newer version for the FM HL course for like 150 students a year Whyyyyyyyyyy?

Cambridge (already got), IBID, H&H, A level math textbooks for STEP, and probably Pearson..._{and my school booklist said we are using the Oxford one} So pratically just ALL the textbooks available. GOD.

I'm doing it at self-study so... Well. Maybe you can try to convince your school to let you do self-study _{or ask them to open a class for you} since you have like half a year more than I do?

↑Just started reading FM materials, maybe a little too late for May 2014 exams...

[Zarathustra]

In my opinion the book that prepares you the most for the actual exam is the Pearson one, since it follows the syllabus perfectly, has some good explanations and examples, and is full of IB questions, which are vital for the actual exam papers.

I also used the IBID one, which is quite cool, stresses trigonometry a bit and focuses also on partial fractions (very useful in calculus!) and the H&H book, which is ok overall and has some cool exercises as well (like proving the Cauchy - Schwarz inequality!). They complement each other well I'd say, but if I wanted to pick one, I'd go with the Pearson.

I also have the Cambridge one for Further Mathematics, it is cool but it lacks a bit of exercises.

[elaifyanre]

In my opinion the book that prepares you the most for the actual exam is the Pearson one, since it follows the syllabus perfectly, has some good explanations and examples, and is full of IB questions, which are vital for the actual exam papers.

I also used the IBID one, which is quite cool, stresses trigonometry a bit and focuses also on partial fractions (very useful in calculus!) and the H&H book, which is ok overall and has some cool exercises as well (like proving the Cauchy - Schwarz inequality!). They complement each other well I'd say, but if I wanted to pick one, I'd go with the Pearson.

I also have the Cambridge one for Further Mathematics, it is cool but it lacks a bit of exercises.

Again seems that I should buy all of the books

The Cambridge one is for the FM SL which is all math HL options+30 hours geometry and FM HL is all math HL options + 48 hours geometry+ 48 hours linear algebra so...why doesn't it publish a new book for FM HL...

[Zarathustra]

In my opinion the book that prepares you the most for the actual exam is the Pearson one, since it follows the syllabus perfectly, has some good explanations and examples, and is full of IB questions, which are vital for the actual exam papers.

I also used the IBID one, which is quite cool, stresses trigonometry a bit and focuses also on partial fractions (very useful in calculus!) and the H&H book, which is ok overall and has some cool exercises as well (like proving the Cauchy - Schwarz inequality!). They complement each other well I'd say, but if I wanted to pick one, I'd go with the Pearson.

I also have the Cambridge one for Further Mathematics, it is cool but it lacks a bit of exercises.

Again seems that I should buy all of the books

The Cambridge one is for the FM SL which is all math HL options+30 hours geometry and FM HL is all math HL options + 48 hours geometry+ 48 hours linear algebra so...why doesn't it publish a new book for FM HL...

I haven't read the new FM syllabus in detail, but I am pretty sure they won't add much geometry, most probably they will just spread the old syllabus on 48 hours instead of 30

And yes, no linear algebra, but some of that stuff was former core (I can't believe you guys won't be doing matrices at HL!) and there are tons of cool university level linear algebra books anyway

And as I mentioned before, if you only want to buy one book, go with the Pearson

EDIT: I also know that the option topics will be more detailed: for instance, in Sets, Relations and Groups you guys will be doing homomorphisms, which we didn't, so the Cambridge book might be seriously outdated by nowadays standards...

Edited July 23, 2013 by Zarathustra

[elaifyanre]

I haven't read the new FM syllabus in detail, but I am pretty sure they won't add much geometry, most probably they will just spread the old syllabus on 48 hours instead of 30

And yes, no linear algebra, but some of that stuff was former core (I can't believe you guys won't be doing matrices at HL!) and there are tons of cool university level linear algebra books anyway

And as I mentioned before, if you only want to buy one book, go with the Pearson

EDIT: I also know that the option topics will be more detailed: for instance, in Sets, Relations and Groups you guys will be doing homomorphisms, which we didn't, so the Cambridge book might be seriously outdated by nowadays standards...

It did add more stuff but not much and I'm fine with geometry because I had classes related to the topics when I was in China but the linear algebra... ahhhh

I bought a ton of related books just for the 48 hrs linear algebra...

I don't think the options will be more detailed... According to the syllabus it "seems" the same and it also says "one of the options in the four from math HL is assumed to be learned in math HL class so the total hours are not 288 but 240 blabla"

[Dwight K Shrute]

I bought the Cambridge one to practise over summer-break and in general I found it to be pretty useful. I also have the IBID press book and I find it relatively more useful as it has better explanations and a lot of examples.

[Venkat Kadari]

Hi, please visit www.pitaurus.com. Click on "Enter Here" button, then click on "IB DP Math" link and then on the "Useful Links and Downloads" link. You'll find resources on Syllabi for 2014 and past papers for HL, SL and Studies.

For more information, please email me at "[email protected]". I can share ebooks on math and love to extend any help there on.

Thanks.

Venkat Kadari.

[IanSurvive]

I use the Pearson one and it's great (get it!). Personally I don't like the H&H -it's needlessly long for simple concepts (basically not concise), the questions are easy and boring...

[elaifyanre]

Update:

Got the Pearson one last month and it was great. Some parts of its explanations are better than the Cambridge one and some are the opposite, the two are both good though.

Haven't got the IBID one yet.

Got the Oxford one from my school. Well... seems that they tried to make the textbook more interesting, but failed. It sometimes makes simple ideas sound complicated so don't like it very much, but again that's just my opinion...

The Haese & Harris one said to publish the FM topics 1&2 in late 2013 but now they changed that into early 2014...

↑Haven't got this one too.

Seems this is it for now.