Advice, Books to Get, Help

[Delnatour]

Hey Everybody,

This might be in the wrong place but I really need help and advice for next year.

I am taking

HL Physics

HL Chemistry

HL Econ

SL English

SL Math

Abn. Spanish

What are the best books for the classes above in terms of the syllabus changes as well for 2016 for some of the classes?

I can only find books from 2012, 2013 for some of them, but how often does the curriculum change were people shouldn't buy outdated books?

Any advice on the classes above, things to do, how to be organized in that class, studies, etc.

Anything from those questions and your advice will be great!

Thanks!

Edited May 29, 2014 by Delnatour

[yii yann]

Hey Everybody,

This might be in the wrong place but I really need help and advice for next year.

I am taking

HL Physics

HL Chemistry

HL Econ

SL English

SL Math

Abn. Spanish

What are the best books for the classes above in terms of the syllabus changes as well for 2016 for some of the classes?

I can only find books from 2012, 2013 for some of them, but how often does the curriculum change were people shouldn't buy outdated books?

Any advice on the classes above, things to do, how to be organized in that class, studies, etc.

Anything from those questions and your advice will be great!

Thanks!

Hi there,

I can only help you out for HL Econs regarding this.

Your best bet for a textbook would definitely be Economics for the IB Diploma Second Edition (Cambridge University Press) by Ellie Tragakes. The cover is blue and grey-ish if I remember correctly. Its very, very (perhaps a little too much) detailed, and explains things in simple terms. The CD also has lots of practice questions that are just perfect for exam practice.

HL Economics in general is one of the easier HLs in IB, yet it receives a lot of "respect" as a subject by universities.

Regarding advice on the classes... There's loads of very good advice in the Economics forum here. You should check there! Anything I can type now would probably already have been said there.

[MimiIB]

Chemistry HL- WATCH EVERY RICHARD THORNLEY VIDEO ON YOUTUBE OKAY

Math Sl- just pay attention in every class and always do practice problems over and over even if you think you know it perfectly, just continue to do practice problems.

And instead of taking English sl take English hl they are practically the same thing but you get more credits for taking an HL course.

the other classes I dont take so I cant help ya there

[ctrls]

I would also recommend the Tragakes book for Economics like yii yann said, that was only textbook I used throughout the two years because of its immense detail. The second edition is the most recent edition, the most recent syllabus change was for first examinations in 2016.For general advice, know and understand all the topics, learn all the definitions and diagrams (and formulas for paper 3) and practice past paper questions (paper 1 especially).

For Chemistry and Physics the syllabus has changed for first examinations in 2016, so you'll be the first group doing the new syllabus. After a bit of googling it looks like a lot of publishers either have updated their books, or will be very soon. Cambridge press has already released an updated textbook for Chemistry and in looks the Physics book is coming soon and Oxford press have published textbooks for both subjects too (under the title "2014 edition"). It looks like Pearson Baccalaureate will publish new versions soon. These books will probably have various changes to fit the new syllabus, but I would presume the general style and quality would remain mostly the same.

For Physics, I found the Tsokos books very useful, which is the one published by Cambridge press. It tends to go into more detail than what is actually required, but that's usually helpful because it usually gives a better understanding of the topics. I can't comment on the Oxford books because I've never used it, but the book from Pearson Baccalaureate (by Chris Hamper) was okay. I didn't find the explanations to be particularly helpful in a lot of cases, but it wasn't too bad either. I also used a book by Michael Dickinson alongside the Tsokos book which I also found to be useful - it explained quite a few topics pretty well, plus the book was structured based on the syllabus so it was nice and organized with all the required details. I'm not sure if this book will be updated though, so you may be better off working with the actual syllabus instead.

In terms of doing well in Physics, this thread says it all. In particular, know your syllabus, make sure you understand all the points (and go over it again if you don't), do past papers questions and maximize your IA scores. I only took Chemistry at SL so your experience might be slightly different, but the above advice also applies here.