Chemistry Study Guide vs. Chemistry Course Companion

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I am taking SL Biology and I find the study guide extremely useful.

However, I have Chemistry at HL.

I was wondering if I should buy the Chemistry Course Companion or the study guide ?

I understand the subject quite well, as in, what is taught in class. All I need is a book which covers all the IB assessment statements (kind of like the Biology Study Guide)... but I'm unsure as to whether the Chemistry Study Guide is good enough for that?

For all those who used the Course Companion, is it good?

[Toffu-san]

I have the study guide for chemistry and I think that it's better than the course companion. In the course companion there is a lot of innecessary text, and if you understand the subject you only need the study guide.

But I'm doing Chemistry SL, and I don't know if HL is so further than the SL.

[Hyperbole]

I've used both the Study Guide and the Course Companion, and I think the latter suck. The Study Guide is really useful, but even my teacher tells us not to use the Course Companion.

I'm also in SL Chemistry, so I don't know if the Study Guide is useful for the HL stuff, but I definitely don't think you should bother getting the other one.

[Mahuta ♥]

I take Chemistry HL, and if you can, buy both. I use the study guide mostly but if there's something I dont quite get or unsure of I refer to the course compagnion. Having both of them ensures there arent any gaps.

[Sandwich]

I don't think either of them are that great, to be honest

The study guide doesn't have enough detail to explain or cover topics properly, and the Course Companion similarly misses out the core facts you need to learn. Its explanations are generally very wordy and skip the part where they tell you exactly what to do to answer/understand something!

If possible, I'd get both. Neither is adequate alone!

[remy]

[quote name='Sandwich' post='42723' date='Apr 8 2009, 01:05 PM']I don't think either of them are that great, to be honest

The study guide doesn't have enough detail to explain or cover topics properly, and the Course Companion similarly misses out the core facts you need to learn. Its explanations are generally very wordy and skip the part where they tell you exactly what to do to answer/understand something!

If possible, I'd get both. Neither is adequate alone![/quote]

Hm that's true - partly, because I still love the study guide for revision. But yes, it's not so good if you need explanations, it assumes that you already know many things. The course companion is fine as well, actually I use it to study now for the exams.

I recommend [url="https://www.ibid.com.au/ibid/web.nsf/products?searchview&query=FIELD%20subject=chemistry"]ibid[/url]. It's pretty detailed. You can have a look at [url="https://www.ibid.com.au/ibid/web.nsf/subjectlookup/chemistry"]chapter 1[/url] of this book, they published it online. If I had to choose between the course companion and ibid chemistry, I'd take the ibid book.

[JourneyTo]

I'm doing Chemistry SL, but I'm coursing it at HL and this is going to sound completely strange, but I find the course companion acceptable for the SL work, but sub-standard when it comes to the HL stuff- whenever i'm studying for my HL tests, it always isn't enough, but with my SL stuff, i find it more than sufficient.
The study guide (not the OSC one) published by oxford is OK, clear, but the same problem with the course companion's still there.