Recommended Books for STPM Second Term

I have just finished the second term and now I can recommend some books for all of you who are going to enter your second term soon. Well, I'll really say all of you are so lucky for not being the first batch to undergo the new modular system. We, the first batch, literally have to wait for days for the books to be published.

Anyway, I can only recommend books for 4 subjects which I take, and a few I heard good. So, here goes again:
(*I didn't buy all the books, I bought one for each subjects and borrowed the others from school library)

(Updated 12/12/14) It is also worth mentioning that it appears that Sasbadi has bought over Pearson Longman, or the publication right has been transferred to Sasbadi. But anyway, the content remains the same. Since the books have ceased being published under Longman, any book below I mentioned as "Longman" is now "Sasbadi". Take note.

PENGAJIAN AM

For this semester, you'll be studying mainly dasar-dasar dalaman negara, so the theme is kemajuan negara. Since there are only subjective questions, you really need to be good at memorising them. All books out there have decent notes on dasar, but I cannot tell which one is the best.

You are also required to draw a graph this semester. You need good guides for this because a slight mistake in the graph could cost you to lose 12 marks out of 20. Yes - you're reading right! It's more than 50% of your total mark. You need a book to teach you what to pay attention to, what are the common mistakes students make, and what are the key words in the titles that help you to identify the types of graphs.

You especially need help in drawing carta pai bertingkat. So, if you were to ask me to recommend one book, I'll say Longman. Pelangi's graphs wrong in many ways. Questions are wrong in some examples, the sumber is written on the same line as the last petunjuk, and graph garis is used instead if graph bar where the questions do not specify which graphs to draw (graf bar is always preferred if the question does not specify which graph to draw. But be smart, if graph bar is not suitable like when there are too many years, use graf garis).

As for essay, well, none of them is perfect, but any one is good.

I'll recommend Longman.

PHYSICS

You'll study electrics and magnetism this semester, and be rest assured that the topics this term are easier than first term. You'll need great guides too, because Physics can be very abstract and a good book is required.

Like the last term, both Oxford and Pelangi Physics are published by the same author - Poh LY, so buy one is enough and don't waste your money to buy both. Longman's Physics is published by a new author - Ng OV. Longman's great. The notes are very detailed, the explanations are lengthy and complete, and there are lots of examples for you to refer to. But the problem with this book is the questions are way too easy for STPM. All of the questions in the books can be solved by applying the formula. Critical thinkings are not required. For STPM Physics, you should think a lot.

Oxford is good but I hate the notes and the printing. Pelangi is nice but like the last term, there's no detailed explanations for the answers. But if I were to choose only one, Pelangi's better than Oxford.

Recommendation: Go for Longman for first exposure and building foundation, and move on to Pelangi to try STPM level Physics.

CHEMISTRY

You'll study two types of chemistry this term. There are two chapters of Physical Chemistry and 5 chapters of Inorganic Chemistry. Oh please, don't think it's easy. Inorganic Chemistry is generally harder to score than Physical Chemistry because the answering technique is more difficult.

Like last term, I didn't use Pelangi at all because I think the printing is horrible, but I did do the exercise in it. Pelangi contains plenty of exercise but the essay questions are not good enough. The answers given are not how STPM wants it to be, so I won't recommend Pelangi at all.

Longman's great. Too great. The notes is too too long for all chapters. The exercise in it are fine, and the essay questions are quite good, but the notes are really too long and the book contains too many unnecessary things. It will be good for first exposure, but you won't want to read this after you've about grasped the concepts.

Oxford is fine. The notes are decent and reasonably written. Not too long, and not too short, and important points are there. The exercise are good too.

I'll recommend Oxford as first choice, Longman as second, and Pelangi last.

MATHEMATICS (T)

You'll study only calculus this term and calculus is a pain in the a*s. Okay, you study about 1/4 less than what you studied for first term, but what you study this term is slightly harder than first term. Basically you'll begin the semester with knowledge on limits and continuity, which is easy, then you'll taste what calculus is like and you'll realise SPM calculus is just a joke.

Differentiation and Integration are what you'll encounter this term. All chapters, except the first, use these two concepts for solving problems, but basically when you have mastered differentiation and integration, just do more practice on Differential Equation and Maclaurin Series which focuses on application of integration (substitution, by parts and partial fractions) for the former and differentiation for the latter. Maclaurin series might warrant repeated implicit differentiation that'll get on your nerves.

Pelangi's exercise a bit too easy, so if you think your Mathematics isn't strong, Pelangi should be enough. Oxford is good and the exercise is very very tough, but the notes are very vague and some are wrong, and some of the questions are unnecessarily tough. Longman's the best in my opinion. The notes are detailed and the exercise are good. There are also minimal errors. But like last term, it does not provide answers for curve sketching.

I'll recommend Longman as first choice, Oxford as second and Pelangi as last.

Recommended Books for STPM First Term
Recommended Books for STPM Third Term

Good luck to you all!

Life's Till Now

Life's been great, although there are less exciting events. This year has so far been great. There are no huge content or disappointment that bug me, but one particular event does deserve extra attention: first term result. It's better than expected, but could have been better.

January is the start of the year, and school reopens to my dismay. Going to school is fun because you meet your friends, it's sad because you have lectures to have attend and I recently realised I have troubles paying attentions to lectures. This is partly due to my refusal to be spoon-fed or gorged with facts. Knowledge is something like a mess of tangled knot. Somehow I realise disintegrating it yourself is much more effective than being guided to untangle them, although I do agree in certain circumstances a guide is important as some things cannot be printed black and white and need to be told verbally.

School reopens with quite a lot of changes. First of all, my class, as always, has always been unique. We have two teachers changed. One has been sent to teach form 4, and one has been given a pass for less burden. The problem here is, we got one teacher changed for a much better one - and one teacher with more acceptable English pronunciation and better proficiency - and one teacher changed for a worse one (but thankfully not that bad, just not good at teaching but still good at the subject).

You may say that the good and bad is balanced, but in third term we'll change the good one back to the bad one, and now that's not something one would receive with delight. Anyway, MUET result was released earlier this year. I have high expectations for my English for it is something I show interest in, so I was very anxious to know what band I got. I sent an SMS on midnight to check my result, and the reply gave a rather short answer: Band 5. That was the moment I almost jumped, because I knew getting Band 5 is tough for someone who does not use it as a first language, getting Band 5 is something that should be proud of.

The next day I went to school and tore the slip, I realised I scored 220, the minimum mark to get Band 5, and that was the time I first felt so lucky. Only 6 out of 220+ managed to get Band 5. I was one of them. I had never achieved such achievements.

School continues as usual. Then Chinese New Year came. This Chinese New Year was quite different because two of my cousins just got married, and one of them didn't return due to busy schedule. He now lives in Singapore but intends to celebrate it with his wife's family in Hong Kong.

Oh, did I mention after studying in my secondary school for 7 years, I got my first demerit mark? Technically, 3. I watched my friends play poker in class and it was so coincidental a discipline teacher walked past and caught us red-handed. I wouldn't completely grumbled for being given demerit marks even though I wasn't playing at the time of being caught because I used to play thrice. Yup, I counted. But of course if you could bring yourself out of this quagmire, why wouldn't you? Sadly, I did to no avail, and accepted the "awards". After all, I wasn't the only one being awarded so there was nothing much to complain. Lol

Anyway, house practice resumed and as usual, I hated it. House practice is a complete waste of time. You stayed in school wasted three hours for evening to creep by and you gathered with your friends, let your teachers marked a tiny little tick on his sheet of paper, and you sat around talking about nonsense. Whoever suggested house practice should realise how stupid this idea was.

We have two things to do for this term: an assignment for Mathematics, and a project for PA. PA project was useless. A piece of junk. Technically, you should choose a theme and select a title you wish to do survey about, and go out and drag unsuspecting Samaritans for interviews and surveys. The problem in Malaysia is that rote learning would regard such measures as ridiculous and insane. If you go out and stop someone for surveys, people will eye you with anger or annoyance and probably chase you with a broom. So, we all faked the data. Simple.

Maths assignment was rubbish too. I already had this conversation so I don't really want to talk about it anymore.

April came. April was the month I hate the most. Too many co-curricular activities, and we have trial. First, I have PA presentation to do. 10 minutes was more than suffice. I could talk only about important points and frankly 10 minutes was too long. Then I have a science project for Science week and it's actually a child experiment. Lol. We simply burnt the soft drink until all water had evaporated and sugar was left, and then we compared the amount of sugar present. Childish, but still earned us a third place. Haha. Trial then came and was one hell of a nightmare. I don't really want to talk about it.

Life after trial was rather dull and same. Study, study and study because term 2 exam was reaching. It finally came with little excitement. I have talked about it in three separate posts so I really don't want to talk about it either. I'll just prepare for the worst.

First half of the year has just ended. I'll embrace the second half with more gallantry.

STPM Baharu, Term 2, Day 3

There's only one paper for today: Chemistry. It is also the last paper I'll sit for for this term. Since we study mainly inorganic chemistry this term (with 2 chapters of physical chemistry), I know the questions will be tough, and I know it'll be difficult to answer the questions. But I didn't expect it to be this hard! Today's paper is basically a nightmare. Objective questions weren't tough, but you need to do lots of thinking. Subjective questions are okay, except that my school invigilators do not provide us data booklet and I am a bit afraid of the standard electrode potential question.

Essay is the worst. There are only three essay questions and we are supposed to choose to answer only 2, but none of them is easy. The first one concerns bomb calorimeter and many of my friends did a mistake by using the formula q = mcT instead of q = cT. Anyway I did it correctly but I couldn't sure about the second part of that question. The second essay question regarding the acid-base properties of Group 14 oxides was fine, but the one about extracting tin was really baffling. The last question was downright weird. When I first saw the question, I knew immediately I wouldn't be able to answer it, so I completely ignore that question.

Chemistry Paper 2 is so far the most difficult paper for STPM 2013. But PA Kertas 2 wasn't any easy either so.....we'll see.

STPM Baharu, Term 2, Day 2

First paper for the day is Pengajian Am. I really fear this term because all we study is only dasar-dasar negara and hence everything in the paper, including the essays, centres on the theme kemajuan negara. And the graph was intimidating too. It is a part where you can get a lot of marks easily, and also the part where it could cost you lots of marks and give you an F. There are only subjective questions this term so you'll have to be good at memorising stuffs. Problem is I'm not good at memorising and that's why I'm so scared. So when I flipped the exam paper, I was flabbergasted. All 4 subjective questions that came out were about dasar that I didn't read. I read two but didn't think they were important, and for one I only read the teras I didn't read the strategy. Graph was fine. It was quite direct and the data are easy to count. Essay was quite tough and tricky but I believe I'll get at least 3 points correct. Anyway, I only hope for at least a B for this term.

Maths was fine. To study only calculus in a term is torturing. Sometimes you'll get confused and instead of differentiating a function, you integrate it. Instead of doing quotient rule, you do by parts. It sometimes really is confusing. Maths is always my strength so I strive to maintain the grade, and I believe I could. I could do all the questions except question 3 c) when I remembered the formula for the volume of the cylinder wrongly, and the last questions for Q7 where we are asked to sketch the curve. The curve looks weird but I really doubt it's a circle. Because a circle does not have a maximum or minimum point, the question says 'curve', and the formula is not the standard formula for a circle. The rest are fine, just pattern banyak-banyak, particularly Q1 about the limits and Q4 about the differential equation.

STPM Baharu Second Term, Day 1

First paper for the whole sem 2 exam, and therefore the first paper for me: Physics, paper 2.  For this semester, we mainly study electrics and electronics, and my memory tells me this term is much easier than last term. The exam paper was fine, but a few questions completely blew me away. The question on resistance of the wire was really shockingly unexpected. Problem with STPM is the questions sometimes are not tough, but are simply displayed in different fashion and sometimes you'll cringe at the completely foreign question. Anyway the questions were fine, I couldn't do a few questions. Based on our first term result, if you lost more than 5 marks, you lose your A, and I have lost mine. But doesn't matter, I just hope I won't get a B anymore.

May 2013

I realised I have not blogged for a long time. It's mainly because STPM is around the corner and I spent more time studying than blogging, and the pile of books I haven't touched kinda daunt me from blogging. Lol

Anyway, many things have transpired in this month so far. The highly anticipated and perhaps the most fiercely fought general election was held in 5th of May. As expected, foul play was suspected, and BN again won a total of >112 parliamentary seat and thus they are again the government. Malaysia's future is very very dim.

I won't drone on about the foul play here, if I did I'll probably be arrested for libel especially since the corrupted government now resort to desperate measures to attempt to eradicate anyone who goes against them. Oops!

Anyway, my second semester is next week. Again I'll post one post each day for the papers I sat. And I'll post more after my exam.

I'm waiting forward to it!