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!