Learning resources

1. Textbooks

You must have an up-to-date text-book that is written specifically for the course you are studying. It's the most important resource you can buy. Textbooks are not the same as revise guides, key-facts books or study guides! They are more detailed, better written and more interesting. They contain information that you need in order to fully appreciate a subject.

If you school doesn't give you a text book, or doesn't allow you to take one home, then buy your own copy. Ask your teacher for details of the book (ISBN number, etc) and order from Amazon or your favourite supplier.

2. Revise guides

Revise guides are much better now than they used to be. However, the number and variety of syllabuses is greater. This makes it difficult for a general revise guide to cater for everyone. This is particularly true for sciences. Ideally, find a revise guide that is written for the exact syllabus you are studying. Your teacher should be able to advise you. Phone the exam board if in doubt.

Letts Educational, Longmans and Collins publish good guides which are very clear and, usually, written for particular syllabuses - crucial for science. You can find these at shops such as WH Smiths and the larger book shops. CGP are popular (and cheap) although not the easiest to read. And there are revise guides that specifically summaries the recommended text books, such as the AQA science guides publised by Nelson Thorne - these are good.

The CGP workbooks are well worth getting - lots of relevant questions. Make sure you get the one with answers or buy the answer-book.

3. Internet sites for revision and study

There are no websites that come close to being as good as an up-to-date text book. The best sites are not free, but your school should have a subscription to at least one. Examples are MyMaths and SamLearning. These are very useful and you should use them.

Of the free alternatives on the web, I wouldn't recommend any of them unless you get bored reading from a text book and you can't get access to a subscription site. The best one is probably BBC Bitesize - it contains the basic facts for most syllabuses and some useful questions. Many other sites don't distinguish between the different syllabuses, which is critical for science.

Skool - better for science - worth a look.
S-cool - not as animated at Skool. OK if you don't have your text book handy.

Learning skills websites

http://www.studygs.net/ - lots of good advice, mainly directed at university students, but good stuff. And lots of links to other learning and study skills sites.

http://www.ldpride.net/learning_style.html - find out your preferred learning style!

[-> OK, on to the learning bits - go to the section on learning about learning - How your brain learns ]

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