Hello I've received my study materials for ST9 (course notes and 2 text books) and was struck by the sheer volume of it. The number of pages that one needs to read are as many as CA1. Having gone through the first chapter, I had a taste of it and would appreciate your thoughts. It first directed me to read parts from both textbooks and then I had to read acted's notes. I realised that acted notes lay out the material covered in the textbooks in a concise manner but without leaving anything behind. If this is the case then I would hope that acted notes are sufficient for revising the course nearer to the exam. I.e. Even though I read the textbooks I wouldn't need to revisit them? I also noticed that in contrast to other subjects, the course notes do not offer chapter summaries which I found very helpful for revising in the past. I am therefore making my own. I would appreciate it if you could share you experiences in studying ST9 and tell me what you think on the points above. Thanks
I was wondering the same thing;- I don't know if this is the same for all ST's or for course notes only as compared to the CMP. I am yet to order Q&A's, X-assignments and other materials, but my course notes for ST6 don't have summaries, exercises to work along or exam style questions. And the Core reading is written separately at the end. Is this the same for all ST's or it is because I bought course notes?
We did not produce chapter summaries for ST9 because, as you have noted, the ActEd Course Notes aim to summarise the key learning from the textbooks and other reference documents. Being a summary, our Course Notes do not capture all of the detail in the textbooks and other reference documents. We advise you to read these source documents first and then reinforce your learning by then reading the Course Notes. We are currently finalising Flashcards and are expecting to publish these in January. When I prepared to sit the ST9 exam, I created my own summaries and found that the act of creating them was beneficial - as well as them being a useful reference once they were complete. P.S. Edwin - The Course Notes do not include Assignments, Q&A bank etc.
Is it better then to just read the two textbooks wholly separately and then come back to the course notes later? Could we please get Sound Revision CDs as well?
Hi David, Certainly, studying the textbooks is irreplaceable. My question and worries lie in revision technique. It is hard to go back and revise all that material in the books. So I am wondering whether the acted notes would suffice for revision? Thanks
The content on the final exam is usually very different from you will study in the texts and the acted notes; you won't be examined on the exact detail of the readings (such questions have occasionally occurred in the past). I would not recommend studying the reading in detail multiple times - you can be assured a fail if you study ST9 like this.
I agree - the exam is much more applied in nature, rather than a test of memory. It will be more important to practice that application (using past papers and mock exams) than spending lots of time memorising the textbooks and/or course notes. Nevertheless, I'm sure that you will want to memorise key information and that is why and how we are designing the flashcards.
