Introduction

This is the 1st post in my blog series called “My Experience & Tips for IB Textbooks”. The IB subjects covered in this series are DP Physics, Math AA, Chemistry, History, and Chinese A Lit. The corresponding levels and syllabus versions (years of first assessment) are as follows:

All of these are the IB DP subjects that I’ve studied. I’ve used at least 2 textbooks (or study guides) for each of these subjects.

In this article, I’ll discuss the Physics textbooks that I’ve used. I’ll list the textbooks by their publishers, compare and contrast their features, their strengths and weaknesses (in my opinion), and finally give my thoughts on how to use textbooks. All the information here is for reference only.

TL;DR is at the end of this post.

Textbook Reviews

I think the most important things about physics textbooks are:

1. Good explanations: Clear, natural, and ingenious introductions and explanations of physical phenomena and theoretical derivations.
2. Good practice problems: The problems test not only the ability to apply knowledge, but also the understanding of knowledge. The question style should be similar to those in IB past papers, but the content of the questions should be novel and varied.

Most of my points will be centered around these two ideas.

In my two years of DP, I used 3 books from 3 publishers in total:

Pearson Education

• Title: Higher Level Physics
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Author: Chris Hamper
• ISBN：978-1-447-95902-1

1. Content Overview

The impression I got from this book was that there was a lot of content and the pages were almost full. Every time I saw it, I was a little more reassured—the book talks about so many things, so there must be enough for me to use in exams, right? But the more I used it, the more I thought that sometimes, the book had too much and it was too full. In my opinion, textbooks need to have just the right amount of detail, and they also need to be concise and clear so that they can convey information to the reader efficiently. But if you have enough time to read, it isn’t a bad idea to use this book as an interesting reading material to expand your knowledge.

2. Experiments & Formula Derivations

The experimental investigation sections of this book contain some instructions and guidance for experiments, but the more detailed lab worksheets are in the e-book, which does not seem to come with the paper copy. If you use this book for self-study, that' going to be a challenge. But if you are using this book while following your school, then you should be able to ask your teacher for the lab instructions. The book’s online resources also mainly focus on experiments. There’re links to many experimental simulations, so you can save yourself the trouble of googling for them.

The book’s formula derivations are very helpful. The one that I remember the most clearly is the derivation of $v=\pm\omega\sqrt{x_0^2-x^2}$ for simple harmonic motion. In the derivation, the book squares $x=x_0\sin\omega t$ and $v=\omega x_0\cos\omega t$ respectively, so you can derive the formula naturally using the trigonometric identity $\sin^2x+\cos^2x=1$. For the Doppler effect, the book also has a fairly clear diagram which helps the reader understand quickly when combined with the book’s algebraic derivation. That is especially helpful in the situation of a stationary source and a moving observer.

3. Practice Problems

Each section of the book is followed by a set of exercise for that section, and at the end of each chapter, there is also a set of IB exam-style questions. However, some of the questions are from IB past papers and the book does not indicate that, so if you do a lot of IB past paper questions, when using this book, you might waste some time doing the ones you’ve already done before. It’s not necessarily bad to re-do some questions though.

4. Structure

This book is specifically for HL, so there isn’t a strong sense of division between each topic. For example, Topic 5 Waves and Topic 9 Wave Phenomena are combined in the same chapter. However, depending on the class setup at your school, your teacher might cover SL content first, and then do the HL content separately. Then there isn’t really a point for the book to combine the related topics into one chapter.

Another problem is that not all chapters in the book correspond to the Topics in the IB syllabus. So if you read the book on your own and try to follow the pace of your class, this structure might make it harder for you to tell what content is SL, what content is HL, and what content in the book is under which Topic. Unlike this one, the two other physics textbooks that I’ll mention below separate SL and HL content.

Oxford University Press

• Title: Physics: Course Companion
• Edition: 2014 Edition
• Author: David Homer, Michael Bowen-Jones
• ISBN: 978-0-19-839213-2

1. Content Overview

The great thing about this book is that it’s “hand-picked” by the IB-it‘s the only textbook that was jointly developed by the IB and the publisher. So it reflects some of the IB’s inside information.

This is clear in the fact that this book covers the IB syllabus exactly. For example, the Pearson textbook includes color forces in the chapter on Topic 7 & 11 Modern Physics, and the Cambridge textbook includes the formula for thermal conduction in the chapter on Topic 8 Energy Production.

2. Experiments & Formula Derivations

There are many detailed experimental investigation sections in this book, and often the experiments are used to introduce or verify theories, allowing the reader to develop an intuition for physical phenomena and to understand abstract formulas more easily.

For example, this book’s content on capacitance is introduced through an experiment which links capacitance to two familiar concepts—electric field and potential, so that reader can quickly become familiar with the new concept of “capacitance”. In contrast, the Cambridge textbook is a bit less organic in its introduction of capacitance. Of course, fundamentally, I think this problem is because the IB Physics doesn’t do Gauß’s Law, so the textbooks have to either introduce capacitance in a roundabout way or in a sketchy way to avoid going too far beyond the syllabus 😕

The formula derivations in the book are also very detailed and easy to understand. Also, there’re appropriate expansions, which greatly aid understanding. The most memorable part was the derivation of $\bar E_k = \frac{3}{2}k_BT$ for ideal gases in the chapter on Topic 3 Thermal Physics. The steps are clear and explained in detail (e.g. where the “3” in the above equation comes from). The Cambridge text skips the derivation of how the “3” came to be, while the Pearson text doesn’t show the derivation at all and states the formula directly as a fact. It was exactly because I had seen this derivation, I remembered that the kinetic energy in the equation is the average kinetic energy, averaged over each gas molecule. That directly helped me to get a question right in a mock exam.

So, the Cambridge and Pearson books are sometimes a little less friendly to students who don’t like or aren’t good at memorization, or those who want some extensions. In that case, the Oxford textbook is relatively better.

3. Practice Problems

There’re worked examples that come with every average textbook, but there’re no informal exercises to help the reader get familiar with new concepts. When it comes to that, this book is not as good as the Pearson and Cambridge books. This book does have IB exam-style questions though, at the end of each chapter. There’re some original questions, but there are still a lot of questions from IB past papers, which are indicated in the book. So if you do a lot of IB past paper questions, you might not get many new questions from this book.

In the beginning of this book, there is a line saying you can find more exercises on the Oxford University Press website, but I only found the answers to the practice problems already in this textbook.

So, personally, I think this book is a bit weak on practice problems. But my physics teacher said this book has good problems. I think he meant that this book is very good at picking good questions from IB past papers. I agree with this, and I trust his judgement.

4. Structure

The HL content and SL content are separated, so you might feel some gaps between the related chapters across SL and HL, but each chapter corresponds exactly to each Topic of the IB syllabus, which is more convenient for the reader to search for information.

The layout is looser than Pearson’s. It’s surprising (in a good way) to see that in Topic 9 Fields, the contents on electric and gravitational fields are color-coded, which is a clever way to make everything clear. It’s especially helpful when comparing the two fields.

Cambridge University Press

• Title: Physics for the IB Diploma Coursebook
• Edition: 6th Edition
• Author: K. A. Tsokos
• ISBN: 978-1-107-62819-9

1. Content Overview

My overall impression of this book is that it’s detailed enough and concise enough. So there is not much to complain about. Some content in the book is outside of the IB syllabus, but that’s not really a big deal.

2. Formula Derivations

I think the style of this book’s formula derivation is similar to that of the Oxford textbook in that they are not “afraid” of giving extensions, and they go beyond the syllabus in a way that is helpful for the reader. An example is the derivation of the decay formula in Topic 11 Modern Physics. Both books start from $-\frac{\mathrm{d} N}{\mathrm{d} t}=\lambda N$ and use calculus to derive $N=N_0e^{-\lambda t}$. Their derivations deepen the reader’s understanding of the fact that the decay rate is proportional to the number of undecayed nuclei. The Pearson textbook doesn’t have this derivation. In fact, the Pearson textbook has fewer extensions in general.

When compared to the Oxford textbook, this book expands slightly less on the syllabus content. I’ve already mentioned $\bar E_k = \frac{3}{2}k_BT$ in the previous sections of this blog post, so here’s another example: the derivation of the fact that the electric field strength inside a charged metal sphere is zero. This book states as a fact that inside the sphere, the electric potential is constant, i.e. the electric field strength is zero, while the Oxford textbook proves this point with mathematical tools. As you can see, the Oxford textbook expands on the content a bit more.

3. Practice Problems & Additional Materials

In my opinion, this book’s practice problems and additional materials the best among these three physics textbooks.

This book has sufficient exercises at the end of each section of each chapter. Those are not only questions that examine the application of knowledge (i.e. normal questions like in exams), but also questions leading the reader to further thinking and discussion. An example is Exercise 30 for Topic 11.3 Capacitance. It asks the reader draw a graph of the potential difference across a parallel plate capacitor ($V$) against the charge on a single plate ($q$), leading the reader to consider the meaning of the area under the curve. This deepens the reader’s understanding of $E=\frac{1}{2}CV^2=\frac{1}{2}Vq=\frac{1}{2}\frac{q^2}{C}$, the formula for the energy stored in a parallel plate capacitor. This exercise also tests the reader’s understanding of the concept that the capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor doesn’t vary with voltage or charge. This is much more helpful than only looking at the equations $E=\frac{1}{2}CV^2$ and $C=\frac{q}{V}$ in the Data Booklet.

There are also comprehensive practice problems in the style of IB exam questions at the end of each chapter. I’m not sure if all the questions are original, but I never found any original IB past paper questions when I was working with the book. There are both multiple choice questions and free response questions that are a bit longer. Compared to the Pearson and Oxford textbook problems, this book’s content is richer and more varied.

You can also find more practice problems and answers on the official website of Cambridge University Press for free. By registering with your email, you can search, browse, and download resources from the Cambridge online system. All those questions are additional to the exercises in this book, so there’s absolutely no need to worry about running out of problems to do. Note that at the end of the book, there’re only answers for the exercises, while the answers for the exam-style questions at the end of each chapter are on the website.

4. Structure

The HL and SL chapters are separated, so related chapters across SL and HL have small gaps in between. But each chapter corresponds exactly to the IB syllabus Topics. The layout is similar to that of the Oxford textbook, both being looser than the Pearson text.

The book has one small, almost insignificant drawback: it combines the two requirements in the IB syllabus, Comprehension and Application, when it lists out the learning objectives at the beginning of each section. The Pearson and Oxford books, on the other hand, both list the Comprehension and Application requirements separately, which is a bit clearer.

Using the Textbooks

After the analysis above, I think the best approach is to choose one between the Oxford and Cambridge textbooks as the main textbook. That means, you read the relevant chapter in that book immediately after each lesson at school, while the other book is used less often. If you choose the Cambridge textbook as your main textbook, then when you don’t understand something in that book, you can read the corresponding chapter in the Oxford textbook, and vice versa. I think the Pearson textbook can be an additional option. It can be a reference source when you don’t understand the explanations in both the Oxford and Cambridge textbooks, or when there is a disagreement between the two books, or as a place to find practice problems. (Of course, if your school uses a textbook in teaching, you can simply follow your school’s plan.)

Usually, each textbook explains knowledge differently—sometimes in a different way, sometimes with a different focus—so, actually, I think we should look at all the textbooks and synthesize their information when studying. However, our time is limited, so we can’t read everything in the textbooks—we have to give up on reading some of the things. But if we know we have some weaker areas in terms of understanding, it’s better to read all the relevant contents in all three textbooks, follow their explanations carefully, think about them and understand them.

I struggled a bit with the Doppler effect, but after reading the three different explanations in the three textbooks, I got a better grasp of it. The additional option, the Pearson textbook, was even more helpful than the other two. Everyone says you need to widen your reading for the humanities, but I guess it’s the same for the sciences. Read more and think more, there is always an explanation that suits you 😆

Also, I think people need to know, it’s possible that not all chapters in a textbook give the explanations that suit you. For example, I personally like the Oxford textbook’s explanation in Topic 11.3 Capacitance, but I think the Cambridge textbook’s explanation in Topic 10 Fields suited me better than that in the Oxford textbook. So my suggestion is to be flexible when using the textbooks. If you just can’t really understand a part in a book, don’t rush to think that you didn’t learn things well! Always try using another textbook!

One last thing, I think that although textbooks are only tools and you don’t need to read them word by word from beginning to end, you can’t just skim over them either. After you skim through to find the chapter or paragraph you need to study, you should probably slow down to read and understand it carefully.

Conclusion

In this article, I talked about 3 Physics textbooks for the 2016 IB DP syllabus. The books are published by Pearson, Oxford, and Cambridge respectively. I listed out their features, compared and contrasted the strengths and weaknesses of each of them in my mind. Throughout the process, I tried to reference to concrete examples. At the end, based on my own learning experience, I gave some suggestions for using textbooks.

I’m still updating this series of blog posts, and I’ll post links to the new updates in the table at the beginning of this blog post. Feel free to check them out if you’re interested!

This article doesn’t cover any specific physics study methods, such as how to do problems effectively, nor does it cover specific tips for studying IB Physics, such as exam skills. All of these I will mention in future blog posts. For more posts on physics, please use the “tabs” function on the sidebar of this blog.

Thank you for reading! I’m not a teacher but just an IB student who has bits of thoughts. If you have different opinions or more insights, feel free to discuss or share them here! (Also look for contact information at the end of the “About” section of this blog.) I’m really curious about what other people think!

TL;DR

Main Features of Each Textbook

Recommended Way of Using the Textbooks

1. Main textbook: Choose 1 between Oxford & Cambridge
2. Supporting textbook: The other textbook (Oxford or Cambridge)
3. Additional material: Pearson