Pelangi Publishing, RM36.95, ISBN 978-629-498-092-1
Education, 2025

I may not be bowled over by their latest iteration of the Focus SPM line, but I have to give credit where it’s due: Pelangi Publishing still puts out the English version of their SPM Science reference book, even when many other publishers drop the English version for this subject. After all, students in private schools still take this subject in English!

So how is Focus SPM: Science as far as the content goes?

Authors

Wow, there are so many authors involved in this book! Three are textbook authors.

Meanwhile, Sabariah Hakim also goes by Cikgu Abye. I wonder why the publisher doesn’t publicize this on the cover, like they do for other books authored or co-authored by her. Cikgu Abye also self-publishes her own Science books.

Design

• The design is pretty standard for the Focus SPM line.
• There is very nice use of colors, making the pages look cheery and bright.
• There are also plenty of infographic-style images, flow charts, and more.

It’s all very nice for quick and easy study.

Quick and Easy… but Does That Make This a Good Reference Book?

Well, here’s the thing.

The content is fine, but it covers as far as what is present in the textbook. Hardly any adventuring outside of familiar territory.

This is actually not a bad thing, as so far, the Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT; High Order Thinking Skills or HOTS in English) questions in the actual SPM Science exam also never venture far out of familiar territory.

However, the information is all presented in short, graphical forms that it is possible that some candidates may have problems taking such information and expanding on it when asked in the actual exam.

Furthermore, this also brings up a question as to whether one should pay so much for this book when it is essentially a glorified quick reference book, like the one in Pelangi Publishing’s own Ranger line.

From a return of investment standpoint, it’s actually cheaper to buy the quick reference book, from this publisher or some other, and also grab one or two workbooks. It’s also more worthwhile because in the tradition of present-day Focus SPM books, the practice questions here are pretty stingy in terms of number.

One good thing about this book is that it starts off with a section teaching candidates how to answer questions on the actual paper, including the infamous Question 11, but there are not many opportunities to practice what the candidate reads in that section.

So, yes, I’d recommend just getting a quick reference book and one or two practice workbooks instead!

Also, like many Focus SPM books that are translated into English, there are grammatical errors galore. This probably won’t bother most candidates, but still, it makes the authors and the publisher look tad sloppy. The publisher should consider getting a more careful translator.

The KBAT?

Focus SPM: Science is definitely much better than Masterclass SPM: Sains in terms of presenting KBAT materials.

While its reference section is not much better than that in the other book, it has more KBAT questions that feel more updated and relevant to the present-day paper.

However, given how few practice questions there are in this book, the advantage is quite slight at the end of the day.

Still, as I’ve mentioned in my review of Masterclass SPM: Sains, I don’t feel that KBAT is that tough for this paper unless the candidate is very weak when it comes to the fundamentals. If they want to invest in this book to master the fundamentals, however, this book should be okay for that purpose.

Conclusion

• Presentation and design are pretty upbeat and nice.
• However, the reference notes being overly reliant on images in terms of presentation also means that it is up to the candidate to tie various phrases and fragments together to give a coherent answer in the actual exam — candidates that have problems with this may want to invest in a more text-heavy reference book.
• KBAT stuff is up to date but is limited mostly to what is present in the textbook. To be fair, though, the actual SPM Science paper doesn’t stray too far from the textbook either.

So, should one get this book? Well, this book is actually in this weird place where it can be useful, but there are other more useful books such as:

• The publisher’s own Ranger SPM: Science quick reference book presents facts in a similar style (images and diagrams) but its cover price is about half of that of this book. One can buy that book for the same kind of reference materials and then top up with one or two workbooks for the same price of this book!
• The publisher further makes this book obsolete by publishing the Focus Visual: Science just a while back, so for just a few more Ringgit, one can get a bigger, more colorful, more image-driven version of the content in this book!

So why should anyone buy this book? If your teacher lifts your homework and school exam questions from this book. Your guess is as good as mine.