EPH Publishing, RM38.90, ISBN 978-967-254850-2
Education, 2023

These reviews are getting repetitive to write, and I have no doubt, to read as well, as EPH Publishing’s Success Plus: SPM line is blowing away other main players in terms of how solid and usable these books are.

Success Plus SPM: Science is rather hard to find, because the publisher is not reissuing it along with the rest of the books in this line in 2025, maybe because the number of people taking the subject in English and hence sales are not enough to make the printing and distribution costs worthwhile. However, the Bahasa Melayu version is adapted and released as part of the quick revision notes line, so there’s that, I guess.

The 2023 versions are mostly out of print, so it took me quite a while to locate a copy of this book. It’s definitely worthwhile for candidates taking this subject in English, however! There is also a Bahasa Melayu edition in the 2023 version of the line, I believe.

The Authors

Ooi Boon Thai is also one of the authors of Spotlight A+1: Physics and Success Plus SPM: Chemistry.

There isn’t much I can find online about Gwendolin Lu Lee Hung, but the cover indicates that she is a Guru Cemerlang.

Design

• Just like the other books in the Success Plus SPM line, this book boasts huge graphics and illustrations when compared to those in other SPM Science reference books from other publishers.
• Amazing use of tables, charts, and diagrams too.
• What I really love is how the book presents steps and instructions in a numbered flowchart manner, large and clear without any risk of the candidate missing a step. No space is spared. The flowchart on how to create solutions from soluble and insoluble salts, for example, takes up an entire page — complete with easy-to-recall lists of which common salts are soluble and which aren’t.

Sure, only a few pages have more than two or three colors, but the lack of color doesn’t detract from the fact that the design and layout of this book are top notch.

Lots of white space to write notes, lots of big illustrations and diagrams and charts that are easy to catch and understand at a glance or two, and everything here can be quickly located if one needs a quick refresher course on something.

This book may look old school, but it’s the fabulous kind of old school! Very practical and, more importantly, usable for revision and practice.

How About the Content?

Basically, the reference notes part is comparable to Spotlight A+1: Sains but with a few “better than” traits:

• The more analytical KBAT (Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi; High Order Thinking Skills or HOTS) stuff here feels more up to date compared to the other book, noticeably in how it structures the Question 11-style practice questions.
• Each KBAT spotlight doesn’t just give the answers, each answer comes with a side annotation to explain why that particular answer is correct.
• Some content that typically shows up as KBAT questions in the actual paper has its own section within a chapter, highlighting it more prominently. An example is justifications for and against nuclear energy in Malaysia.

These features make this book far more KBAT-friendly than the other book.

Meanwhile, the KBAT approach in Focus SPM: Science from Pelangi Publishing is lesser in quantity and Masterclass SPM: Sains from Sasbadi seem to forget that there is a thing called KBAT as far as the reference notes go.

The large diagrams, tables, and charts are helpful to make concepts and processes much easier to understand and refer to, so this is another big plus. Other publishers may give more colors, but EPH Publishing still offers the more practical and user-friendly reference books for SPM!

The one flaw that vexes me a bit is that there are some inaccuracies in the content. For example, chiropractic is presented as an alternative treatment for bones and joints, when it’s actually all about spine alignment in the Malaysian context. Still, these inaccuracies are quite minor in the sense that there is no outright wrong information about major concepts and processes, so maybe this won’t be that big an issue.

Conclusion

• Success Plus SPM: Science is the most KBAT-friendly SPM Science reference book in the market.
• There is some wrong information here and there, however, so do watch out for that. For the most part, major details are fine, and the bulk of the content is very usable.
• The large illustrations and tables along with plenty of white space also makes this a very revision-friendly book.
• It’s definitely a book worth investing in for SPM Science candidates, as it has clear advantages over the other SPM Science or Sains reference books in the market.