#What Top Notch actually is
Top Notch is a multi-level English course published by Pearson, written by Joan Saslow and Allen Ascher. It runs from a true-beginner book called Fundamentals up through Top Notch 1, 2 and 3, and continues into a companion series called Summit for higher levels. It is a communicative course, which means the units are built around things you do with English (make plans, describe a problem, agree and disagree) rather than around grammar rules in isolation. Schools and language institutes around the world use it, which is exactly why so many people search for it as a PDF: a class assigns the book and the student wants a copy on their laptop tonight.
Worth saying plainly, because the People Also Ask box asks it: is Top Notch a good book? For a structured, speaking-first classroom course, yes. It has a clear arc, plenty of pair-work activities, and audio that matches each unit. Where it is weaker is as a standalone grammar reference, because it spreads grammar thin across many units instead of collecting it in one place. If your goal is to look rules up, a course book like this is the wrong tool and a dedicated grammar reference is the right one. More on that in the FAQ.
#Where the PDF legally comes from
Here is the part most pages chasing top notch books pdf skip. Top Notch is a current, in-print product, and Pearson holds the copyright. That means the full-book PDFs sitting on random file lockers, document-sharing sites and search-bait pages are, in almost every case, unauthorized copies. Downloading one is a copyright problem, and those sites are also where a lot of malware travels, so it is a bad trade twice over. I am not going to link them.
The lawful ways to get the content on a screen are real, though, and often cheaper than people expect:
- The Pearson eText. The official digital edition is sold through Pearson’s English portal and through MyEnglishLab. It is not a loose PDF you drag around, it is a licensed reader, but it is the legitimate digital version of the exact book.
- Free sample units. Pearson and its distributors publish sample units and look-inside previews for most levels. These are genuinely free and genuinely legal, and they are enough to see whether a level fits before you buy.
- A library or Internet Archive loan. Many university and public libraries carry the series, and the Internet Archive offers controlled digital lending on some editions, where you borrow a scanned copy for a fixed window the way you would a physical book.
- A used physical copy. Secondhand student books are cheap. Just check whether the online code or workbook access is still valid, since those are often single-use.
None of these hands you a redistributable file, and that is the point. If a source is offering the complete book as a free PDF with no library card and no purchase, assume it is not authorized to.
#Which level and edition you need
Getting the wrong book is the most common way this goes sideways, so match two things before you spend anything: the level and the edition.
The level ladder is roughly this, mapped to the CEFR scale most schools use:
| Book | Rough level | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals | A1 | True beginners starting from the alphabet and greetings |
| Top Notch 1 | A2 | Elementary, can handle simple everyday exchanges |
| Top Notch 2 | B1 | Lower intermediate, building fluency and past or future tenses |
| Top Notch 3 | B1 to B2 | Intermediate, moving toward comfortable conversation |
| Summit 1 and 2 | B2 to C1 | Upper intermediate and advanced, the continuation series |
Level-to-CEFR mapping is approximate; publishers place these bands slightly differently, so treat it as a guide, not a promise.
The edition matters just as much. The series has gone through revisions, and the current line is the Third Edition. Unit numbering, page references and audio tracks differ between editions, so if a teacher is assigning page 42 of the Third Edition and you download a scan of the Second, nothing lines up. Match the edition your class uses before anything else. If you are self-studying with no class, the newest edition you can get legitimately is the safe default.
#Reading a textbook PDF well on a Mac
Say you now have a legitimate copy: a bought eText, a sample unit, a library scan. Reading a dense course book on a laptop is its own small annoyance, and this is where I can actually help, because I spend my days building Mac software. None of this is specific to Top Notch. It applies to any textbook PDF.
Start with the app. macOS ships with Preview, and for most study it is enough: it opens fast, it lets you highlight and add notes, and its Markup tools are fine for underlining a phrase or scribbling a translation in the margin. If you outgrow it, the paid PDF readers add better annotation search and a proper reading mode, but do not buy one before Preview actually frustrates you. Plenty of free options cover the middle ground too, and I keep a running list in the best free Mac apps roundup.
Two Mac-specific frictions are worth solving. First, reading full-screen on a MacBook with a notch: the menu bar and the camera cutout sit right where the top of the page wants to be, and a document in full-screen can feel cramped or oddly clipped. There are clean ways to reclaim that strip, which I walked through in how to hide the top bar on Mac in full screen. Second, capture. When you study a language you copy a lot: a new word, an example sentence, a chunk to paste into a flashcard app. A good clipboard history means you are not flipping back to the PDF every ten seconds to re-copy the phrase you lost, and I compared the options in the best Mac clipboard manager guide.
Then there are your own notes. A course book gets you input, but you learn the language in what you write down afterward: the words that did not stick, the grammar point you keep getting wrong, your own example sentences. Keep those somewhere searchable rather than in the PDF margins, where they are trapped in one file. I ranked the tools for that in the best note-taking app for Mac. The honest summary of this whole section: the book is the smaller half of learning, and your Mac setup around it is the half you control.
#Frequently asked questions
Is Top Notch a good book?
For its purpose, yes. It is a communicative, goal-based course built for classrooms, so it teaches speaking and everyday functional English well and moves at a steady pace. It is weaker as a solo grammar reference, because it drip-feeds grammar across units rather than laying it out in one place. If you want a course to follow lesson by lesson, it is a solid pick. If you want a book to look rules up in, pair it with a dedicated grammar reference.
What are some popular free PDF books?
The genuinely free ones are public-domain titles whose copyright has expired. Project Gutenberg, Standard Ebooks and the Internet Archive host tens of thousands of them as clean PDFs and EPUBs. Top Notch is not among them: it is a current Pearson product still under copyright, so a full free PDF of it is almost always an unauthorized copy, not a legitimate free book.
What is the best PDF book to learn English?
There is no single best, because it depends on your level and goal. For structured, classroom-style progress, a course like Top Notch or English File works well. For self-study grammar, English Grammar in Use is the common recommendation. For reading practice, graded readers matched to your level beat any single textbook. Pick by what you need to practice, not by which PDF is easiest to download.
What is the best English grammar book in PDF format?
Raymond Murphy’s English Grammar in Use is the most widely recommended self-study grammar book, with editions for elementary, intermediate and advanced levels. It is a paid Cambridge title, so a legitimate PDF comes from buying the eBook, not from a free-download site. For a free option, the grammar references published by university writing centers are lawful to download, though less structured for a beginner.
