Got to learn matlab I have this circuits and signals course where i have been asked to learn matlab all by myself and that its treated as a basic necessity
now i wanted some help as to where should i start from as i hardly have around less than a month before my practicals session start
should i go with video lectures/e books or which one should i prefer over the other?

For the elementary syntax, you may look up introduction videos on youtube,
and start from simple task in this MIT introduction - problem set.
visit the Mathworks website god idea, it's got very good explanatory videos.
And dont foget 2 most important commands in matlab: "help" and "doc".
Matlab got very good documentation with examples.
EDIT: MIT Link is no longer available, you may want to copy and paste "MIT Introduction - problem set" into youtube. I believe the intended video series to view are below: 
MIT 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming, 2008.
