My profs rarely required text books for my classes, and when they did they generally used one edition behind the newest. My average text book probably costed somewhere around $30.
I've been in university for like a year and the only textbook I've actually purchased was my anatomy book, but with medical stuff you really need it. Now that I'm in computer science I just pirate the few books that are required.
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Warez" - Novangel))[/highlight]
In college I would always hold off on buying the books(and used when possible) for any gen eds until specifically requested by the teacher, half of them never touched the books and even then most of the test answers were off material given in the class. Only bought books for the core classes related to my major.
I bought a version of a required English textbook that was like 5 editions out of date for $40, yet still had the same shit, word-for-word, as the current edition that ran for $200. Ridiculous.
Quite a few of my courses have turned to class notes insteads of books. Approx $15-20 for a booklet of lecture notes.
glad i was able to use scholarship money for all my books, now i can flip them on ebay for half price and use that money to buy drugs
my school had this return policy that seemed pretty cool, as long as you don't open it you can return it for 100%
or at least thats what I thought when I found my math textbook for $15 instead of $250 a week later and learned you have to drop the class in order to get the refund :suicide:
Anyone who's taking post-secondary should know this going in, or they will by the end of first year.
college textbooks are now fucking us even more by implementing their own form of DRM: necessary online supplements.
almost every book and professor I've had has a online portion that is required for the class. like seriously, fuck that shit. forces us to buy a new book or get a code+online book for slightly less.
PDF versions are so much better than physical anyway.
[t]http://helifreak.duckdns.org/image/20160606003630766.png[/t]
Look at those book marks and search bars. The fuck is up with American colleges and docking points for random shit like not buying textbooks.
[QUOTE=redBadger;50462066]college textbooks are now fucking us even more by implementing their own form of DRM: necessary online supplements.
almost every book and professor I've had has a online portion that is required for the class. like seriously, fuck that shit. forces us to buy a new book or get a code+online book for slightly less.[/QUOTE]
The person who invented Pearson's MyMathlab is satan.
[QUOTE=helifreak;50462077]PDF versions are so much better than physical anyway.
[t]http://52.62.164.10/image/20160606003630766.png[/t]
Look at those book marks and search bars. The fuck is up with American colleges and docking points for random shit like not buying textbooks.[/QUOTE]
I always have the thought in the back of my head that someone bought this book or barrow one and uploaded everything into PDF files.
I rent books when I can, unless its a text I'd possibly find useful or interesting down the line - so for most of my major stuff I buy used if its interesting enough. everything else is rent though.
[QUOTE=usaokay;50462191]literal[/QUOTE]
don't you hate it when your uni professors hold a gun to your head and pull the trigger if you don't ace the quiz
that docking point's for not buying a boo kinda piss's me off
There's only been a couple textbooks that I bought which I would actually recommend and they weren't at extortionate prices either. I know of a few textbooks priced at $200+ which were so difficult to read due to them not getting to the point, repeating themselves or using 5 paragraphs to explain something that could have been done in about two sentences. A few classes got so bad that I stopped reading the textbook altogether and instead just looked up how to do whatever it is on youtube or check out a blog to learn the content.
I'd personally be more tolerant of the prices if the content within it and how it was written was worth the price, but right now, they're more useful as a paperweight.
[QUOTE=RG4ORDR;50462176]I always have the thought in the back of my head that someone bought this book or barrow one and uploaded everything into PDF files.[/QUOTE]
There are definitely torrents out there packed with 100+ commonly used textbooks all converted to PDFs.
I would do this for my courses, but most require accessing an online site to do work (quizes, assignments, etc) for marks, and to get access you need a key thats bundled with the book.
I should say though that most of my profs offered a seperate grade scheme without the use of the site, but that route was a lot more difficult.
Go to the library a few weeks before your semester begin, rent all the textbooks you need, renew all your books every month and if you can't renew because someone reserved them, just keep them even after due date (person who reserve it can fuck off). Voila you save tons of cash.
At my university it isn't as bad.
Many of my profs would give us the correct chapter readings based on which edition we decided to buy
Some of my profs even put ebook versions up online
I remember a majority of my teachers back in college saying at the start of class, they'd flat out drop you if you didn't have the right book before the second day of class
I never bought a book and nobody bothered to check nor follow through with their threats, oops. If there was any info I needed sorely it was usually available online in a multitude of formats, most of the common books were in our library, and for anything else there was a book down in the bookstore that wasn't shrinkwrapped that I could skim really quick
Well Bill and melinda gates and friends are trying to make textbooks free
[url]https://openstax.org/higher-ed[/url]
my teacher is cool, he pirated 7 of them because the cost was ass and gives them for free to each student. Im surprised he hasnt been caught yet.
I once spent about 70 dollars on what I thought was the course book, but it was just the answers to the course book exercises.
For the couple times that I couldn't pirate and it was an absolute necessity of a book (i.e. Professor would actually take material from it) I'd buy the international edition and pay 1/6 of the US version (ex: Pay $30 vs $200)
I had a custom edition, that had no bindings, so I had buy a binder for it too, pages sort of got fucked too since of the bullshit, it was $200
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