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Spent roughly $350.00 this semester i'll have to buy 3 from the bookstore used because they come with cd's and i couldn't find them anywhere online cheaper. The other 3 books i found online used through amazon. If i bought all new through bookstore woulda been like 650-700 dollars.

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The unis here are pretty devious. They make their own 'books' for many of the classes. And by book I mean a bunch of sheets of paper kept in a binding. Because they are the only ones than can provide the book, you cannot find it anywhere else and you have to pay full price. The books that aren't made by the uni are usually made by the government, and after 1-2 years stop being used making them also impossible to sell. Every year they change the books, so all the books you bought this year you won't be able to sell to other students. Basically it's an elaborate scheme to make people spend ridiculous amount of cash on books, it's not uncommon for a year's worth of books to cost 1000$.

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When I was at medical school a fifty page revision guide would set you back £40. The anatomy textbooks cost £120. Add that for about four different parts of the course, plus the lab coats, the smart clothes to go on placements with and the stethoscope and it's definitely something I don't miss about the place.

 

My strategy will be to ask for a reading list, then seeing what I can get cheap with Amazon and which books I'll only be using situationally, therefore I can avoid buying those altogether by going to the library early and reading ahead of my studies before all the other classmates hog them.

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I didn't have to buy a book this semester and I doubt I will this one either. It seems like all the lecturers don't tell you to buy books and it's probably because a) Computer Science books depreciate alarmingly fast in some areas like Programming language or best practice, so it's just not worth it. b) My Uni has a large number of students coming from poorer backgrounds or living on their Student Finance so they don't like lumping us with expensive books. Some courses do though, I guess I'm just lucky.

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I'm probably going to spend about $1000 on textbooks this semester, and most of the textbooks aren't even new. Technically I'm spending $0 since it's off of a scholarship. I probably won't end up using them that much, if at all, because my science courses tend to focus more on lecture notes than the textbooks when it comes to taking exams.

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Rent anything over $70 at chegg, unless it's a book for a class specifically for your major (it may be nice to have it as a reference, I guess).

 

School bookstores rarely have low prices. Tbh, they're way higher than mostly all other websites.

 

I got a deal on my chemistry book last semester. I could buy it for like $25 instead of renting for $40. So now I have my very own general chem book, haha. Won't ever use it.

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Had to buy a $200 physics book this semester, already had the other two books I needed which were probably ~$400 together.

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Holy crap you guys spend a lot on books. Makes me grateful that everything I need is on my university's website in pdf form, and anything else can be rented for 2 weeks at a time from one of the 5 o 6 libraries on campus. :thumbup:

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Holy crap you guys spend a lot on books. Makes me grateful that everything I need is on my university's website in pdf form, and anything else can be rented for 2 weeks at a time from one of the 5 o 6 libraries on campus. :thumbup:

Wowza that sounds like a great deal...

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Holy crap you guys spend a lot on books. Makes me grateful that everything I need is on my university's website in pdf form, and anything else can be rented for 2 weeks at a time from one of the 5 o 6 libraries on campus. :thumbup:

Wowza that sounds like a great deal...

 

1100 a year fees though (105~/class, 10 classes, less classes next year though) so i'm assuming it evens out with you guys, although i'm not sure how university works in America (if you have to pay and that).

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Why can't the Big Bang be done by the hand of God?

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I'm probably going to spend about $1000 on textbooks this semester, and most of the textbooks aren't even new. Technically I'm spending $0 since it's off of a scholarship. I probably won't end up using them that much, if at all, because my science courses tend to focus more on lecture notes than the textbooks when it comes to taking exams.

Thought I'd highlight this. Fancy textbooks are no substitute for proper studying techniques and revision--the equipment for which costs, what... £40 tops?--and they're useless if you're planning on a lie-in when you should be in a lecture hall at 9am. The golden rule we were told was that we could be examined on anything taught in the lectures, not the books. Hey presto, plenty of stuff reared up which wasn't present in the reading lists. Go figure.

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high school student here, but I take college classes, too. Books for three classes totaled $600 - my real analysis book was $120, books for my computer science class came to $240, and the remainder was for a grad level chemistry class I'm taking. Thankfully, the state pays for everything, so I just laughed a little when they rang up the total.

 

When I buy textbooks just to teach myself things, I usually use a combination of google books, chegg, ebay, amazon, and a few other resources. I've never paid more then $30 for a book that way (and that was for a calculus book covering calc I, II, and III)

 

 

1100€ a year fees though (105€~/class, 10 classes, less classes next year though) so i'm assuming it evens out with you guys, although i'm not sure how university works in America (if you have to pay and that).

 

Aside from a few very wealthy (and selective) universities in the US, tuition charges are much higher. For an average state university, tuition charges run about $10,000/year, though good private universities run all the way up to $60,000/year.

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I'm probably going to spend about $1000 on textbooks this semester, and most of the textbooks aren't even new. Technically I'm spending $0 since it's off of a scholarship. I probably won't end up using them that much, if at all, because my science courses tend to focus more on lecture notes than the textbooks when it comes to taking exams.

Thought I'd highlight this. Fancy textbooks are no substitute for proper studying techniques and revision--the equipment for which costs, what... £40 tops?--and they're useless if you're planning on a lie-in when you should be in a lecture hall at 9am. The golden rule we were told was that we could be examined on anything taught in the lectures, not the books. Hey presto, plenty of stuff reared up which wasn't present in the reading lists. Go figure.

Most of my professors say that examinations are over both notes and lectures. If we're talking strictly of science courses, I need the textbook for problems. Trying to find another classmate willing to let you use their textbook to photocopy every problem page necessary is difficult and a big hassle. Also, many of my professors see lacking a textbook as not being prepared for class, and they take actions against that (i.e. marking them absent).

 

I could've gotten away with not renting my Physics textbook for PHYS 1 and 2, but at that point, I didn't want to risk anything.

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Bad semester for my textbook costs, 3 textbooks set me back $360 since two of them were custom editions for the class and cost $160 each. Would have had to spend another $160 but my fourth textbook was the same one I used the previous semester for discrete math so I get to reuse it again for discrete math II luckily.

 

Previous semester I bought them all off of amazon but it really isn't too much cheaper than my University's bookstore, especially if I'm able to get them used from the bookstore. Nice thing is I can also sell all my textbooks back for 50% of the new price which saves quite a bit of money and I don't have to worry about finding someone to buy them or ship them anywhere. Last semester I bought a used book for $60, and resold it to the bookstore for $40 at the end of the semester which was 50% of the new price so I only ended up being out $20 for that book.

 

I just hate it when textbooks come with online components that will be used for assignments. For example my java textbook this semester has that so I'm pretty much forced to buy it even though there's tons of other resources available to learn from. :/

 

Does chegg.com ship to Canada at all or is it US based only?

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I'm probably going to spend about $1000 on textbooks this semester, and most of the textbooks aren't even new. Technically I'm spending $0 since it's off of a scholarship. I probably won't end up using them that much, if at all, because my science courses tend to focus more on lecture notes than the textbooks when it comes to taking exams.

Thought I'd highlight this. Fancy textbooks are no substitute for proper studying techniques and revision--the equipment for which costs, what... £40 tops?--and they're useless if you're planning on a lie-in when you should be in a lecture hall at 9am. The golden rule we were told was that we could be examined on anything taught in the lectures, not the books. Hey presto, plenty of stuff reared up which wasn't present in the reading lists. Go figure.

 

I don't mind purchasing textbooks because I can use them as a reference tool later on when I'm studying for MCAT. Professors generally don't use textbooks for examinations and provide their own notes in class (which they either email to you or expect you to write down), but textbooks do tend to cover certain topics in more detail than lecture notes, so it is worthwhile to at least make an effort to read your textbook when you have the time to do so. Any science major should make an effort to go above and beyond the work expected in their course for an A and be overachievers. Any science-related career greatly benefits from top-quality students who have vast knowledge about scientific concepts, especially the medical profession.

 

Last semester, I had two 2-inch binders stuffed full with lecture-related material - the majority of which I used for my extremely thorough study technique - and I constantly attended seminars that I didn't have to in order to gain extra knowledge.

 

The majority of students also don't realize that flashcards are an EXTREMELY INEFFECTIVE study technique that fails to get a lot of information into long-term memory (LTM). I tend to use outlining as well as this other technique that groups concepts together under headings in order to prepare for exams, and I can say that I go into the classroom to take my exam with near-perfect memory for the material that I'm being tested over.

SWAG

 

Mayn U wanna be like me but U can't be me cuz U ain't got ma swagga on.

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Yeah, the textbooks reinforce what is taught in lectures, not the other way round, is the point I'm making.

 

If you're talking about anatomy flashcards, I actually found them to be quite useful in learning the general structure of an organ/tissue but not on their own. The trick is photocopying them, blanking out all the labels, and putting them in until you know the gross anatomy of whatever organ you're studying off-by-heart. Otherwise you're learning superficially. The colouring in books you can get are an amazing tool too. There's a kinaesthetic part to the exercise, in the colouring in, and a visual part in the image itself. The massive anatomy books are then used take notes so you can learn the functions, histology, blood supply, clinical conditions etc.

 

I think the point is, you should really found out what studying techniques work best for you before heading off to university/college, and buy textbooks appropriately. No point buying a clinical medicine book worth £100 when it's full of terms you don't understand and therefore have to spend two hours with a dictionary over each paragraph. Buy a textbook that puts things in simpler terms. If that's too "babyish" for you, then get the £100 book.

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£7.50. Such a huge hole in my pocket left by that.

 

Yeah, me and my flatmate went halfs on a book earlier in the year, barely used it except to beef up an essay through a reference. Luckily History doesn't have textbooks, just hundreds of thousands of individual areas of research done by people. My University has two great libraries, and the other University in the city also lets students from ours take books from their library if ours don't have it.

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Trent, the rubbish one. Although it was (WAS, now dropped 25 places) around 50th for History in the country. We have some really world renowned lecturers though so rankings aren't everything. I'll be at the city Uni next year though.

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