<p>I am going to be a biology major at TCNJ in the fall and I am wondering when is the best time to buy your books? Should I have them all by the time I move in or what? Sorry if this is a stupid question but Im a first generation college student so nobody else to turn to.</p>
<p>I had all of my books by the time we moved in, and it’s a good thing I did because my bio professor emailed us with an assignment that needed to be done before the first class. However, there were lots of people who bought their books during Welcome Week. A lot of people also ordered them from the bookstore online a few weeks before and then picked them up during Welcome Week. Personally, I always prefer to have my books in hand before class starts. If you order online from somewhere like Amazon order them at least 2 weeks before move in day.</p>
<p>thanks so much !</p>
<p>no problem! sorry it’s not really that much of a definitive answer lol but it’s really a matter of personal taste. there are some people who will wait until after they’ve had their first class to get the books but they are in the minority. I liked having my books by move in because then I didn’t have to deal with any extra stress :)</p>
<p>hey, does anyone know if you need to get any of the recommended books? I ordered the required books, but the recommended ones for ex. honors chem, calculus, I did not. Should I or wait until class starts?</p>
<p>I didn’t get anything that wasn’t required. Recommended stuff for me included SparkCharts which are a pretty useless waste of money in my opinion.</p>
<p>yeah i have yet to buy anything that was labeled as “recommended”</p>
<p>thanks, appreciate your help.</p>
<p>@ Hazeleyez: Hey I’m in Kress’s themes in bio class and lab and she gave us our first e-mail (with our first hw assignment lol). She mentioned that we have to purchase a lab manual in the basement of the library or sumething and i checked on the bookstore website and it’s not sold there. She mentioned that we should have it in advance of our first lab but wen should i purchase it during welcome week? I know you had her so how and wen did you purchase this lab manuel…?</p>
<p>And is she serious that we will have DAILY hw assignments to put in the dropbox for SOCS? She also said that she grades them as excellent, like good, or poor - if she did this with you last year did they count for a lot of points and how stringent was she on the responses to the questions in the hw assignment? She said each one is worth little but they add up how much of your final grade does this count for?</p>
<p>therealdeal21 --I’m in kress’s class too! i just did the homework assignment, and it literally took like 5 minutes. I didn’t really know how much to write, so i’m gonna hold off on submitting it to SOCS. but if each “daily” assignment is 2 questions, it won’t be so bad i hope. I also logged onto Mastering Biology, and ummm somehow i screwed up the 1 question assignment. instead of clicking submit, i clicked show answer and received a zero percent even though i had the right answer! i can’t figure out how to redo it…what a wonderful first impression :/</p>
<p>ok, the lab manual is sold at Instructional Technology Services. It is in the basement of the library. I bought it on Move In day but you could absolutely get it anytime during Welcome Week. Last year it cost $12 (it’s basically a stack of photocopied paper bound by a rubber band lol).</p>
<p>yes, you will have daily homework assignments and yes they are very easy! Sometimes she will assign questions and other times you will have to do an assignment on Mastering Bio. Personally, I always thought Mastering Bio was harder than the questions lol. I wrote a small paragraph for each question - be thorough but don’t write a novel (professors are pretty good at knowing when you’re BS’ing). She scored our homework out of 4 points…no it’s not a lot but what she means by “it will add up” is that don’t not put in the effort because you will want all the points you can get!</p>
<p>Also, prepare yourself now to get a not-so-nice grade on your first lab lol. They grade them pretty harshly because they want you to get the hang of writing good labs. HOWEVER, Kress was very good at giving oppurtunities to earn back points. If you have some common sense and are very good at writing though you’ll do absolutely fine!</p>
<p>ok so like a concise 3 sentence explanation for each socs question would be sufficient?</p>
<p>Wow, I’m a bio major too and now I’m really happy I don’t have Kress. Is it normal that nothing has been posted in my classes in SOCS? At least nothing I can find.</p>
<p>Also, where am I supposed to find my recommended textbooks and material lists for each class? I’m hoping to get them from Amazon but I might have to get them from the bookstore since I’m a bit late.</p>
<p>@ hazeleyez: in addition to my kress questions, I have another question lol: </p>
<p>Okay you know how i previously mentioned about the liberal learning thing - okay well if lets say a literary and visual arts class counts for both Race and lets say global, do you have to choose which concentration it counts for or does it count for both? Is there a limit to how many classes like can “double count” in this circumstance?</p>
<p>Also with kress’s hw, does she ever let you know how many points you are obtaining and whether you are getting “excellent” acceptable and not accep. ? I just wanna know so in the future i will be able to know how she likes my answers - is she usually stringent towards answers and excellent giving lol?</p>
<p>@rusalka 92- go here [Your</a> Customized Textbook List - The College of New Jersey Bookstore](<a href=“Find Course Materials | The College of New Jersey Official Bookstore”>Find Course Materials | The College of New Jersey Official Bookstore) for your textbook list</p>
<p>it’s normal to not have anything posted on SOCS by your professors. if i were you, i would check directtextbook.com and bigwords.com for your textbooks</p>
<p>@rusalka92: which professor do you have for Themes? From what I heard Kress was one of the easier profs lol </p>
<p>@ therealdeal: the # of sentences will really depend on the question (some will require more explanation than others). again, just use common sense lol </p>
<p>you do not have to choose which “concentration” a liberal learning course will cover, and as far as I know there’s no issue with double counting (if there is no one has informed me about it lol)</p>
<p>Kress will post all grades on SOCS. she will also post the class average and sometimes on the hw assignments she will write a short comment</p>
<p>lol sorry i meant which “civil responsibilities” they will cover. For example, if a beh/social/pers. course is called global and like gender can it count for both civil responsibilities, so u get both of those requirements out of the way?</p>
<p>lol i’m pretty sure it’s still a yes…like i said no one has told me otherwise</p>
<p>Hey I tried cheggs and all other online ones. Does anyone know how to find out if students are selling textbooks? I can’t find my honors chem books and regular physics. I tried facebook also. Thanks!</p>