<p>Do I really need the latest edition for books? I've heard that they don't change too much, and I'd like to save my money.</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>A lot of the time, your prof will tell you what book is best. You can also just ask them after class the first week of classes.</p>
<p>Generally, you can go without your book for the first couple of classes. Of course you should borrow the book from someone else who already bought it.</p>
<p>The differences between editions are usually just order of chapters, but the text is nearly identical.</p>
<p>New editions probably will matter if they contain problem sets for HW such as Math. </p>
<p>Also, since you are at Cal, don't buy books at the Cal Student Store (except for the Custom book editions like for Math 1A/B), go use websites like Amazon, Half.com, ClassBooks.com (I like this place, I got my Anthro 2AC book new for less than the used price at the Student Store) and FetchBooks.com is a really good as a portal to a place to find cheap books.</p>
<p>It depends on the class the book is for. if you're in a class with problem sets, ALWAYS get the edition reccomended by the professor. If you don't, the problems at the ends of the chapters can be in the wrong order or entirely different. Classes that use books like these are sciences, math, and some humanities.</p>
<p>Otherwise, you can sometimes get away with it.</p>