I am taking human anatomy and physiology class and it says to get the 14th edition and a lab manual and its gonna cost like $185 all together! This edition came out in January and I was looking online at the 12th edition textbook and lab manual and itd gonna cost around $30 (2009 version.)
I was wondering if does it matter what editon textbook you buy? I cant afford to pay that much on just one book and my parents cant help either.
Have you asked the professor?
Email your professor. Sometimes buying older editions or versions are not a problem in the content needed for the course is the same.
Definitely ask your professor, but I feel like 2 editions of changes may be a problem with the lab manual; the facts of anatomy don’t really change, but the labs done for the class may have changed or the procedures may have been changed. I wouldn’t count on being told you can work around the new edition in this case.
Ask the professor. At my community college that I went to, the professors were willing to work with you if a new edition just came out. They’d provide you with some information in regards to what’s different or they’d only select activities that were in both the old and new editions. Professors are human too, and they’ve been in your position. Just ask and see if you can read a syllabus or even ask them if the edition is fine.
As a general rule of thumb, unless your homework problems come from the textbooks, using an older edition should be fine. The content usually doesn’t change much.
But if they say do problems 1-14 and your problems in Issue 13 are different than Issue 14, you will be in trouble.
Those prices are typical for college books. Talk to your professor first.
I wouldn’t do it, especially if there is a web-key involved.
I’m going to second @bopper here: $185 for a science text pack is pretty typical. You should plan for expensive textbooks that you can’t get around buying in future semesters.
Different problems, professor didn’t care. So ask.
When H enters his textbooks into the online bookstore, he is forced to enter an edition stocked by the bookstore. He always emails once he gets his class roster and tells students they can buy any edition of the book they want.