<p>My stupid school is making us get Biology Campbell's 8th edition, though I have two perfectly good 6th edition textbooks at home that my sisters used a few years ago. Seriously, is there any significant difference between the two, or should I spend $100 on an 8th version?</p>
<p>There is virtually no difference. I even compared the 4th and the 8th.</p>
<p><em>cough</em> People should learn to use the search function. This same topic came up a few days ago.</p>
<p>And no, there is no difference.</p>
<p>Well there are newer pictures and stuff, but other than that they are essentially the same.</p>
<p>If the question is “can I prepare for the exam with Campbell 6th ed and get a 5?” the answer is yes.</p>
<p>Some (but by no means all) of the basic differences: [ol]
[<em>] The material is organized differently. This means that material may be found in different chapters, sections, or pages. For example, an assignment on the details of nerve signal transmission would be covered in chapter 48 of Campbell 8th, Entitled “Neurons, Synapses, and Signalling.” This chapter is organized into four concepts that are found on pate 1047 through 1060. In Campbell 6th, the same material is also found in chapter 48 called “Nervous Systems”, but that chapter covers the material found in three chapters of Campbell 8th, and the part of the chapter that would be relevant is pages 1026 through 1036 entitled the “Nature of Nerve Signals,” with no listing of concepts. For each unit, these differences would require “translating” the 8th ed. assignments onto the 6th ed., and I’m not sure how that can be done without having a copy of both editions side-by-side.
[</em>] Certain topics have changed rapidly between the two editions. Updated information is found in the 8th ed on topics including cell signaling, control of gene expression, immunity, cladistics, man’s effect on the environment, climate change, emergent diseases, etc.
[<em>] If quizzes are supporting material are being taken from 8th ed materials, they won’t correlate very well to 6th ed. There is a student study guide for the 8th that didn’t exist for the 6th. There are also five or six different sources of supplemental activities and information that are new for the 6th. Again, you would have to figure out where to go in the 6th to use these documents and pass these quizzes.<br>
[</em>] If you are continuing your studies of biology in college, the 8th ed. will be a valuable reference book during your whole undergraduate experience. The 6th is a little dated to suit that purpose. If you are only taking it for the credit, ignore this point.
[li] If you discuss this with the teacher (a good idea), be sure to find out why he/she wants you to buy a new book, and consider those reasons before you decide the only difference will be that you are out $100. You may be convinced that your (I assume from your statements that this money is coming out of your pocket) money would be well spent on the 8th edition, and you can go without $5.00 worth of snacks for 20 weeks to come out “even” in your budget.[/li][/ol]</p>
<p>^I think one of the biggest annoyances will be constantly having to check that you are on the correct chapter and have all of the proper information in your book. That would get pretty annoying, after a while, imo.</p>
<p>I think that all Campbell AP editions suck, though. You’d probably be better off just getting the regular version and destroying your class. AP edition gets very long and boring, to the point where many people in my class just stopped reading.</p>
<p>Senior0991 - is there actually a content difference between the normal version and the AP edition? I was under the impression that the only difference was that for the AP edition, the authors added a little chart showing how the chapters match up with the College Board’s curriculum.</p>
<p>^Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only difference :(. The bio content wasn’t much different. But the AP edition went way overboard with random, trivial stuff (I think that it could have used the space to discuss more pertinent and essential bio processes) and was much longer. I learned pretty much the same from the regular version and had actually enjoyed reading that. Reading the AP edition was just h***.</p>
<p>If you read through it, you’ll definitely notice a huge difference in how the information is presented. Everyone in my AP class agreed on this as well.</p>
<p>Senior0991 - I would have assumed that they wouldn’t have wanted to spend all of that time rewriting a copy of their textbook. I used the AP edition and found it to be an incredible tome of information.</p>
<p>^One thing the writers/publishers get for writing a book with the same content (that HAS to be longer and more college looking to keep up an image- after all, no one would buy the AP edition if it looked exactly the same, right?) is $$$$$$$. It is really that simple. </p>
<p>I think that the regular book suffices for the AP test (some people in my introductory class that took the AP test all got 5s from that book) while at the same time promoting biology in a much better way. </p>
<p>I won’t pretend to know what the word tome means, but yes, you will get more information in AP. The vast majority of that is non-essential, however. And, for students looking to get college-level insights, the AP book is somewhat laughable.</p>
<p>The major differences between the AP edition and college edition:
- The cover of the AP Edition is more durable
- there is introductory material at the beginning.</p>
<p>That’s it.</p>
<p>I have a copy of each one.</p>
<p>I also asked Jane Reece</p>
<p>Well, first off the pictures are definitely prettier. Therefore, making it appear more appealing. I found the 6th edition kind of ugly. And don’t even get me started on the 5th edition. ugh.</p>
<p>But besides that there are several other factual differences which is what I presume you are interested.</p>
<p>The date difference is 6 years. (2001 vs. 2007). But actually it’s more like 1998 vs. 2004, due to editing time. Many details of biology have certainly changed a lot, ie. molbio. I myself have only read the 6th edition and 7th edition. So I can provide with some specific examples between those two. One difference I noticed was in the early chapters, when explaining DNA Replication. The 6th edition was missing several of the essential proteins that were involved in the process (one that comes in to mind is Topoisomerase), which I personally found quite disheartening. And AP Bio teachers lurve specific questions, just fyi.</p>
<p>The additional insights were also more informative and up-to-date, which I found quite pleasant. In addition the 8th edition has in known to have discussed several new techniques in the those little box things, which are also cool.</p>
<p>But most of the information is actually the same. So my advice is to keep you’re sister’s 6th edition. And ask your AP Bio teacher for the online subscription which has a full copy of the textbook and skim that for some missing details if you really require that.</p>
<p>thanks, guys, that was so helpful! Unforunately I just found out that on top of my teacher wanting the 8th edition, she wants it to be AP version as well. Since I don’t think I can go to her and say. “ah well, Mrs. ____, everyone says the AP version sucks and I’d prefer not to use it” I think I might just have to buy that textbook :(</p>
<p>Since “everyone” doesn’t say the AP Edition sucks, it seems as if you are making a wise decision.</p>
<p>well, the ap edition definitely did have MUCH more information than was necessary for the ap test. However, I found it interesting and the facts I learned from the book have come up in other competitions I have entered, so all in all, the hard work was not wasted.</p>
<p>Also, if you get the ap edition new, make sure you activate your free internet account that comes with it…I found the website rather helpful. It had all sorts of videos and quizzes and stimulations that really helped me visualize some of the concepts. Don’t confuse the website content with the cd…the cd only has some of the quizzes and none of the graphic stuff.</p>