<p>I already know what classes I'm taking, but I wanted to get a head start on the material and read the textbooks. </p>
<p>So how do you figure out which books a professor will be using for the class?</p>
<p>email them and ask, or look at your course schedule and it should say (at my school it does) what books you will be using.</p>
<p>just call the school bookstore. They probably have the master list. Some schools have a program where you can submit your schedule and the bookstore assembles all the books you need into a package (for a fee, and they give you all new books even if there’s used ones available).</p>
<p>Don’t buybooks until you go to class and ask the Prof what books you need. The bookstore listed 10 books for my history class freshmen year, I bought all of them, only to find out we needed to choose 6 of the 10 to read and write about. Also, after a week or two you may drop a class. A common rookie mistake is buying books before you go to a class. Buy from half.com or amazon, bookstores overcharge. Prof’s usually don’t assign readings from assigned books until the second or third week. Schedule’s change as well. Don’t buy books nowbecause you may end up wasting money. also, the bookstore includes “suggested” books and guides. Talk to you Prof first, can’t stress that enough. Wait until you get the syllabus because Prof’ssometimes chanfe their assigned books.</p>
<p>Just wait, take a deep breath and enjoy the time you have before classes start. Seriously.</p>
<p>I can’t begin to tell you how many classes I’ve had where 100% of the test was based off powerpoint lectures.</p>
<p>Chegg is quite possibly the best book rental system I’ve used.</p>
<p>" Prof’s usually don’t assign readings from assigned books until the second or third week."</p>
<p>My math and science courses assigned homework from the book after the first class.</p>
<p>Not all classes even use the books they should. Like our intro physics course, all of the profs had the same textbook required by the department, but mine never used it whereas the other one didn’t use any other materials. It all just depends. Wait.</p>
<p>"My math and science courses assigned homework from the book after the first class. "
My Professor’s let me copy theirs, or classmates let me. Math and science courses at my school never require more than 2 books. If a class only requires one or two books, yeah, buy it if people who took it previously said to buy it. Hold off a week to buy them to get a feel as to whether or not you need it. You can always 1) borrow from a classmate or prof or 2) get it from the library. I saved tons of money by using the library’s copy or the reserve copy.</p>
<p>Check with the bookstore and buy the required, not the optional, books if you want. Get the ISBNs from the bookstore and look online. Don’t buy the optional or recommended books until you know whether you’ll need them. Which books are required and which are not should be clearly identified by the bookstore.</p>
<p>And unless you intend to keep your books, pay attention to the return policies and the buyback policies from whoever you buy your books from and from the school bookstore (even if you don’t buy from them).</p>
<p>I’ve had a number of classes where there was a significant amount of reading you were expected to do before the first day of class. (If any of your professors does that, you will probably get an email sent to your school address with the information you need. You should check that email every day even if you rarely get anything interesting there.)</p>
<p>I recommend doing the reading carefully before the class in which that topic will be discussed and trying to figure out what you would be covering if you were teaching the class. If the lecture is review to you you’ll learn better, you’ll know whether there are any questions you need to ask, you’ll feel better about your performance in class, and you’ll be able to take advantage of the “throwaway” information that professors, who often know the topics they’re teaching in much greater depth than you are expected to learn, mention. But other than that, I wouldn’t try to read ahead much unless you know that you’ll be missing a lot of study time at some point in the semester. Instead, I recommend working on deepening your knowledge of interesting parts of the course. If you’re taking US History, for example, you might be interested in a something about the Roanoke Colony, or a biography of Alexander Hamilton, or a book about the civil rights movement, or something about the space race.</p>
<p>I love the anticipation before I start a class on something I expect to enjoy.</p>
<p>Tiff, that may work well and fine for your history classes, but ordering from half.com or amazon marketplace could take up to two weeks to get your book.</p>
<p>In nearly all my classes (engineering), I get homework or readings starting on day 1. It’s unreasonable to ask to borrow 5 or 6 books, and often the library isn’t going to have a reserve copy (especially if the book for the class changes from the previous semester).</p>
<p>In my situation, I always order my books online, a month before school starts. It’s always worked out perfectly fine in my situation. And the books I didn’t use? I didn’t realize that until 7 or 8 weeks into the semester, so it’s a moot point.</p>
<p>(My school compiles required books on the school bookstores website, where you can browse by class - starting mid July for the fall semester)</p>
<p>lol ppl stil buy books? I just download them</p>
<p>Okay, things I got:</p>
<ol>
<li>Don’t buy books until you’re sure of what the professor needs.</li>
<li>Don’t ever buy from the book store. Online is better</li>
<li>But if I did want to buy the books early, I’d call the school bookstore, or look online and email the teacher.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks guys.
The class is General Chemistry. Does that change any of your responses?</p>
<p>Torrent them first and then buy if necessary. Save so much money</p>
<p>Reading them off pdf files make my eyes sore!! Also printing them out takes tooo many papers</p>
<p>
That is my only issue with .pdf textbooks > <</p>
<p>Even on high resolution screens reading pdf is bad for the eyes. If I read textbooks off pdfs my vision will probably drop from 20/20 and I will end up paying for my saving in books for laser eye surgery.</p>