Math 16A textbook - buying an older edition

<p>I started looking into purchasing textbooks and am curious to whether it is imperative that I buy the updated version of the book when it is listed on the Berkeley fall schedule (2nd edition, 2010 copyright)</p>

<p>I've seen a listing on Amazon.com for the textbook with a 2007 publication date for 3 bucks. Another student has offer to sell me her book for 15, but it is the first edition.</p>

<p>I already contacted the professor, who said that he doesn't know the difference between the two versions, only that he will be assigning problems based on the latest version.</p>

<p>Should I just stick to buying the newest version? My main concern is the problem sets being vastly different. Does anybody know whether they are?</p>

<p>Buy the newest version. some problems will be different and may not even be in the older version</p>

<p>I had a friend of mine who used the previous edition for Math 16B in the Spring did just fine. The problems were basically the same. I have the previous edition if you want to buy it! It is the whole textbook so it will be good for 16A and 16B.</p>

<p>How important is homework for your course? If this were upper division, I’d automatically say go with the book that the professor is using, since homework is taken very seriously in that case.</p>

<p>If homework is mainly just practice, I’d just eyeball how different the books are (find a way to do this, maybe from someone who knows what the professor’s book of choice is like). In 16A, I would think the main use is practice, and you can do just fine if you use either edition.</p>

<p>The importance of homework can depend on your GSI and professor. Some GSIs just grade based on completion and they see whether you’ve done the homework or not. There are also GSIs who actually pick a certain number of random problems and check to see if you did those correctly. Then there are the extreme ones who check every single problem for correct answers, lol</p>

<p>Thanks for the responses, everyone. Stevenboi27, how much are you selling the book?</p>

<p>I’m thinking of going with the older edition if the cost is significantly lower. Does SLC and library stay consistently updated with the latest version? In any case, I could probably obtain the problems from somebody else if there’s a huge discrepancy.</p>

<p>Here’s the textbook info for anyone who wants it (though it can accessed through the Cal Online Schedule:</p>

<pre><code>* TITLE:Calculus & Its Applications V1 (Custom)

  • AUTHOR:Goldstein
  • EDITION:2nd
  • COPYRIGHT YEAR:2010
  • PUBLISHER:Pearson Custom Publishing
  • ISBN:9780558372699
  • NEW:$49.25
  • USED:$37.00
    </code></pre>

<p>I’ll sell you mine for 5. And yes, there is always a current edition of the text in the Math library on reserve. You can always check it out for a couple of hours if you need to. PM me if you want the 11th edition! The current edition they are using corresponds to the 12th edition of the normal text.</p>