So I found a full pdf copy of my textbook for a language class. Should I consider using this instead of a textbook? Are there any pros/cons that I should be aware of? Obviously if I drop all the papers I would be doomed…
I personally would want the book, but I need to save up the money.
Also, is there ever a rule a teacher can make us use the actual physical copy rather than PDF? Thanks
I got PDFs of a couple books this semester to save money as well ($45 vs $175), but I have heard of professors requiring a physical copy so it might be worth it to double-check.
Just make sure that the exercises in the pdf match the ones in the textbook.
Unless you’re using the book in-class - which was true for my language and all of my humanities classes, I don’t think they can require a physical text. If it’s just for HW, they’ll assign the problems and you’ll do them. For the humanities classes, in which there are class discussions etc., my professors asked everyone to have a physical copy of the same edition of the book.
I had a statistics book where the PDF was actually different from the book used in class. The PDF that everyone in class used was actually the International Student Edition published a year after the US textbook. Many of the exercises were switched around, but luckily the professor was nice and accommodated the homework to only include problems where the PDF and textbook matched after the first assignment.
Make sure that you check the copyright page and see if the ISBN matches and doesn’t say International Edition or something. Other than that, every other textbook I’ve used a PDF for (which I NEVER used a physical textbook at my university) was exactly the same. Some professors are pretty cool about open book open note tests when you only have the eBook or something, but others aren’t.