<p>My daughter starts PA in the fall as a 9th grader. Any thoughts on whether the books will change from last year? Any thoughts on purchasing used books or otherwise saving $? Thanks!</p>
<p>I think I will definitely be buying used books. This way, I can resell them at the same price (if I keep them in the same condition). I don’t know when PA sends out there list for books, so you’ll know what to buy then.</p>
<p>The Andover Bookstore is the devil. Do not wait until school starts to buy books. I would reccomend Amazon.</p>
<p>Be careful though, because some teachers might change the book they use. </p>
<p>I know at Exeter, there are people who buy books during the registration time period, but then a couple of days after schools starts they look for cheaper versions of the books on Amazon and return their bookstore books.</p>
<p>I speak as someone who attended PA a few years ago and whose brother attends now.</p>
<p>Andover doesn’t really send out booklists, and books vary by teacher, even within courses. Since you don’t get your schedule until right before courses begin, buying early is not really feasible. Generally, you go to the bookstore to see what the required books are after getting your schedule. Some courses tend not to change books (Latin comes to mind). Especially in math and science, though, new versions of books frequently come out and replace older versions in the classroom. For these, it’ll be difficult to purchase used versions as well. Even English books may change (though I somehow doubt they’ll stop using Fitzgerald’s translation of the Odyssey winter term of English 100 anytime soon). I always bought from the bookstore (with my own money, earned from summer jobs), but amazon/barnes and noble are reasonable possibilities.</p>
<p>Reselling used or new books: our family’s experience at two schools has been that you receive a fraction of your purchase price. No matter how pristine the return condition. Recent example: purchased used science textbook for $195 (or was it $295?), about $100 under new price. Sold back without a single mark for $15. You might have better luck trying to sell them yourself on eBay or a similar site?</p>
<p>Does anyone know when new students will find out what classes they are in? My child has friends attending other schools who seem to know what their classes are next year and dc keeps asking me when we will find out. Based on this thread it seems it would be helpful to know the textbooks in advance so you could at least try to avoid overpaying for books.</p>
<p>New students find out what classes they’re in 1 or 2 days before classes begin (only a couple days after returning students). You can probably guess somewhat, though. Students in the first 3 years all take the English class for their year (books for this vary by teacher, though). First year students take History 100 (but at least when I took it, the textbook was a course pack not sold at the bookstore). The science course varies based on math, but if you requested Bio 100, you’ll have that, and if you requested something higher (that’s permissible for a 9th grader to take), you’ll likely get that if the math placement exam results were good enough. You’ll have the language you asked for, though the level depends on the placement exam, if any. Math depends entirely on the placement exam, too.</p>
<p>Thanks Uroogla!</p>
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<p>It doesn’t work that way - students take a huge loss either way. You can buy used books but the bookstore will buy them back at a significant discount even if they’re pristine. (My D’s school was offering $5 for a $200 book). So she sold her books to another student as a significant discount over “used” prices but at a huge increase over the school’s offer. </p>
<p>Hard to get bargains the first year (buy used) but easier afterward to buy from students that are leaving. It’s not that hard to figure out which books have been standards in the curriculum versus ones that change all the time (or when a new teacher comes in).</p>