<p>Have you ever purchased a solutions manual from one of the online sellers? Is it a sketchy scam, or are they dependable?</p>
<p>The solutions manuals published by the text’s publisher are legit, not sure about others.</p>
<p>I ordered a textbook that came with the solutions manual from an online seller and it was fine. It was the correct and authentic solutions manual. If anything, ask for the ISBN of the manual and look it up to see if it’s authentic or not.</p>
<p>When I was in college another student gave me solutions for my fluid mechanics textbook and heat transfer textbook. They were pdf files with handwritten solutions to every problem in the book. Not sure what the original source of it was.</p>
<p>…?</p>
<p>Solutions manuals are meant for learning, not cheating. It’s not as if there’s a solutions manual for the test he can study before hand.</p>
<p>My math book last quarter came bundled with a solutions manual. I probably only looked at it a handful of times. Its not cheating if its legit and comes from the publisher.</p>
<p>How is it cheating if it’s listed as a “highly recommended” purchase on the course syllabus?</p>
<p>In my case (Calculus III and Physics II), homework isn’t graded, it’s to practice new concepts and apply what’s been learned. The instructor wants students to have worked out solutions available to check the work and know you’re on the right path – or to pinpoint mistakes. It can be very helpful when you get hung up on a problem as well as building confidence because you’re able to solve the assigned problems.</p>
<p>I can say that I hardly ever needed the heat transfer solutions manual. For fluid mechanics I definitely needed the manual. The professor was quite bad. He was not able to solve many of the problems in the textbook himself.</p>
<p>I had other courses that the textbook publisher had solutions manuals for and the professors were careful not to assign problems that had solutions.</p>
<p>Just make sure the isbn on the text you are buying matches the isbn listed on the publishers website.</p>
<p>I think the OP is referring to the random online sellers that post on message boards, listing thousands of textbooks for which they claim they have the solutions manual. The catch is you have to pay them FIRST before they’ll send you the pdf / word document or whatever version you’re looking for. It’s always sounded like a scam to me.</p>
<p>If you’re astute enough at searching you could probably find it without paying these shady people. It would be the same result since the publishers probably wouldn’t see any of this money anyways.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they are a scam. I replied to one and sent a money transfer for $15 (I was desperate) and I still haven’t received my pdf. Maybe some are legit, but the one I did sure wasn’t.</p>
<p>Son worked in the tutoring center where they had the Teachers Editions which included the solutions.</p>
<p>As a note, some legit solutions manuals are hand written. One of the classes I TAed as a grad student used a book by a professor I had in undergrad, and he sent me the official solutions for the book. Everything was done by hand.</p>