<p>The thing about the online ASCULA textbooks, when it says required, it doesn’t always mean that that the professor requires. For chem 20A book, if you need to take 20B, you should buy it, same goes for books that are for part 1 and a part 2 of a class split into two. Honestly, if you dont mind waiting in line to buy books in the beginning of the year at the ASUCLA store or at the textbookplus store(slightly less expensive) you should wait until the first day of your class or until your syllabus comes out to decide on what books you need. For math 32A for example, my professor, Radko, didn’t mind us using the older edition of the book, the problems however were different but all you had to do was go to Powell library and check out the 7th edition book from course reserves and copy down the questions. The lessons and examples were basically the same. </p>
<p>Don’t buy all the required text! I’ve noticed that some of the required text only differ by what it includes, like a hardcover vs paperback, or loose leaf vs bound, or even just with or without a solutions manual. Another tip, unless you absolutely think you have to, I wouldn’t recommend getting a solutions manual, you should instead try cramster.com (or what used to be cramster, they got bought). You need a subscription to get both odd and even answers, but compared to the solutions manual, its less expensive, plus the solutions manual doesn’t include all the questions (at elast in math ones they don’t).</p>
<p>Buying used vs new makes a huge difference, same as older vs newest edition. You can also try looking up international versions of your book, they tend to be cheaper, just read the fine detail of your purchase to make sure the problem sets are the same as the US version. </p>
<p>Lastly, coursereaders are paperback, spiral bound books that you get from the course reader store, off campus in westwood most of the time, not sold anywhere else either than ucla store or at the course reader store. They are basically like textbooks. They are mostly bought for GE’s, but your professor will tell you if you need them or not. For those you can either get a new at the store, or look for someone who is selling it cheaper.</p>
<p>p.S. don’t rent a book if your planning on using it for more than one quarter.</p>