<p>I noticed that in the UCLA bookstore you are given your required textbooks and your optional ones. Are the optional ones really required for a good grade, sometimes used, used on important occasions, or barely used at all? Could I wait until the start of class to purchase these optional textbooks? Or do I need to buy them at all?</p>
<p>Also, I looked around on the Internet on Bing shopping, Ebay, Amazon, textbooks.com, and abebooks.com, and couldn't find any textbooks being really cheaper than the UCLA bookstore anywhere, (all were non-auction and no cheaper than $5). Is there a cheap place to buy used or new UCLA textbooks? </p>
<p>CS majors:
I noticed that under the optional textbook area there were two different textbooks:</p>
<p>Savitch
Absolute C++ (3rd)</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>Smallberg
Absolute C++ (3rd) W/codemate (Custom Ed).</p>
<p>Are these textbooks needed in class? If so, how often do we need them? Plus, they seem to be the same book, but different editions. So, is one edition going obsolete and being replaced by the other? Basically, which one should I buy, if I should buy either?</p>
<p>I know that's a lot, so thanks a bunch in advance.</p>
<p>im pretty sure you just need the savitch book, at least that was the only one i used when i took cs 31… i still have it and i’ll sell it to you for cheaper than ucla if you are interest, pm me</p>
<p>edit: i checked out the textbook page and i guess appearantly they changed books… random lol</p>
<p>The custom edition of Absolute C++ is just several of the chapters from the actual book taken out and made into a custom edition. To be honest I didn’t use the CS book at all. In fact if you go on Amazon theres a bunch of used ones going for less than a dollar.</p>
<p>How much does the Absolute C++ help you understand the concepts and the lectures in class? Plus, the lowest price on that book, the Savitch one, is $50. Where can I find the cheaper ones? Also, the reason why I’m wondering if UCLA will continue to use the Savitch edition is because the UCLA bookstore is not selling any new ones anymore. So, does that mean they’re planning to discontinue using it or are they just way overstocked with used books?</p>
<p>When I took cs31, I didn’t use any textbook either. Some people I know used it, but they used it as a reference also because they had never programmed before.</p>
<p>To try and get the best textbook deal, I’ve been looking at the UCLA store’s buyback price inquiry page ([UCLA</a> STORE: Textbook Buyback](<a href=“http://www.uclaestore.com/ucla/buy_menu.asp]UCLA”>http://www.uclaestore.com/ucla/buy_menu.asp)). Looking at my net cost after buyback, it looks like the UCLA store isn’t such a bad deal after all. However, can I expect the buyback quotes to be substantially reduced come end of quarter, when there’s a rush to sell back books?</p>
<p>so, with the buyback, is it guaranteed 50% if the class still uses the book next quarter, or do they do a thorough analysis of the book’s condition and eventually you actually only get 20% back or something like that?</p>