I am thinking about buying a used chem textbook, but the access code is not included. Is the code required? Are assignments given from it? I'm a really serious student, and I don't want to not buy it if I'll lose points.
Thanks.

I love how you throw that you are a serious student in . Anywho, to answer your actual question; they tell you all that information during the first week of school, they will give out the COURSE OUTLINE which will outline how the marks are going to be distributed. You will be able to see if you require the Access Code or not. Then, you could decide if you want to buy it or no.

If you need it, then buy new books from titles(which includes the code). If not then buy used books from people who sell it online (Facebook, or Macinsiders Marketplace)

It wasn't required in my year, but I found it to be the most useful online resource I've purchased over the years.

It's my understanding that currently you can either buy the code and do MasteringChem assignments or have the marks added to something else in the course. If money is an issue in that case I wouldn't buy it, although I'm lead to believe it is both useful and the marks aren't difficult.

I can't seem to find a source for this, but I had recently heard that there was a (new) rule in place that prohibits profs from making mandatory assignments only available on things that the student would have to purchase. For example, having a mandatory assignment only available online for students with an access code (and therefore forcing students to purchase the access code so they can complete a mandatory assignment). However, profs can still have other optional assignments and questions only available online which can definitely help students academically (and generally these marks are easier to gain than marks from mandatory assignments/tests.

Having said that, I would just wait for the first week of classes to buy the books (and see the profs recommendations as far as course materials are concerned). Also, if I take you on your word as being a "serious student" - what ever that may mean - I'll assume that you'd be looking to get all the marks you can get and the access code would help you with that.

Hope this helps!

You're right, Vinayak. They are all optional, starting in the winter term of 2011 (in other words, from Jan 2011 and onwards).