I know this is a thread that upper years would loathe to see, so if you want, PM me instead of replying and I'll close this thread afterwards.

Anyway, are the textbooks needed for these courses?

2C03 is with Ostovich (think txt might be necessary)
2B03 is with Day (may be necessary?)
2F03 is with Goldreich (someone suggested it might be useless)
2RA3 is with Beston (course review recommends keeping up with the readings)

Even if you have taken any one of these courses, please do tell
Thanks a lot

I can only comment on 2C03 is with Ostovich, yes you need the text. its very interesting one and she made a special edition you can buy for half the cost.

I can only comment on 2F03 and the textbook is extremely easy to read and can really help you understand material you didn't completely understand in class. Plus this class has weakly assigments and the text can really help.

2C03 and 2F03 - you need the textbook as information not covered in class but covered in the textbooks will be tested. Also both books are good at explaining information so if you need clarification on something you can refer to them.

2RA3/RB3 - Dr. Beston provides lots of practice questions so I didn't find myself using the textbook for practice too much. I used it a few times for some of the assignments though and to clarify some concepts.

Who was your prof for 2F03? I heard that the material is usually all found in the lectures for Goldreich. Was this not the case for you?

I had Goldreich and all his material comes from the lecture notes, but he expands on them to a lot! Sometimes hard to fit everything in the space if you are writing on the lecutre notes themselves. That being said, the text will really help clarify what you missed and clarify your overall understanding of the material.

Originally Posted by R633

I had Goldreich and all his material comes from the lecture notes, but he expands on them to a lot! Sometimes hard to fit everything in the space if you are writing on the lecutre notes themselves. That being said, the text will really help clarify what you missed and clarify your overall understanding of the material.

He also tests directly from the texts (i.e. things covered in the text but not in class), though it's usually only worth 1 or 2 marks on a 50 mark test, but every mark helps

For Psych 2B03 with Dr. Day, he tests directly from the textbook for his midterms and I think his exam too (can't remember for sure about the exam). If there's 25 questions on a midterm, about 5 of them are directly textbook material.