Going through the course reviews I found quite a few disagreements on which textbooks are useful and which are not. I'm sure everyone wants to save money and doesn't want to regret buying a useless textbook so I thought people could post their courses and the required/recommended textbooks and they could get advice on which to spend our money on.

Heres mine:

Chem 1A03
Required:
I-clicker
PETRUCCI - CHEMISTRY (TEXT/SSM/MEDIAPAK)(3 PART PACKAGE)

Recommended:
PETRUCCI - STUDENT STUDY GUIDE TO ACCOMPANY GENERAL CHEMISTRY
PETRUCCI - STUDENT MEDIA PAK FOR GENERAL CHEMISTRY

Biology 1M03
Required:
I-clicker
BOYD/SILK - HOW HUMANS EVOLVED (WITH CD-ROM)

Recommended:
FREEMAN - STUDY GUIDE TO BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
FREEMAN - BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE (VOL #2)(TEXTBOOK ONLY)
FREEMAN/PECHENIK - BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE (VOL # 2)(WITH SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING)
FREEMAN/PECHENIK - BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE (VOL # 1 AND 2)(WITH SHORT GUIDE TO WRITING)

Physics 1B03
Required:
I-clicker
CCW - PHYSICS 1B03 LAB MANUAL
KNIGHT R - PHYSICS FOR SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS W/MOD PHYSICS : A STRATEGIC APPROACH

Psychology 1X03
Recommended:
GRAY P - PSYCHOLOGY

Math 1LS3
Required:
ADLER - MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF LIFE
CCW - MATH 1LS3 CALCULUS FOR LIFE SCIENCES

Recommended:
ADLER - STUDENT SOL MANUAL TO ACC MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF LIFE

I understand that some continued courses use the same textbook so 2nd semester I have Chem 1AA3, Bio 1A03, Psych 1XX3, Physics 1L03 and Economics 1BB3

Please help me figure out which textbooks I need and which will be a waste of money! I hope this helps out other confused first years as well

for second term i would buy econ1bb3 as it comes with the subscription to aplia which is required to do the assignments every week

I would recommend this thread be closed. I'd rather people not know which text books are useless to prevent upper years from getting stuck with them .

Only buy the textbooks for Chem 1A03/1AA3, Bio 1A03/1M03, and Physics 1B03.
The textbook for Psych will not help you at all. I know some people who are very weak at math like to have the study guide in addition to the textbook, so use your discretion in deciding whether to buy it. As for the other study guides, they're largely useless.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I would recommend this thread be closed. I'd rather people not know which text books are useless to prevent upper years from getting stuck with them .

That and its somewhat inappropriate to suggest people shouldn't buy textbooks, especially ones listed as required.

Everyone is different and learns differently, just b/c someone on here suggests they didn't find the textbook useful doesn't mean you won't.

Also courses change all the time, profs change, teaching methods change, assignments change etc. Just b/c the textbook for some course wasn't useful year x doesn't mean it won't be used heavily this year.

all right I just thought I could get some advice on how to save money. How do I close it?

Originally Posted by bilalbagha

all right I just thought I could get some advice on how to save money. How do I close it?

Better advice would be to tell people how to search for deals on used textbooks. Buying from upper year students is a great way to save a lot of cash and for other students to earn cash for books they purchased previously.

I'm not saying it's horrible advice to say well I never used this textbook in XX course, but that might be bad for some people. It sucks when you buy a textbook and then never use it but it also sucks if you struggle through a course b/c a bunch of people who learn differently from you told you a book would be totally useless and then you find yourself in need of it.

just buy whichever ones you want. the recommended ones are recommended and you don't have to buy them. And I would suggest NOT buying them at all costs since they are almost always not necessary

Oh and can someone click on the link in my sig? There is an ebook I want but I need someone to click on this stupid link to get it.

Originally Posted by bilalbagha

all right I just thought I could get some advice on how to save money. How do I close it?

i think he was joking..

hmm the chem and bio courses are now requiring i clickers. I'm pretty sure one is good for them.

Generally, I wouldn't buy 1ls3 math text book and psych. I bought 1ls3 and I didn't use it as much.

Originally Posted by sinthusized

i think he was joking..

hmm the chem and bio courses are now requiring i clickers. I'm pretty sure one is good for them.

Generally, I wouldn't buy 1ls3 math text book and psych. I bought 1ls3 and I didn't use it as much.

lol oh ok
yeah the i-clicker seems important for physics too
so psych isn't very useful even if you have both 1X03 and 1XX3?
for the practice problems in 1ls3, theyre all in the textbook? Im not a genius but im pretty strong in math so I don't know if I'd need to use them

Maybe you should change what is says, click here I promise I'm not a virus isn't very inviting. Maybe help me get a free e-book would work better.

Okay, so I'm going to give you my opinions though I think with everyone, textbooks and what is recommended is all very subjective. I'm the type of person that buys the textbooks required and studies through them. I have friends who didn't buy textbooks and got through courses without them, though they probably have some talent in order to do that because I don't have that ability, and then I had friends who did really well in courses and had study guides, etc.

I think with courseware, it's just very opinionated. It depends on your learning style, etc. The important thing is just not to buy textbooks that are absolutely useless.

The psychology textbook isn't needed at all. You have a separate manual that's required (last year that was). This year I'm not sure but some people never even touched the manual and made it through just fine though I got details out of it that some people might have missed. Again, I don't know about this year though.

Iclickers are obviously important. Some participation marks are gained this way depending on the course (i.e. physics last year it was 5% of your grade through participation/quizes).

Buy the required textbooks for chemistry, biology and physics. I think I'm starting to go into too much detail here so yeah, the textbooks are all you really need for those courses. I took calculus and not 1LS3 so I can't help you on that one though.

Originally Posted by bilalbagha

lol oh ok
yeah the i-clicker seems important for physics too
so psych isn't very useful even if you have both 1X03 and 1XX3?
for the practice problems in 1ls3, theyre all in the textbook? Im not a genius but im pretty strong in math so I don't know if I'd need to use them

For 1Ls3, get the COURSEWARE (not textbook) has practice assignments/tests and exams plus solutions.

ya don't get the book for psych 1x03/1xx3 its just meant for extra reading if your interested in it etc and google is good for that. There are also psych coursewares which are just lecture outlines and a preamble about the topic which is testable. Last year, I thought they were a bit useless because most of it are pages for you to take notes on but only works of you have small writing. If I would redo the course, I'd just read those paragraphs from course reserves

I think, for the most part, that's it's important to get all the textbooks. Simply because professors love to test you on everything. However, just listen in the first class to see if something is required or not. I don't think professors should have the right to test you on optional material anyway - this kind of courseware is only to aid your understanding.

But the classic example is someone who's struggling in a class, and by the time exams come around, they wish they had bought the optional material, or even read the required textbook - when they didn't read it because someone told them it was useless.

Like previously mentioned, you really can't generalize and tell everyone that a textbook is useless - unless if like, you got a 12 in the class without looking at anything. Even if this were the case, everybody learns differently.

I had a question about IClickers, you only get one, correct? Even if you need it for more than one course? Or is it just set up for a specific course :S.