The cost of college textbooks.

• Odin wrote on 2014-01-15 01:43

  Quote from Yoorah;1187652:

  When professors tell you a book is required, it means you have to read it regardless of there being homework assigned from it or not. <_<
  Unless, of course, you don't give a crap about the class in the first place.

  
  
  I had courses where the book was required material absolutely cannot pass without.
  
  By the end of the semester my book was still shrinkwrapped, I had no trouble passing without it.
  
  After a semester or two of this, I would wait on buying the book until a month or so in. If we had actually been using it then I would get it, if not I would save my money.
• Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-01-15 21:43
  "Almost" sounds like a corrupt scheme of some sort.
• Yoorah wrote on 2014-01-15 22:54
  Well sorry for not measuring my learning just by looking at the grades at the end of the course. v:
  They can't test you for everything, but when a prof recommends a book, it's usually because the book is good for you to read. Unless it's a crappy prof.. then he might recommend a crappy book.
  
  I've kept some of the books I've used in class as references, and they've come in handy for review before job interviews. Plus I just liked some of those books too much to part with them. The boring ones were re-sold.
• Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-01-15 22:55
  There's a huge difference between making something a required read for class (notice the wording) and recommending reading a specific book in your free time for optimal results.
• Yoorah wrote on 2014-01-15 23:02
  Yes, but that in itself depends on what your goal is in the first place. If you're just there to pass the course with half-assed results, then yea, you can sometimes get by without reading the "required" books. But if you're aiming for higher than half-assed results, you should probably show at least enough initiative to go through the "required" books. :v
• Second wrote on 2014-01-16 00:10
  I scanned a few books and used my school's free printing.
  :scrub:
• Campylobacter jejuni wrote on 2014-01-16 15:27

  Quote from Yoorah;1188345:

  Yes, but that in itself depends on what your goal is in the first place. If you're just there to pass the course with half-assed results, then yea, you can sometimes get by without reading the "required" books. But if you're aiming for higher than half-assed results, you should probably show at least enough initiative to go through the "required" books. :v

  
  We're not talking about "required", we're talking about required. Also it's perfectly possible to be very competent in a field without reading the exact particular book preferred by one particular non-representative professor for particular reasons completely unknown to us at a particualr point in time (why not read when you already got a job? You're not going to do super advanced work in your first years anyway, or do you know someone turning into a multinational CEO right after Harvard?), and there is no real indication it would affect grades or overall actual performance in the field.
  Reading this one book may as well take your time away from reading/doing something else that may be just as critical to your success in job or life, and don't forget that everyone defines success in a different way. For most being a smug asshole who wants to outcompete everyone else at any cost because they have nothing else to grab onto is not the definition of success. I like to read finance magazines during my way to work and back instead of books directly relevant to the success of my apprenticeship. Sometimes I read them in class if it's too dull, like when we're having easy math lessons or when they're talking about stuff that is only tangentially important to my overall performance in the field (anecdotes playing into professional practise in very specific situations mostly). I doubt greatly that I or my future employer will suffer for it in the long term. Maybe I'll even get to have my own employees one day thanks to my business-interest.