University/College Students; do textbooks version matter?

Hey guys.

Pretty much as per the title. I'm going to University this year and am considering purchasing text books 2nd hand (actually almost certainly going to, as it's nearly half priced). I was wondering if editions matter much. One of the textbooks wanted is a 2nd edition book, but only 1st editions are for sale second hand.

If I had to guess, I'd say it didn't, but I'm not sure, so figured I'd ask someone with more experience.

Cheers.

It honestly varies on the class and professor -every- time. I've taken sociology classes that I used the previous editions on for and ended up fine, but my English class specifically required the use of the -latest- edition. Your first year, you should just buy the REQUIRED materials. Heaven help you if you're that person who buys recommended books.

I actually decided to cheat a bit by just borrowing what I needed from the library and not returning them until the end of the semester. Late fees were ten times cheaper than buying the books, even if I could manage to sell them again after I was done with them.

Anyways, Anski's spot on. Depends on your class, professor, what book it is, etc. In general though, it's probably best to take your time to find the exact edition that's required, since you never know what might be different from one edition to the other. Some "editions" are actually entirely new volumes.

Thank you both. Haha, that cheat sounds ingenius Zylos. I guess I'll buy the latest versions second hand if I can, otherwise new =/.

Thanks.

With editions you can never know about the material (though it's usually very similar if not practically identical), but you can be sure the homework is different. A guy I studied with just used the in-library reserved copy and took pictures of the homework and related pages as needed.

But you should just buy the proper books. You can always not open them until the first day of class to see if your professor actually wants them, and then return them if he/she doesn't (if your bookstore allows unopened returns). Your bookstore doesn't sell used copies?

There were a couple of times back at uni when I just couldn't afford the 200$+ per book. So, I'd ask someone in my class to borrow their book for an afternoon (I'd pay them 10$) and take it to a photocopy place. They would photocopy the whole book and bind it for just a fraction of the price. The best part was that I could highlight all the important passages and write notes on the margins - something that's not advisable if you're planning to sell your book at the end of the semester.

As of now i look online first to see if any scans of textbooks have fallen off the truck, if not i search the local discount bookstores near my uni, and then and only then do go to the school bookstore to consider purchasing the book. I managed to go through all of first term without purchasing at least half my books as i could look up material online/ borrow a friends text. Its all about what the book is used for, and whether you need constant access to it.

With editions you can never know about the material (though it's usually very similar if not practically identical), but you can be sure the homework is different. A guy I studied with just used the in-library reserved copy and took pictures of the homework and related pages as needed.

But you should just buy the proper books. You can always not open them until the first day of class to see if your professor actually wants them, and then return them if he/she doesn't (if your bookstore allows unopened returns). Your bookstore doesn't sell used copies?

There is a bookstore near University for textbooks, but the prices are around twice what they are on BookDepository.co.uk. But buying online from the UK would take around 2 weeks to arrive, thus not allowing me to wait until classes start to order.

Hadn't even considered making a copy, but I'm surprised that any printing store would actually print copies of a textbook, I'd imagine they could face huge liability for doing something like that?

I'll try talking to people who have done classes that I'm doing (I took a gap year, so have friends who have done the classes I'm taking already) and see what they did in terms of textbooks and take it from there.

Again, thanks a lot for answering everyone, I appreciate it.

Sometimes the editions matters, sometimes not really.
In some cases the changes between revisions are insignificant while there can be major changes in other cases. You need to investigate each individual case.
The teacher's attitude also matters. I had a couple of courses where the teacher took care to write where the assignments and equivalent pages were located in a previous revision. In other courses the teacher was the author of the book so... Still you can try asking them.
I remember a couple of people making the wrong assignments because the had a wrong revision which might have had an impact on their grade.

Loaning the books can be a good idea, that way you can figure out both the teachers attitude and also whether the book is worth keeping. In my case I didn't use the majority of my books after the course, but maybe it's different from you. I don't know.

Either way good luck with university!

*hugs*