Buying textbooks...

Pseudonym
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:09:24 +0000

Ask the professor. Many will be accommodating of earlier editions, knowing how much cheaper they are (and being ****ed at textbook companies for making minimal, useless changes just to kill the used book market) and that many of their students will use them even if they don’t accommodate. A lot of new editions will mostly differ by page numbers, not content… but if there are problem sets you’ll be expected to work through and those are different, the new edition will probably be the only one you can use. And sometimes the changes really are helpful.
Generally not. To be sure, ask the professor.
Once again… ask the professor! Typically the textbook isn’t needed in class in my experience, but it varies.