A & P book question

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I went into my book store yesterday to see that the A & P books that I need come to over 255 dollars. I decided to go online and find a cheaper copy but all I could find were 80-100$ paperbacks that don't come with the lab manual (which is over 100 dollars online). So now, I think the 250 doesn't sound so bad since you have to add 20 dollars to the online shipping costs. The bookstore bundle comes with a hardcover textbook, the lab manual and a study guide... that seems like a good deal to me, what does everyone else think? Keep in mind, I want to keep my A & P book as a reference after the class is over.

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I think it's worth it. My first A&P bundle came with text, lab manual, body atlas and CDs. The total was about 230 or so. I think you'll be glad you did, plus you don't seem to be saving much by piecemealing the books anyway.

Because I transferred from a quarter school to a semester school, I am having to taking another semester of A&P. Naturally, it was too much to hope for that the class would use the books I already have. I ordered my new texts, bundled, and it cost :uhoh21: 495.00!!!!!!! I was shocked.

I compared the two sets. They are by the same publisher, the lab manual is exactly the same, except the new version is fetal pig whereas the one I already have is cat. Even the CDs are the same. Only the text is different. I don't understand how something so similar can be so different in price. We are talking 250.00!!! ouchie!!!

Angelica

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You might want to check out

http://www.craigslist.org

and look under your closest city's listings. Search using Anatomy, or some key word in the title of the book. I've seen quite a few people selling their old books there.

You could also put an ad up on the bulletin board at school to see if someone will sell you their old books.

You could also check the work/study/unemployment retraining department of your college (if you have such a department there) and ask if they have any of the books that you need available. My college had this stack of textbooks set aside for people in retraining programs. They were available for other students to use if no one else had "signed up for them" that quarter. It was amazing that they had this program, it was virtually unknown at the college, an advisor who I liked alot and kept encouraging me onward told me about this program.

Check ebay! I've gotten quite a few books from there.

If you can't find the correct book for cheap, call your instructor and ask him/her if it might be possible to use the prior edition of the current textbook. Usually prior editions are quite a lot cheaper, and many many are so slightly different, it's really hard to tell what exactly was added to make the new edition. I saved a bundle simply checking with the instructor about this very thing.

Last, but not least, I'll say this; You might sell or get rid of other textbooks, but you should really keep your anatomy and phys. books. You'll need to reference the material in nursing school, and later after you finish nursing school!

Hope this helps, and good luck finding deal on your books!

:monkeydance:

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the price sounds about right, my ap book was around $300 and came with 5 things. the textbook, lab manual, a reference guide, body atlas and something else. the only good thing about the price is that we used the same stuff for ap2, so that is where you save the money.

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I went into my book store yesterday to see that the A & P books that I need come to over 255 dollars. I decided to go online and find a cheaper copy but all I could find were 80-100$ paperbacks that don't come with the lab manual (which is over 100 dollars online). So now, I think the 250 doesn't sound so bad since you have to add 20 dollars to the online shipping costs. The bookstore bundle comes with a hardcover textbook, the lab manual and a study guide... that seems like a good deal to me, what does everyone else think? Keep in mind, I want to keep my A & P book as a reference after the class is over.

I'd go with the books from the bookstore.

Mine came with the body atlas too and what a great study tool that was for me when it came to the bones/muscles/brain/etc...

The price sounds about right around what I paid for A&P...I think that way you get all the little extra's you wouldn't get with the online books...JMO!

Good luck!

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I agree; I think it sounds about right for what you're getting. Mine came with the huge text and lab manual, plus the atlas, and a clinical applications manual and a study guide, and I paid around $300. We used all of it for two semesters, so, as someone above pointed out, that saved money also. And I'm keeping them all as reference material; I really feel as though I got my money's worth.

Good luck to you!

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You might want to ask your professor what she or he recommends. After I shelled out $300 plus for the text and materials required by my university, my professor volunteered that any older version of the text by the same author would be just fine. I could have saved a bundle.

As it was, the nursing department was throwing out (!) about a dozen review copies of texts that had been sent to professors by publishers. An astute secretary asked students if they wanted them. You bet! I took a 2005 copy to keep for reference, then sold my own personal copy back to the bookstore, highlights and all.

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