bookstore = constant PAIN

[anonymousstudent]

:grn: This is the 3rd quarter I've taken a beating at the bookstore. I understand that books are expensive, I've already got a degree. But my goodness!!!

For those of you farther into your programs, does it lighten up a bit? You'd think they'd start to rely on some of the materials we've already got - the books are fairly comprehensive.

Maybe?

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

First problem, using the bookstore. Get as far away from that as possible. There are MANY online places that you can buy/rent books for much cheaper. And yes for me it got a lot cheaper. I dropped a lot the first semester and maybe bought 1 or 2 books each semester after that.

[Boog'sCRRN246, RN]

I'm in my final semester and it's been the cheapest (as far as books go). I had to buy one critical care book and it was $80. Every other semester involved buying a new book (med-surg, peds, OB, psych).

[tokyoROSE, BSN, RN]

I bought books at the bookstore my freshman year because I did not know any better. Never again! I've been buying used, international ed or older ed. Saved HUNDREDS. This semester I spent $60 on books and sold back by pharm book for $65.

[cgravier]

yeah books are a huge scam. Ive had teachers that gushed about how great the new editions were only to find out thier name was in the cover. Its silly they come out with new editions almost every year for subjects like algebra thats been the same for thousands of years. My last class was med terminology and I had an old book my friend gave me that was the 5th edition, well the teacher said if I didnt get the current 8th edition I could have problems. So I told the girl next to me, "watch Ill get an A with this book" and of course I got an A. My book followed the new book almost exactly page for page. What a joke.

THat being said I keep all of my books, they are actually pretty good books, just maybe not $200 good but good nonetheless.

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I've resigned myself from using the bookstore. They never have what we need, and it's twice as expensive as Amazon.com.

[Mandychelle79, ASN, RN]

im lucky after shelling out 1000 the first semester weve only had to put out another 300 the rest of the time total

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

What really irks me is having to buy workbooks. We never use them, but we're expected to have them. Selling them back is up in the air also.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I never use the bookstore either. I usually use Amazon. I hardly ever even open my book. But I still always worry not to buy the text books though, so I still buy them. Amazon will even buy them back now and pay for shipping and stuff and give you Amazon credit. I use Amazon a ton so it works for me.

[chorkle]

At my local CC, I discovered the Bkstr's price for one course's textbook was exactly 10% more than the publisher's list price!

In Developmental Psych (the CC required me to take that first, & Intro later--but that's another story), the instructor asked in first class what people had paid for their texts. I paid the Bkstr. $162; person in front of me said she got hers online for $40. Ouch! So, I learned about Amazon.

They don't even have to have a new edition each year--the CC requires a certain 1-credit PE course; the text is shrink-wrapped with other materials, including an online access code which is used for one exercise--Bkstr won't buy it back, and every student, every semester, has to buy a new book.

[mkblakley07]

Amazon.com will be your friend. Bookstores jack up the prices, but you can just take the title and/or ISBN number off the book and look it up on Amazon.com or Ebay (I don't use Ebay though, too many bad experiences) and find the best price. I would look at the product description though. I've gotten used books that have been highlighted to death and that tends to irritate me.

[doublehelix]

I was very surprised that around 98% of my class actually went to our college bookstore and purchased EVERY SINGLE ONE of the books on our booklist. We *rarely* use them, some we only use the cds for. The majority of my books were purchased from previous nrsg students, or were older editions. Some I needed to buy new editions for, i.e. psychology, our teacher wrote his own book so obviously required us to use his book. I wasn't having any problems using an older text until he required we used the cd to perform quizes, and theres only one code per book, so we could not share.

The most frustrating thing... Our nrsg skills Dvd was 160$ (thank god I decided to use my old skills book & cd!) for four dvds, some of which didn't even work for students so they had to return them and placed on a list for backorder. The skills are so horribly demonstrated, i.e. they don't do proper handwashing, transfer pts with their socks on, glove during basic tasks like pushing a wheelchair. And our teachers have joked on more than one occasion how horrible the dvd is.. yet they chose it for us!