Published
Think it depends what the subject is. Something like statistics, yeah - it's not really going to change in a couple of years. Something like A&P, they are finding more things out all the time, so I'd probably go with the new one.
I use the hospital/uni library a lot for subjects I don't want to buy the book for.
Check out half.com, thats where I get 99% of my nursing books. 2008 version is $65 on half.com. For your main lecture books, I would try to stick with the current material, as that is where they are grabbing questions off for exams!! for Nur 254/255/150, older versions would probably be ok.
I did that a time or two. The problem I had was that they might assign a reading or questions to answer by page number and the page numbers in my book did not directly correspond to what was assigned so I had always had to verify if it was the same assignment with a classmate whe had the current edition.
I had an older version of the textbook for A&P (didn't know it at first, because it was still brand new sold in the school bookstore - and full price which I wasn't too happy about). Anyway - the differences were pretty minute, but the page #s can be confusing. I think it would be fine if you keep that in mind - better yet if you have a classmate where you can compare their book with yours to see what pages you're supposed to be reading.
Kelly
I do it all the time. I take it as a gamble. I go ahead and spend the couple of bucks for the older version and the couple of times that it was too hard to use the old version - I just go ahead and get the new one.
So I lose the 5 or 6 dollars that I spent on old version, BUT the savings on all the books that I have purchased this way have way exceeded these losses.
I also sometimes check text books out of the library - and I have also rented once from chegg.com
Renting textbooks for classes that I won't need the book is a great idea and I wish I had learned about it much sooner
Cilantrophobe
704 Posts
Is it safe practice to buy the second to newest version of the same book? I have never done it before but as you can imagine the price difference is HUGE. Case in point Fundamentals of Nursing (Perry&Potter) 2008 is $100 and 2004 is $3.50