Seriously. I have spent hundreds of dollars on books for my pre-req classes, 90% of which were never even used by the professor.
You can never sell them back to the school because they are going with a new edition every semester.
Now they have started this thing where they are selling the most expensive books unbound. So you have to put them in a binder. They say it saves you money ($10) but you cant sell them back and the papers tear out so easily in the binder no one wants to buy them used.
It's really starting to irritate me, I wouldn't care if the books were actually used to fork over the money, but I will spend $200/book and then the professor wants us to print us hundreds of dollars of ink/paper printing out their notes/power points because they don't like the book. Um, what?!
Maybe this is just my own pet peeve, but I really don't understand why people feel the need to print out power points. You can read them without printing them. Also, they tend to have fairly minimal amounts of information per page. If you really want to use power points as a study guide, you should probably copy them down by hand. The process of writing thing things down will help to implant it in your memory.
I buy my books ahead of time because I hunt them on chegg and other discount book sellers to get deals. BuzzBuzzBuzz, wrong.
I ended up not using the Mosby videos I spent a total of $150 on, didn't use a book set I spent about $100 on, didn't use 2 books I spent about another $100 on.
I used two nursing books: got the older edition that turned out to be better for I think $50, and the workbook for $15 or something.
Specializes in Allergy/ENT, Occ Health, LTC/Skilled.
Maybe this is just my own pet peeve, but I really don't understand why people feel the need to print out power points. You can read them without printing them. Also, they tend to have fairly minimal amounts of information per page. If you really want to use power points as a study guide, you should probably copy them down by hand. The process of writing thing things down will help to implant it in your memory.
I figured that out just this year lol I didn't print out one power point -- not sure why I did it before. Now I just type directly onto the power point.
I bought books for the entire program from a previous student for $1,100 (recommended books included) and thought I was getting a deal...I had to get 2 "quick & dirty" books for clarification and had to rent my maternity book since it would only be used for 16wks.
Going into Mental Health/Peds I will also rent those books. The bulk of what you'll need for the whole program is discussed during first semester but honestly, I have very rarely used textbooks for any class. Our lectures/ power points are amazing and teach the content on their own so I only used the foundations/med surg books for patho assignments or clarification on a disease process (quite honestly, I'm too lazy to flip through pages and usually grab my phone to Google instead). I also HATE reading text books. I refuse (and I've been passing with flying colors).
Like the others said, wait til you're sure you'll use the books and just rent or buy used versions. It's only 2yrs.
I spent over $1,000 on books first semester (though most of the nursing books will be used throughout the whole program so the rest will just be odd ones here and there). I just spent almost $400 on second semester books.
I priced shopped (though for got about some resources). I mostly compared between bookstore, chegg, and amazon. Amazon, so far, has been the cheapest (especially with prime shipping - so helpful!). My $1,400 spent on books so far is a few hundred dollars cheaper than I would have paid at the book store (and that's not even counting shipping and tax - bookstore).
My nutrition book at the book store was $250 - got it on Amazon for $215. When I received the book, I couldn't believe that book was selling for that much.
I figured that out just this year lol I didn't print out one power point -- not sure why I did it before. Now I just type directly onto the power point.
We were supposed to either print out the power points or bring a laptop/tablet to type into the power point (well, as a strong suggestion anyway - obviously they can't force it). I started out printing, and wow! I'd go through an ink cartridge a week plus tons of papers. I had to put two slides to one page as I preferred the slides a little bit bigger for note taking, circling/highlighting.
My husband ended up buying me a tablet for my birthday and Christmas. It's been so much more convenient! And definitely saves some money.
My nursing program utilized ebooks and program codes, which were incredibly expensive. However, you can easily reduce the cost of ebooks by finding out how many computers/ipads get access to the ebook then finding people to split the cost with, provided that they use only their mode for accessing the ebook. We were able to purchase program codes separately, which significantly reduced the cost of purchasing the ebook with the program code.
I made the mistake of purchasing books prior to classes starting. It's a waste of money. Go in, assess what the professors will use, and then find the cheapest way to get your hands on them- older editions, renting, etc.
Also...1k for a book? Insane. I would be absolutely livid. No. There's gotta be a way around that.
I spent over $1,000 on books first semester (though most of the nursing books will be used throughout the whole program so the rest will just be odd ones here and there). I just spent almost $400 on second semester books.
I priced shopped (though for got about some resources). I mostly compared between bookstore, chegg, and amazon. Amazon, so far, has been the cheapest (especially with prime shipping - so helpful!). My $1,400 spent on books so far is a few hundred dollars cheaper than I would have paid at the book store (and that's not even counting shipping and tax - bookstore).
My nutrition book at the book store was $250 - got it on Amazon for $215. When I received the book, I couldn't believe that book was selling for that much.
PaulBaxter
145 Posts
Maybe this is just my own pet peeve, but I really don't understand why people feel the need to print out power points. You can read them without printing them. Also, they tend to have fairly minimal amounts of information per page. If you really want to use power points as a study guide, you should probably copy them down by hand. The process of writing thing things down will help to implant it in your memory.